For those die hards out there, don't put your bass rods away yet. Fall is a great time for some top water action, along with minnow patterns being very productive this time of year like clousers and decievers. All the fish are starting to put on the feed bags, especially the big females which have to start eating heavily for the upcoming spring spawning and winter over. But no matter what the size is, the smallmouth is a great fighter.
Rivers and streams are the easiest to figure out during the fall. The smallies start to become more concentrated closer to deep water holes and move up and down from the shallows above and below pools to feed. The biggest fish always have the best lies, just like in trout fishing. So if you catch a decent fish in one section, disect that section to figure out why it was there to begin with then you can start to develop a pattern.
Lake smallmouth are little bit more trickier on the fly rod. They also start to concentrate a little bit more during the fall, but begin to concentrate on key structure near wintering areas and are still in the same fall feeding mode.
