Fall Crappie Transition

At the point when fall shows up, crappie wake up from their mid year pattern and begin to move to bays chasing baitfish in anticipation of a long winter. Crappie and bass will move from deep water to shallow flats eating shad before moving back to deeper water later in the season. This can be a great time to cast the Li'L TUFFY Swimbait into bait balls. Bass and crappie and other fish will follow these bait balls throughout the water column gorging to put on fat for the winter. These fish are instinctively eating and they don't stop when they are full, like in the summer. You will find fish scattered in open water as the shad and other minnows move to the back of bays for better oxygen as well as more zooplankton. In the fall the, as the summer days shorten cooling the water's surface the zooplankton that baitfish eat begins to diminish. The shallow bays with their influx of oxygen rich water from creeks and rivers is where the last of the zooplankton will be easily available to them.

Casting to open water cruisers is a great way to catch bass, crappie, catfish and stripers. The Li'L TUFFY Swimbait will entice them all. You can also find big crappie and bass hiding in shallow cover. Cast to stumps big rocks and other visible cover along the shore in the fall and slow roll the Li'L TUFFY past this cover and be ready for a fish to ambush your bait. Big crappie are solitary creatures at times and the fall is one of them. They will sit and ambush bait fish as they migrate into these shallow areas and the Li'L TUFFY mimics them perfectly. Don't forget those same shallow stake beds that you fished in the spring. Watch for the shad as they migrate and fish in the same area that you are seeing them. You will see the migration taking place and late fall you might see the migration from out deep to back shallow all in one day. The fish are following those bait fish so stay around them.

NOTE: Watch for the first big drop in surface temps. If the temp drops suddenly 10 or so degrees this will trigger a feeding frenzy most often and is a great time to be fishing. A cold rain or a cold front can do this.