5 Most Effective Fall FL Baits
– Steven Schellinger AKA Reel Journey
Are you interested in catching your Personal Best (PB) bass this fall? This article will reveal how it could happen for you just like it happened for me last year when I caught this double digit bass.
The 5 Most Effective Fall Baits in Florida are different than most other states. Even in Florida what works best in South Florida may be different than in North Florida. And what may be best in a reservoir may not be what’s best in a river, pond, or lake. Also, water clarity, weather, what the bass are feeding on, water depths, vegetation, structure, and more can affect the bite. With all that said, I believe I’ve compiled a solid Florida Fall lineup I’m excited to share with you, but first…
Don’t forget Fall goes from September 22, 2025 – December 21, 2025 this year. In Florida, September is typically as hot as August. So if your part of the state hasn’t got a lot of rainfall or temperatures haven’t fallen overnight yet, then your water temperatures aren’t likely going to change much until later in October.
This means the early part of Fall is still a summer pattern for much of the state. Fishing out deep where the bottom is typically cooler water, punching in shady heavy cover, topwater in heavy cover, fishing slow with bigger baits close to stumps and other cover bass feel safe close up against for longer periods of time can all be major players.
As the water becomes cooler the bass become more active and moving baits become a more popular option. If we have a cold late fall and winter like last year, expect to have very limited bites up shallow until the warmer parts of the day when the bass work their way up shallow. Depending on where you’re fishing, targeting the edge of shallow grass lines could land you the biggest bass of your life in late fall. I landed that double digit bass (in the above photo) on December 17th 2024 dragging a vibrating jig up shallow on the edge of a grass line once the day warmed up.
So with all that said let’s go over my top 5 choices.
- Jig
- Soft Jerkbait
- Big Worm
- Topwater
- Beaver Bait
You can take that list and do what you want with it or you can keep on reading how I break down these 5 choices.
#5 Punching with a Berkley Pitboss or whatever your favorite punching bait may be.
This may be my 5th pick and many other reputable anglers #1 choice. The reason being is I’m not the greatest puncher unless you owe me money. That’s a joke. But punching for bass is no joke. It may be your best option on many bodies of water.
#4 Weedless Topwater.
My first thoughts are a frog, buzzbait, or a soft plastic buzz style bait to fish topwater over areas with heavy vegetation. If you see fish getting actively hunted on the topwater or slightly subsurface then sure a spook, popper, wakebait, or glidebait can be players but I’d personally lean towards a buzzbait if I’m confident with that on the particular water I’m fishing.
#3 Big Worm.
Now you could throw a big worm on a Carolina rig that can be fished deep or shallow and fast or slow. But most don’t fish the Carolina rig. Another good option is a good ol Texas rig or even a shaky head with a large floating worm. This is probably my first choice in early fall. Make precise casts to where you believe those bass are hunkered down at and dead stick the worm with very little movement. These easy meals can result in great fishing days for you while others are only getting skunked and sunburned. One lake I know of has a perfectly shady bank with deeper water and tree stumps on the main body of the lake. It’s perfect for this sort of fishing this time of the year.
#2 Fluke (soft jerkbait) or Small Swimbait.
A fluke can be incredibly versatile and fished slow enough or fast enough or shallow or deeper depending on how you rig it and fish it. If you’re a fluke master then you already know the fluke is hard to beat this time of year and frankly year around. Maybe this year I’ll work on more versatile fluke skills myself. If I don’t I’ll have some sort of small swimbait tied onto what’s most likely going to be a Z-Man Texas Eye Jighead. Fishing this setup slow with pauses in my retrieve at the depth I believe is holding the quality bass I’m looking for will tell me if they’re chasing at all. If that doesn’t get bites when I’m around the fish than I can burn it fast with pauses to trigger reaction bites. If this doesn’t work either, then I’ll likely switch tactics to dragging a jig.
#1 A Jig. For me I’ll lean towards a vibrating jig over all others in most cases.
If I’m fishing around a lot of wood I’ll shy away from a vibrating jig. Trust me you should do the same. I’ve probably lost half a dozen $10-$15 vibrating jigs trying to find ways to effectively fish them around wood. It can’t be done! Well I couldn’t anyways. Just grab a spinnerbait and save yourself the trouble. But a swim jig and flipping jig can be your go to this season as well. If the bass are actively feeding and willing to chase, then a swimjig and vibrating jig can be your best options. Flipping into tight areas with a flipping jig can produce some big bites. If you’re dragging a jig slowly in darker visibility water a vibrating jig isn’t what most people think of but it’s hard to beat especially on Florida waters that have a good hard bottom.
I hope this helps you catch some good bass. After all late fall and winter is the seasons where these large females get the heaviest, which make it the perfect time to break your PB bass. Good luck and tight lines. Use #ReelJourneyChallenge if you want to share your catches with me. Go to my Blog page to see other blogs you may be interested in.
- Reel Journey aka Steven Schellinger
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