As the bass make their run to the creeks in the late fall there are some ways I have learned over the years to catch bass in the real shallow water. As different as this may seem bass move to the backs of the creeks before moving deep for the winter. If you want to find tournament type fish and have the patience to fish for a few bites, shallow water in the fall can be the key!
The difference maker here is using the deeper water as a marker for shallow fall fishing, in other words you need deep water near bye to have success in this pattern. Bass in the fall are very skittish and move quickly when weather changes occur. You want to look for flats in the back of creeks that have deeper water or drops near. Combine these flats with wood and you have an ideal fall shallow water pattern. Then throw your bait as far as you can into the shallow flats, six-inches of water with a foot drop around it is an ideal ambush point for fall bass. You ll be amazed at how many tournament size fish you can catch this way!
There are a few baits that I believe make this type of fall fishing very successful. Shallow running flat sided crank baits bouncing off the wood create noise and kick up mud from the bottom, keeping your tip high moving it precisely through the stumps at a crawl is key. Work a buzzbait over the top as this also makes noise and allows for some great strikes and good fish while working over the wood. A small 3/8 oz. Punisher Spinner Bait is just the ticket to pull some of the lunkers out of these shallow pockets. You have a tremendous amount of control working shallows with spinner baits as they bounce and move erratically through the stumps and are great bite producers. Shallow-water fall fishing is a great producer, try it I know you ll be impressed!