Largemouth habits in the fall.

Hey guys I'm fairly new to fishing and was just looking for some general advice. As the temperature starts to drop here in the fall how do the LM usually react? Are they moving shallower or deeper? More or less aggressive? Any general tips would be appreciated. Thanks.

Lots of good answers, but I will add that it changes in time. By the time the temps drop below 50, the reaction bite begins to die down (although I have also had good buzzbait action even in the upper 40's in the right conditions), and many of the fish begin to congregate in or around wintering areas. Once fish begin their wintering, they can be difficult to locate and sometimes catch, but when you do, you can find large groups and some very large fish as well to make up for the less action you often get as feeding windows get shorter and shorter. At this time, spoons can be very good, both vertically jigged, or bounced along the bottom. While this is technically a reaction bite, its generally a much different bite than say, a lipless crankbait bite. Dragging jigs or tubes, like skeeter mentioned, can work till ice up, as can very slowly worked suspending jerk baits, lucky craft pointers have proven their worth to me time and again in cold water. Both techniques are cold water gold. Another technique to never overlook is the drop shot, but utilize a much shorter leader length for the weight and work the bait slower and differently than you might in the summer. I like to hold and slowly lower the rod and let the bait lay on the ground for extended periods of time, shaking it only slightly, and ever so slowly lifting the bait on occasion...both finesse worms and smallie beavers in natural colors may not catch a ton of fish, as its almost painful to work them that slow...but its certainly effective for larger fish once you've located a promising area....like the one in the pic caught on one of our warmer late fall days this year. Another tried and true cold water bait are hair jigs. They can be slowly swam, worked under a float (float and fly) or even crawled in...a properly worked hair jig will catch bass in the coldest of water.

Fished a deep clear lake in SE WI from Sept to just before gun season (in-between duck hunts). Did very well on the largemouth. The 2 best lures were a Rattle Rap and a deep diving X-Rap (with long pauses). The Deep X-Rap was best in Nov as the water cooled. Bass were relating to schools of bluegills and had small feeding windows compared to summer. Except for Sept nothing going on plastics.

Depends upon where you are at. If you happen to be on a deep clear water lake it's hard to beat burning rattle traps or twitching jerk baits along weed lines. On the river find the bait grab a trap burn it through the bait and hang on.

They go shallow and move back to the backs of creeks. Find bait fish find bass. The fish main forage is shad in this part of the country so shad color baits will work the best. I fish topwater baits around docks corners until the water gets into the mid to lower fiftys. I have caught fish on a buzzbait as a early fall snow storm hits. When the water temp gets under fifty. We fish more crank baits along slow rolling spinner baits and Jigs. Then as the water drops down into the lower 50s and 40s I start fishing suspending jerk baits and Rapala Shadow Raps are the BEST! They throw good they suspend good they are just plain good. They are fish catching machines. I fish them until the water gets hard on a sunny chunk rock banks. This bite will last until the water gets into the low to mid 30s or all winter long. We are lucky that we have very little ice and if it does freeze up it just lasts a few weeks. I fish just about every day the temp is in the mid 30s and the wind is not blowing to hard. Just dress right and always wear your PFD. I fish the jerk bait on eight pound mono as the momo floats slightly keeping the nose slightly up. When you think you are fishing a jerk bait slow enough slow down more. A winter jerk bait cast can take a couple of minutes to retrieve.Slow Slow Slow This is Big Bsss time of the year.. If you catch a big one stay put there just might be another one . In the winter bass school by size and you never know just how many you might catch. I catch a lot of big crappie doing the same thing in fact sometimes the crappie are so active on it that you will limit out in minutes. Please practice catch and release on those big bass let them grow and let someone else have the enjoyment of catching them too.

As water temps cool i target exposed structure going into water that is absorbing the sun transferring that heat to the water such as tree laydowns, concrete ramps,any surviving vegetation (lilypads), and docks with a slow presentation like a tube jig. Waters clears as they cool so more natural colors are best. This is just want i like doing. Sure there are other techniques, would like to hear others myself. Good luck.