When it comes to a freshwater bite, it’s often better in September.
I waded the South Branch Raritan River during lunch breaks all summer. Frustration grew, because I never caught any bass much better than a foot long. Then one early afternoon during the first week of September, the nip on my submerged calves signaled fall’s arrival. Temps had fallen into the 40s overnight. I still threw a Shim-E-Stick, but a 19-1/4-inch smallmouth nailed it.
I had cast to the spot it came from for months, getting no interest, moving on upstream, plumbing deeper water. The catch amounted to no more than coincidence, but the substance of that coincidence is the initiation of a seasonal flushing-out of North Jersey’s small rivers.
Temperatures dip that first week in September, and although it doesn’t always happen, when it does, the water clears. Last year, if I remember rightly, temps pushed 90 degrees every day that week.
The Forage Shift
Temps do drop sometime during September, and when they do, river bass go on the chase for fish forage. Who knows, maybe that big smallmouth sat all summer under the tree I cast to; once the water temp fell to the optimal range for that bass’s activity, it lunged for my stick bait. Whatever the case, summertime offers river bass – both smallmouth and less common largemouth – a smorgasbord of larval and adult insects, nematodes, worms, crayfish, and amphibians that quickly vacate the scene in September. It’s as if the biomass in general, including particles of algae, suddenly shrinks, water clearing overnight.
By the middle of October, the transformation is complete, and fishing a river for bass can be as tough as January. I’ve done it on a couple of mid-October occasions when the depths were tap-water clear and under the spell of overnight temps in the upper 20s or lower 30s, and the afternoon high not even 50. With polarized sunglasses, I examined the bottom of depths as great as 8 feet and saw no fish at all. The rocky character of Highlands flow appeared to me in high definition. I could see it gave the fish hideouts.
By comparison to October, September offers consistent action. Once the water has cooled, hard-bodied baits like Rapalas and Rebels, Yo-Zuris and Bombers that resemble baitfish catch more bass. You can still fish soft plastics successfully – Shim-E-Sticks, Ned rigs, twister tails on various jigs – but you can pick up the tempo with plugs instead.
Another option is topwater plugs. They come into their own in September, getting hit by the same bass that might have withheld any interest weeks before. It’s not that bass during summer are reluctant to fuel their sped-up metabolism, but to conserve energy, they feed on what comes easiest to them. Chasing fish forage uses more energy than sucking down clusters of larger-than-average nematodes or leisurely picking off the occasional crayfish or dragonfly nymph. I do catch bass on topwaters during summer, but I’m more selective about the use, the bass selective about the response. A splashy topwater plug might turn a summer bass off, while during September that bass is provoked.
It’s also possible to catch September bass on diving plugs worked through the currents of deep water, and inline spinners like Mepp’s, under-spinners like the Roadrunner, and little spinnerbaits like the Mini-King will catch bass, but why throw a lure you retrieve in a straight line, when you can impart action to a swimming plug? Go ahead and spin, if you prefer.
Jerkbait Action
I used Rapalas and Rebels a lot during the 1970s. I don’t believe we had a name for them other than ‘swimming plugs.” Most floated. In the articles I wrote during those unforgettable years, I called them “floater/divers.” They can be very effective twitched at the surface, but they’ve earned the name “jerkbait” for good reason. Bass you’ll catch in September will respond to an active rod tip. Jerk it so the plug moves like it’s escaping any bass nearby. It’s not the other way around – as if the plug should approach bass with an attitude! Fish it like it’s getting away.
But you can pause the plug too, and using one with a chrome finish might be best on sunny days. Don’t rule out fast retrieves. My favorite Rapala during 1974 was the Countdown, a sinking plug. In September, while fishing my favorite ponds for largemouth, I would burn one. At that young age, I cranked like an axel rod. I caught alert bass with eyes that never flickered in July. That plug has more stability on a fast retrieve than a floater, and it catches smallmouths.
