Entry 151-1

Mike Wurm on How to Catch Fish Now in the Fall

Catch Them on Top

Editor’s Note: Mike Wurm, a Strike King Pro since the mid-1990s says, “I can’t remember when I wasn’t a Strike King Pro.” Wurm fishes the national professional bass circuits and conducts seminars at trade shows and sporting events throughout the year.

Top-water baits will be my first choice for fishing in the fall. You’ll find tight schools of shad on almost every river and lake that you fish. The shad are starting their annual migration up into the creeks. The bass know where the shad are going and are looking for ambush points to attack the schools of shad.

Bass at this time of the year will school-up on points, wind-swept banks, anywhere there’s current for run-offs, at the mouths of creeks, along creek channels and over river ledges. You’ll be able to see the shad schooling in these places. The bass are looking up, and they are feeding heavily on the shad in preparation for the cold winter months.

The two baits I like to use are the Spit-N-King and the Z2. I’ll be using Berkley Trilene XT line, a 706 Quantum PT rod, and a Quantum EA 860 PT reel. I’ll be fishing with 12- to 17-pound-test line when I’m fishing the Spit-N-King. I’m trying to make long casts to the bass I see schooling on the surface. I’ll try several actions to see which way the bass want to take the bait. I’ll start with a pop-pop pause, pop-pop action. If that doesn’t work, I’ll steadily pop and retrieve it back to the boat. If that tactic doesn’t produce a strike, I’ll cast it out, let it hit where the school is feeding, allow it to sit still for awhile and barely move it without popping it. Often the bass will hit it that way.

Many people overlook the Z2 as a bait that can be highly productive for schooling bass. I like the Z2 because it’s heavier than most plastic worms, and I can cast it a long way. I can fish it fast on the top or let it sink down to the bottom. One of the big problems with schooling bass is that they’ll hit the surface, feed heavily on top and then vanish. I’ll cast the Z2 to where the bass are feeding, let it fall and maybe give it just a slight twitch as it falls. Then the bait will look like a dying shad. So I can often trigger strikes from bass that have quit feeding on the top using this tactic.

I use the Z2 as a follow-up bait behind the Spit-N-King because I can fish it fast on the surface, or I can fish it as a fall bait. I like the LY colors and the shad colors for the Z2. Smokey Joe is another good color for this bait. The only change I’ll make in my tackle is that I may be fishing a fluorocarbon line because it sinks faster than monofilament does.

Next: Buzz Them Up

Contents:

• Part 1: Catch Them on Top
• Part 2: Buzz Them Up
• Part 3: Crank Them Up
• Part 4: Jig Them Up
• Part 5: When All Else Fails, Finesse Them