Our friend Gabor Horvat has taken advantage of fall Smallmouth Bass fishing to the fullest.
Fall smallmouths move in tight to shore where they can be easily located by repeat casts within 2′ of the shoreline.
He loves to fish southern Ontario reservoirs but in the fall fluctuating water levels can make catching bass challenging.
Fall Smalllmouth Bass feed heavily on baitfish and crayfish before ice-up and can be made to strike by using a slow and steady presentation.
On one of his last trips before winter storing his boat he had excellent success catching fish in 5-10′ water along shorelines. As you can see in the background water levels have been lowered in anticipation of an increase of water over the winter months from melt-off and rain.
Lifelike Rapala Shad Raps work great for fall shoreline feeding Smallmouth Bass.
Gabor loves to fish shallow-diving crankbaits along shorelines to intercept Smallmouth Bass that are searching for shoreline baitfish.
The Fishing Compete Italo’s Minnow can be made to look exactly like a crippled minnow on a drop-shot rig.
Two other great techniques to catch fall Smallmouth Bass is to fish drop-shot rigs with soft-plastic grubs in the 4″ length. These can be fish imitations like the Italo’s Minnow from Fishing Complete.
The Zipper Drop Shot Shaker produces a tantalizing action that fall Smallmouth Bass can’t resist.
Or the 3 3/4″ soft-worm like the Fishing Compete Zipper Drop Shot Shaker. Both these soft-plastic worm well fished slowly within 1′ of the bottom and shaken often. You’ll know a fish has picked it up when your line starts moving in a different direction.
Make sure to check the fishing videos on our Italo Labignan YouTube channel and if you have any questions just email them to me at Ask Italo throughout our www.canadian-sportfishing.com website.
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