I’m open to different sizes. While a size 9 Rapala floater is my standard, and I like smaller Rebels and Yo Zuris, I know of a river bass hunter who uses baitcasting gear. He’s interested only in big fish, and that rules out the near-universal acceptance – besides fly rods – of light spinning gear for river smallmouths. The man told me he’s caught river smallmouths in New Jersey up to 5-1/2 pounds and throws only big plugs and other outsized baits.
River bass don’t see a whole lot that’s outsized, so that might work in your favor against the odds of pressured fish refusing interest. On the other hand, if pressured fish simply react negatively to any sort of lure, then more of a lure is more for them to avoid. But I think big smallmouths like big baits. I’ve seen it happen. In any event, loads of average stream bass exist and are fun to catch on light- to medium-power spinning gear. Plugs on the small size – sizes 5 and 7 Rapala floaters included – are very effective. I received a gift of a dozen size 5 Rapalas a few years ago. On one of them, I hooked and lost a Musconetcong River smallmouth that had to be all of 3 pounds.
Jerkbaits will be most effective in water that’s moving, whether in riffles at the heads of pools and stretches, or in moderate currents leading through them. The water can be shallow, but don’t rule out deep holes. You can run small crankbaits through them. Bass aren’t holing up for winter just yet, but some of them like to hang deep in September.
Tease ‘Em On Top
For topwater fishing, slow water is productive in September, as are seams between faster and slower, as well as boils and eddies behind boulders and other obstructions. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you should retrieve slowly. Topwater fishing isn’t limited to shallow water, either. Again, the choice of plug size is open to experimentation, and I know from experience any size might pay off.
I love throwing little ones. My brother Rick once showed me up with his fly rod and panfish poppers during a 2020 South Branch float trip. But when I refer to little plugs, I mean 1/16-ounce that fish well on my favorite medium-power St. Croix, 5-1/2 feet, and 6-pound test monofilament. I restrain the impulse to buy such plugs just for collection’s sake.
On a little plug cast into the center of a boil at the head of a deep pool, I once hooked a smallmouth of about 17 inches. It dove to the bottom of the pool’s 8-foot depth, turned, and shot straight through the surface, head shaking 3 feet over calm water. The plug flung wide of the commotion by several yards, I reeled in the slack and continued to fish, catching average stream bass. On a different occasion, I fished with a friend reeling with baitcasting gear at moderate speed a huge Whopper Plopper right over the same 8-foot depths. The strike was ferocious, and he put a 19-1/4-inch smallmouth on the gravel.
| WEATHER & WATER |
| Clear water rules in September. Conversely, during summer, bass can nose and poke about, feeding on whatever they smell, or sense by their lateral line. Even so, I rarely do well for bass in a river when it’s off-color, though water conditions in between clear and dingy are fine and the usual condition during summer. But during September, I want to fish especially clear water because I believe in the bass’s inclination to chase fish forage by sight.
Likewise, while during summer I might prefer to fish under clouds or in the rain, during September I like sunlight on the river. It serves that visibility, and I believe in a lure that reflects the light. I’ll even throw a chrome-finish topwater, not that anything reflects from the underbelly, but being silver like a shiner doesn’t hurt. – B Litton |
Do as you like, but you might be surprised if you fish with someone else, because it’s always an individual scheme that pays off. Another angler’s approach might seem absurd until you see a successful result. It’s not anarchy, but collectively, the ways to fish topwaters are more than any one of us knows.
I like to think that September topwater fishing is best early and late in the day, though some will disagree, saying that by now you can tease smallmouths into striking up top all day long. I’m sure they’re right, but it’s not my preference. I do move a plug faster than I would in July, even though I like a surface bite when the surroundings are quiet. I would always throw a topwater at dawn, unless wind were to ruin the tranquility, saving that jerkbait with the chrome finish for the sunlight to come.
We go fishing when we can, but we can fish better when we go…by becoming more aware of differences. September means a lot of options will work, considering that bass are quickly being deprived of summer forage.
