Find the Shad to Find the Bass in September!
Keith Lusher 09.20.23
With the cooler weather here, bass anglers are starting to adjust to a completely new pattern. Gone are the days of targeting bass deep in the main rivers and reservoirs. In September, it’s all about the shad! I made a trip with bass angler Chris Basey of Covington LA to learn more about this fall transition. “In September the shad move up into the shallows so I like to get into those small cuts and canals off of the main river,” he said.
Basey is a year-round bass fisherman and Primarily fishes the rivers and bayous in Southeast Louisiana. “Oh I love it!” he said. “When the shad start piling into the cuts — I know the bass will be right behind.”
Our trip started early in the morning. The recent cool front made for a scenic ride down the bayou as the warm water mixed with the cool air to form fog on the water. After a 5-minute ride down Bayou Liberty, just north of Lake Pontchartrain, Basey turned into a small canal and dropped his trolling motor as he began whipping out a hollow-bodied frog. Basey pointed out all of the action on the top of the water. “That’s all shad back in here. A month ago these baitfish were nowhere to be seen,” he said.
As I scanned the water’s surface I don’t think there was a 5-second span that went by that I didn’t see surface movement. There were shad skimming across the surface with bass in hot pursuit.
Basey held his left hand on the handle of the trolling motor and in his right hand was his rod. Then a huge explosion had us both jump and turn to the left. Basey tossed his frog in the spot where there were still ripples in the water from the bow-up. I watched as a bass plunged the surface of the water inhaling his frog. He set the hook and battled his first fish of the day: a 4.5-pound largemouth bass. As the bass flopped on the bow of the boat it spit out a few chewed up shad that it had been feeding on prior to Basey catching it. “This is not an unfamiliar sight for September,” he said. “These fish are feeding heavily on shad right now.”
Basey soon switched over to his go-to lure for September: A white 3/8-ounce spinnerbait with an Indiana blade. He adjusts the color of the blade to the color of the water.
“When the water is stained like root beer, I like to go with a gold blade,” he said. “When it’s gin-clear, I’ll use a silver.”
Basey used a 7-foot medium rod with a moderate tip. he said the flexibility of the rid allows the bass to grab the fast-moving spinnerbait without it being ripped out.
As the day rolled on, we were able to put over 20 bass in the boat all caught in the shallows where there were shad present. Basey’s routine was to pull into a canal and use his trolling motor to stealthily work his way to the back of the canal. “If I don’t see any shad back there I move on to the next cut,” he said. Fortunately for us, there were numerous opportunities to find the shad since there were over 20 canals off the main bayou.
“Look for cuts and creeks with a lot of vegetation along the shoreline,” he said. “Also docks, bulkheads, and other transitions that divide the shoreline.”
While the back ends of the small cuts were productive on this day, Basey said sometimes you don’t have to go back that far as the bass will be busting on shad in the mouths of the cuts. However, as we go deeper into fall and the cooler temperatures start to dip more, the shad will move further back and the bass will be following after. It’s the perfect situation for these bass because the shad is thick and also these bass are fattening up for when those hard cold fronts pass through. Basey said the shad move back into the shallows to take advantage of the late plankton and algae bloom.
“The water back in there usually stays warmer longer during the fall. The sun penetrates these shallow areas and allows plankton and algae to bloom one more time before winter, giving shad the nutrients they need to grow,” he said. Sometimes the bass will work as a team pushing the baitfish back into the coves where they are easy pickings once they are cornered.
September is truly a special month not only because it spells the end of a brutally hot summer, but it means longer days on the water and bass becoming more active. Basey said this will be the pattern to stick with through the fall. “With the shad starting to move back into the cuts this month, you can expect them to remain there throughout the winter until they move out after the spawn in the spring,” he said.
