The weather's cooling down but those "Smallies" are ready to heat up your Fall fishing!
By Tom Vassallo
As the October temperatures continue to fall, freshwater anglers will usually find that it is when the smallmouth bass fishing will really start "heating up". This scrappy species known for its airborne tactics and abrupt dives, can offer some of New Jersey's most exciting Fall fishing. Though the "smallies" can usually be caught fairly regularly through the Spring and Summer season, the cooler temperatures always trigger a drastic change in behavior that can really "turn up the heat". If you're interested in some cool weather, hot fishin' action, try chasing down some of New Jersey's "baddest" bass!
Smallmouth bass can found in many medium to large streams and clear, deep lakes and reservoirs throughout New Jersey. The big difference with these guys as opposed to their bigmouth "cousins", is the gravel and rocky bottoms that this species prefers. While many New Jersey anglers concentrate on those largemouth bass in warmer, shallower waters, it's a different breed that can be found chasing down those smallies in the much cooler waters of New Jersey's rivers and deep, rocky lakes or reservoirs. Some premier smallmouth locations include Canistear Reservoir, Clinton Reservoir, Echo Lake Reservoir, Manasquan Reservoir, Merrill Creek Reservoir, Monksville Reservoir, Oak Ridge Reservoir, Round Valley Reservoir, and the Splitrock Reservoir. For those more inclined to fish the rivers and shorelines, try Raritan River's Northern and Southern Branches (one of New Jersey's best smallmouth waters!). In the western part of the state you can find good numbers in the mighty Delaware. However many Southern Jersey anglers will find their best or only good chance for smallmouths in Union Lake in the Cumberland County area.
The reason your smallmouth chances improve so dramatically in the Fall, is directly influenced by the falling water temperatures. As those temperatures fall, smallmouth bass who were spread out during the Spring and Summer will begin to school up and start to feed heavily before winter. They leave the shallower areas and will congregate in more open water. Some anglers refer to these schooled up smallies as "wolf packs". That's because these schools will find the forage fish and devour anything in their path. If you have a fish finder, it would be a good bet that you will be able to find these schools fairly easily. Once found, anchor up and you can probably land several fish, although they can get "spooky" after that and move off. Then it's time to pull up anchor and try the "finder" again!
Many anglers prefer the thrill of a smallmouth hitting a crank bait and will use nothing but artificials in the quest for these extremely hard fighting fish. Although smallmouths usually run no larger than four pounds or so, some say that pound for pound, there is NO other freshwater fish that fights as hard as one of these scrappers. However, most hardcore smallie anglers will tell you that for putting the most bass in the boat, live bait is the real ticket. If you want to go the artificial route, then concentrate on spinners, jigs and crank baits. If you're using spinners, try a #2 silver or gold spinner with a slow retrieve in rivers and streams. For lakes, try a chartreuse and white 3/8- to 1/2 oz. spinner bait that has either gold or chartreuse-and-white willow leaf blades. If you want to try jigging (which some prefer for schooled up bass), a 3.5- to 4-inch green pumpkin tube bait with 1/8 to 1/4 oz. jig is a good bet. In rivers or streams, cast it into slow current areas, let it sink, twitch, retrieve a few turns and let it sink again working it back to shore or the boat. But if you're into "crankin", a favorite lure is a #9 floating rainbow trout Rapala. Just work it SLOW...at the slowest speed to get the lure's action working. In the lakes and reservoirs, try the "Rap" in a hot mustard or shad.
Live bait anglers should concentrate on live minnows, worms, crayfish, and hellgrammites (actually best in early Spring). The worms, crayfish and hellgrammites will work best in rocky bottom streams and river areas. But a best bet for those schooling Fall bass might be a live shiner fished just above the depth of the school. Just be sure to hook the minnow so it can swim freely. If the school is quite deep, a sliding bobber rig similar to the one used when fishing for weakfish, can allow you to bobber fish at a much greater depth.
So as the autumn leaves begin to fall..regardless of what part of the state you may be fishing in... or whether you prefer our rivers to those cold, deep reservoirs...Fall in New Jersey offers a great opportunity to cash in on some red hot fishing for smallies. So get out there and get in on the action and don't forget to post those photos on the FishinJersey.com Facebook page and enter our FREE t-shirt giveaway.
Now get out there and FISH!
