Living For The Fall Transition

Last fall I fell in love with river fishing. Finding current wrapping around large rocks and logs was really rewarding as summer transitioned into Fall, but as the temperatures began to fall and the days grew shorter I found the bass moving into shallow grassy areas to feed. These shallow pools still had a bit of current running through them and I quickly found anchoring kicked up lots of silt that spooked the fish. I relied on the hull shape of my Cuda 14 to help me with this issue. The shape of the hull forces moving water around the kayak which produces a slow drift in moving water. This allowed me to drift through the pool, making a correction every now and then with my paddle, as I picked off bass looking for baitfish.

My best day in these shallow pools were right after a hard rain. A fast approaching storm took a sudden turn and dumped cold rain on me as I sat on an island waiting for it to pass. After the storm passed I headed toward a really long shallow pool knowing the added oxygen from the rain would turn the fish on. I caught and released close to 40 bass in the last two hours of daylight and some of them were really plump. When it was all over I had just a few plastics left and a raw thumb. I look forward to the fall transition again this year, but of course after the long spring and summer season.