Hey guys, Bassmaster Elite Series Pro, Drew Cook here with BassResource.
And we're talking about fall-time worm fishing.
Fall is very frustrating for a lot of people, but it's also a great time to fish.
A lot of people are, you know, in the woods, deer hunting, you know, there's less people
on the lake, but it is tricky.
You know, the bass have been, you know, beat up all summer long.
There's still a lot of fish that are out there on those offshore ledges, their summer spots.
But a lot of fish are moving back towards the backs of the creeks, getting ready for
that transition for them.
And some of the things that I do, you have to, kinda, get finesse with them.
So a drop shot is definitely a big player in the fall.
And I'm just drop-shotting a Cliff Hanger worm.
This is in tilapia, 5/16-ounce weight.
You're throwing this a lot, you're dropping it on fish that are underneath you that when
you're seeing them and they're not biting, it's very frustrating.
You want something that'll get down there to them real quick, so you can, you know,
get in front of their face and you might have to leave it there for...you know, it could
take a minute, after you see a fish, you know, on LiveScope or underneath the boat and you
drop it to them, you know, it acts interested.
But it's not like early in the year when they see it, swim down to it, eat it, catch them.
It's a little tougher then.
You might have to shake it a little longer or not shake it at all, and just hold it tight.
You know, it just all depends.
Ten-pound Sunline Sniper, or, you know, this is whenever you have to get tricky, you start
downsizing.
And whenever I go from 10, I go, you know, small.
I'll go all the way to seven to get, you know, more bites.
If there's a really good place that has a lot of really nice fish, but it's had a whole
lot of pressure, that's whenever you're gonna drop line sizes and maybe even drop your weight
size.
But I have that.
That's my leader, going to 12-pound SX braid from Sunline.
And this is a 723 Dobyns Xtasy spinning rod.
That is a great all-around rod for anything really, but I really like it for drop shotting.
It's got a good tip, good backbone.
Whenever you get down to it and you need to get bit, the drop shot in the fall is the
way to go.
Another one in the fall is a shaky head.
It's a 3/16 ounce shaky head from Gamakatsu.
I throw this on 10-pound Sunline Sniper, 12-pound Sunline SX braid.
And in the fall, a lot more of my shaky head fishing is around the docks.
You know, leading into the back of pockets, maybe main lake docks.
The fish that have been out there on those ledges have been beat for months.
And, you know, they're starting to break up and starting to, you know, make their move
to the back of the creeks and stuff.
That's when I'm gonna pick this up and really seeing those docks, you know, making multiple
casts to it and a lot of places you'll have a good dock that has, you know, maybe a couple
brush piles underneath it, or, you know, something like that.
Maybe there might be a whole tree down there, one big stump, and those are places that those
fish that got broke up from the ledge offshore will actually, you know, move to it.
Half of the school, or, you know, 15 fish can be on one dock.
And I'm throwing the shaky head on Dobyns Xstasy 753, you know, a longer rod with more
tip, but a lot of backbone.
So when you're making those long casts, you can still get a hook in them.
And that's kind of my go-to with the shaky head.
You know, I try to keep it pretty natural in my bait selection.
Green pumpkin-based, watermelon red, or red bug.
That's pretty much all I use.
Something about the watermelon red and the red bug.
It seems like those Southern lakes, but not Florida.
In clear water, they like the red for whatever reason.
TVA lakes really like the red, you know, red bug, watermelon red, but the green pumpkin,
you can't go wrong with it.
Whether it's super clear or kinda dirty, a green pumpkin base, you can't go wrong.
But that's whenever I moved to that red.
When you get around that TVA and stuff like that.
And next is the big worm, the BW.
This is the 10-inch B2 worm from Big Bite.
You know, it's a hunk of plastic, you know.
There's a whole lot of stuff going on here and it just seems like the Texas rig.
Big worm gets bit, especially in the fall.
Like I said, those schools are breaking up, you know, where they were.
They've kind of split up and slid down, you know, down the ledge.
They might be 5 or 10 on one stump, you know, just from the pressure, and you're able to
pick them off on this.
I'm throwing this on 22-pound Sunline Shooter.
I've got this on a 754 Xstasy Dobyns rod, high gear ratio reel.
And I start out with a three-eighths-ounce weight.
If I get over, let's say, like, 10 foot, I'll go up to a half ounce.
But the six saw hook in there, it's a meat grabber.
You drop the hammer on them and you get them really good whenever they bite this.
And this is also something that I'm gonna throw around some docks...especially, you
know, in my neck of the woods, where I'm from, we had a lot of pole docks.
So, like, they're actually, you know, built into the bottom of the lake, not floating
docks.
Whenever they put those dock posts in there, so they jet them in.
And when they jet them in, it's blowing a lot of stuff up and a lot of shell.
So it makes a nice, hard bottom around those docks.
And, you know, there'll be some stumps and things like that, and brush piles.
And that's where I really like to soak this big worm, to be able to get a couple of bites.
And the dock lights, we throw it a lot on the dock lights, whether at night or, you
know, first thing in the morning or if you're fishing night tournaments, you know, right
before dark.
That's a good choice for that.
And then in the fall, you saw the small shaky head, but I also throw this a lot.
This is a Magnum, eight-inch finesse worm with a Magnum shaky head.
This is a Big Bite shaky head, and, I mean, it's a half-ounce.
It's a big one, you know, it's got a good hook in it.
And one thing I will tell you about this, and this is something that I do, these are
screw-in heads.
I will actually take clippers and clip two rings of this off, so I don't have as much.
And the reason why is I feel like when the fish, you know, bites the bait, there's a
lot of resistance right here.
So they're not getting, you know, all the way down to the hook and, you know, you could
end up skin hooking them and then coming off.
But if you take a lot of that away, you know, you have more of a gap in between the...because,
you know, there's only the size of my finger in between there, but you take two of those
rings out, you know, you get an extra, you know, quarter of an inch.
Yeah, the bait might come off, not stay on there as good, but it's all worth it if you're
catching everyone that bites and not losing them.
But this is gonna be something that I'm gonna throw, you know, around those ledges.
The fish that are still out there that have just been, you know, beat on so much that,
you know, it's hard to get them to bite.
But you wanna give them something that's worthwhile, you know.
If they're gonna eat something it's gonna be getting more bang for their buck.
You know, this is, you know, a good meal, but it's not like crazy big for them.
And that's what you're gonna kind of mop up with.
I'll always follow up whatever I'm doing with the 10-inch worm.
You know, before I ever leave anywhere, I'm gonna throw this, you know, behind it to get
some more bites On this setup, this is a 744 Champion HP that
is, you know, a seven-four medium heavy rod.
You know, not crazy big, but something, you know, you got enough power to get them and
bring them.
20-pound Sunline Shooter, high gear ratio reel, and that's, you know, my big shaky head.
So you got two shaky heads, one's super finesse and one's finesse that's, you know, for big
ones.
But those are my go-to fall worm baits, you know, how I fish, the worms in the fall, so
make sure you try those out.