I've always been a spring/summer fisher but never fished in fall or winter, NEVER. I bought a boat from Klay to take a few neighbor boys that have had a pretty rough life so far and neither have a father around. I mainly fish Logan Martin but have fished Jordan and a little on Lay but not real familiar with it. I'm asking for a little help with fish patterns to help these young men catch a few fish. Neither of these boys have any interest in hunting this year so I may spend more time fishing this fall/winter than hunting and am hoping to shorten the learning curve.

Thanks for any help/direction you can provide.

Dan

for what you are doing. Know nothing about the lakes in your area.

When the water cools some the fish typically move to creeks following baitfish. They will move in small coves and sloghs and school up on schools of bait. Fall fishing is fantastic. I usually use a shad colored spinnerbait and a topwater lure, sometimes a shallow crankbait too. Good luck.

No knowledge of those lakes but in the rivers the bass move way up the creeks this time of year. They are feeding heavily and aren't picky. Jigs, crankbaits, and spinnerbaits usually get crushed.

Have not fished Lay much. But Jordan you can usually do pretty well with a rattle trap spinnerbaits and the ole c-rig. Good luck and it’s also great thing you are doing for those young men.

Yep. Can't wait to get back up to camp & hit the slough

Great info, thanks guys. At least now I have a plan!

Good advice above. I'd add also a white or shad Chatterbait in the mix, quarter-ounce buzzbait, white/shad swimjig with a curly tail grub on it and if there's vegetation maybe a small topwater frog.

If there's a ton of shad high in the water and bass are focusing on them heavily, and ignoring your baits, try a shad-colored crankbait or spinnerbait below the wad of shad. Sometimes getting a bait below them with a stop-go retrieve makes them scatter and your bait's the only thing there.

Don't think you can go too shallow, either. They may be up in the dirt, too. Good luck.

Stay on logan martin. It is a much better numbers lake. Fish spinner bait, buzz bait shakey head on seawall, humps, riprap, shallow brush for the next 2 months and yall will catch the crap out of them.

Ben, when do the spots crank up on the seawalls down there? That's a winter or between winter-spring bite, isn't it?

Yes now or anytime during the next few months if you can find a wall with water and wind on it it's a good chance of a fish. Chatterbait should be good for new fishermen as well. I caught some good fish on seawalls at lay this weekend so I imagine you can do the same at LM

Do y’all catch bass up into winter? I’ve always been curious about it but never tried. I may this winter.

Absolutely yes. February last year I could go to the lake and catch 15-50 bass anyday (in 2-4 hrs) I went and most would be 2.5-4lbers it was awesome. To me they are very patternable in the winter and if you find a group of them you can catch them all.

x2 what Ben said. Guntersville in mid/late-February probably is the best chance of the year to catch a double-digit bass.

What do you look for as far as water conditions, depth, etc? I mainly fish the upper end of Guntersville from Roseberry to the TN line.

Water on the coosa is gonna be muddy in the winter most of the time. Temps above 50 they are eating in 5-10 ft of water. Temps in the 40s it gets tougher.

We catch some of our biggest fish at the camp in fall winter, my sons heaviest to date was caught a few years ago around Oct 12. Spring the last few several years as been very unpredictable, with the fall weather being more favorable, it did rain a butt load last year though 😳😁

All of this.

Richard Gene.... The Fishing Machine:

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Catch some live threadfin shad and let's those boys have some fun.