This Week @ Bass Edge

Following The Fish In Fall: Edwin Evers On Fall

As cooler air ushers in crisp air and the trees don their autumnal colors, many anglers are out in the woods tending to their second love. But as they sit perched in the deer stands, guys like Elite pro Edwin Evers are out on the water.

“The fall is absolutely my favorite time of year to fish. Other than the leaves changing and the great scenery, there are not a lot of people out on the water. A lot of them are hunting. It’s also a time when I have had a lot of success.”

Anglers waiting for those first cold fronts to alter their bass fishing tactics are likely struggling as summer draws to a close. Evers says one of the mistakes that many anglers make is to wait until the more obvious signs of fall to abandon their summer patterns. As the days become shorter, bass begin to alter their behavior.

“Where I live here in Oklahoma, it starts to happen as early as August. I think a lot of things factor into the equation, but I think the main element is the sunlight. The days are getting shorter. That’s something fish understand; they know that is the transition period.”

Photoperiod is an important factor in the behavior of many animals. Deer hunters will often say things like: “The rut is late this year because of warm weather.” Such statements ignore the calendar. In a10-year study of Missouri road-killed (pregnant) does, it was found that the average time of conception varied less than 48 hours. Veteran bass fishermen have learned that fish keep a similarly tight schedule.

As the bucks commence behaving like lovesick teenagers and the V’s of waterfowl begin to fill the sky, Evers says it’s time to crank it up.

“Fall is the time of year when I think crankbaits can take hold. In the summer you are fishing a lot of slower plastics. For me, fall is a time when I’ll have six or seven rods tied up with crankbaits on my front deck and just go to town.”

You won’t find Evers at the tackle counter with a confused look on his face, dazzled by all of the colors available.

“Bass eat crawdads, blue gill and shad. That’s what I am sticking to. In the fall it is a shad pattern nine times out of 10.

“I start where I had them in the summer, if it’s a lake I have been fishing on. I just start moving shallower: closer to the bank and higher in the water column. Those fish are going to move up. If you’re not getting bites, then you need to move up; there is a reason you are not getting bites. Most of the times when I’m not catching fish it is because I am fishing inside of them or outside of them.”

As Evers is trying to determine the depth that the fish are holding, he is also searching for ambush points where bass might be lying in wait for a meal.

“I am looking for whatever cover is available. If I’m on a lake here in the Ozarks, it’s going to be rocks. Nine times out of ten you are going to be looking at chunk-rock banks. If we are in Oklahoma it could be running way up the creek to throw (crankbaits) on lay-downs.”

The fish tell Evers how they want a particular bait presented.

“You have to experiment. It changes day-to day. I’ve seen times when I had to absolutely burn them as fast as I can, and I’ve had to really slow them down.”

Evers throws crankbaits, as he does everything, on a seven-foot rod because of the control the longer rod offers. Fluorocarbon is usually his line of choice, but some situations call for a change.

“There are instances when I am fishing really tight cover that I want monofilament. In really close quarters, I really need a little stretch in my line. With fluorocarbon I can help control the depth of my bait better. I can get it a lot deeper.”

Just as angler tendencies lean toward fishing too deep in early fall, they also often overlook the shallow bite late in the season.

“Sometimes they can really be up shallow, even in these clear reservoirs. I can think of two tournaments at Lake of the Ozarks in November, and we had huge snowstorms. The snow covered the ground that day and we caught them on buzzbaits and wakebaits.”

Evers is a hunter himself, but he urges anglers to find time in their fall schedules to get out take advantage of the pre-winter feeding frenzy.

“In the fall, they are feeding big time. When that water can get in the mid- to upper-50s, they are going to be biting.”