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This is the third installment of the "Fall Fishing Festival" article series, which details productive fishing techniques and opportunities across Kentucky. These articles will continue to appear until mid-winter.
Live bait isn’t just a technique for beginners. A fluttering minnow or chunk of nightcrawler at the end of the line can be one of the most effective means of fishing at this time of year.
“While an artificial bait passes through a fish’s strike zone quickly, live bait just sits there and gives off those subtle vibrations that draw fish,” said Mike Hardin, assistant director of Fisheries for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “Live bait offers you a chance to catch fish when it’s too cold for other methods of fishing.”
With water temperatures at many Kentucky reservoirs are falling into the high 50s, we are entering the time of year when live bait shines. Following are some excellent options for catching crappie, smallmouth bass and sunfish when the temperatures begin to drop.
Mike Hardin, assistant director of Fisheries for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, holds a healthy smallmouth bass caught on a live shiner in December from Lake Cumberland. Late fall and winter make great times for using live bait to catch big crappie, sunfish and smallmouth bass.
Fall and winter are excellent times to chase crappie and it’s hard to beat a bait bucket full of live minnows. “Crappie like that cold water,” Hardin said. “They don’t care. Sometimes, a minnow is all they will hit when it is cold.”
While Taylorsville Lake’s proximity to Louisville generates crowds during the spring crappie spawn, you can practically have the lake to yourself in November and December. Fish live minnows beside the ample flooded timber in the lake. Look for the trees with the most branches, as these seem to hold more fish than trees that resemble toothpicks. Beech and Little Beech creeks are good places to try.
Kentucky Lake is another excellent place to toss live minnows for fall crappie. Secondary channels offshore in the mouth of Jonathan Creek as well as in the mouth of Pisgah Bay on the Land Between the Lakes side of the lake, hold crappie in fall.
Use your boat’s sonar unit to find sunken brush on lips of these channels and on the adjacent flats. Drop a live minnow on a size 4 baitholder hook into this cover; use a small split shot weight or two to keep your bait down in the strike zone. You can also use a slip bobber to target these fish as well.
Crappie will also gather beside bridge abutments in the fall on Kentucky Lake. Target them by allowing a minnow to slowly fall through the water column beside the bridge abutment until you find the fish.
Black crappie, like their movement in spring, migrate back to pea gravel banks in fall. Productive areas at this time of year include the northern bank of Blood River and the western bank of the main lake north of Blood River. Smaller embayments on the eastern side of the lake, such as Vickers Bay, Barnett Bay and Sugar Bay, also draw black crappie in fall.
Cast a crappie minnow to these pea gravel banks, using just enough split shot weight to allow it to sink slowly. After the minnow has sunk a few feet deep, slowly reel it back. Black crappie will load up on this presentation. Some anglers believe black crappie fight harder than white crappie.
Casting medium-sized shiners or large crappie minnows in Dale Hollow Lake, Lake Cumberland and Laurel River Lake can bring trophy smallmouth bass to hand from Thanksgiving through March. Peak live bait fishing occurs in December.
A size 1 or 1/0 octopus-style hook works extremely well for casting shiners. Run the hook through the top of the shiner’s mouth and attach two BB-sized split shot weights about 18 inches above it. Use a round split shot instead of the kind with wings built-in for easy removal. Round split shot doesn’t get hung up as often.
Cast the shiner to the main lake points. This is the deep-water sanctuary that smallmouth bass use in late fall and winter. The light weight of the set-up enables the shiner to slowly sink, enticing smallmouth bass suspended in the water column. When the shiner reaches the bottom, retrieve it slowly back to you. It takes patience to fish a live shiner this way, but it can produce large smallmouth bass.
A few hooks and split shot weights are all you need for cold water smallmouth bass.Image Credit: Obie Williams
You sometimes can feel the shiner or crappie minnow wiggling on the end of your line. This is often a sign a smallmouth bass is stalking the bait. If you feel any thump or movement in the line after feeling a wiggle, set the hook.
On Lake Cumberland, the area from the Bugwood Narrows down the lake to Wolf Creek Dam is an excellent area of the lake to search for fall and winter smallmouth bass. The lower sections of the Wolf River arm and Illwill Creek in Dale Hollow Lake and the Spruce Creek arm of Laurel River Lake are productive places to try on these reservoirs.
Many anglers associate bluegill and redear sunfish with spawning season in May and June. These species often go forgotten by this time of year.
Smaller, state-owned lakes are perfect spots for anglers pursuing panfish from shore, paddlecraft or a johnboat.
As the water temperatures drop into the 50s, the large bluegill and redear move into deeper water, anywhere from 8 to 15 feet or more, depending on the lake. Bluegill often form schools in fall, making them easy to find for boaters using sonar.
A slip bobber makes the task easier. A slip bobber uses a preset stop on the fishing line; the bobber stays close to the bait when cast but slips to the stop once it hits the water. This allows anglers to fish deeper with a bobber while maintaining castability.
Set the slip bobber to suspend a bait just above the bottom. For bluegill, try a wax worm, meal worm or redworm impaled on a size 6 or 8 Aberdeen-style hook. If you want to attract only large bluegill, use small live crappie minnows instead. You will also pick up crappie and largemouth bass with live minnows.
A drop shot rig – a size 4 or 6 baitholder hook tied 12 to 18 inches above a weight at the end of the line – also works. Impale a 1-inch piece of nightcrawler on the hook and let the weight at the bottom of the rig gently drag the bottom as you slowly retrieve it. This is especially deadly on big redear sunfish.
An excellent catch to be found at Beaver Lake Image Credit: Dave Baker
Bottom fishing redworms or small crappie minnows is the best presentation for anglers fishing from the bank.
Light line is imperative for fall fishing for sunfish; 4-pound fluorocarbon line works well. This should be paired to an ultra-light or light-powered rod to make good sport. Landing a trophy bluegill on an ultra-light rod is an absolute ball.
The 2023 Fishing Forecast highlights several smaller, state-owned lakes that hold good populations of bluegill and redear sunfish. Beaver Lake in Anderson County, tiny Briggs Lake in Logan County and Elmer Davis Lake in Owen County hold ample numbers of bluegill and redear sunfish. McNeely Lake in Jefferson County, Pennyrile Lake in Christian County and Spurlington Lake in Taylor County hold many healthy bluegill and redear sunfish as well.
Using live bait makes you a better angler because it teaches you where predator fish locate during the different seasons. Live bait also gives you confidence because nothing looks as much like the real thing as the real thing.
Get out this fall and catch some fat crappie, smallmouth bass and sunfish using baits the fish can’t resist.