October through November in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex marks the beginning of some very unique fishing opportunities. First and foremost, the big lakes will be producing good limits of bass along the steeper banks (especially in many of DFW’s marinas).
The other pattern I’m going to look for is cranking a RC1.5 or RC2.5 in MS Crack or something white (Sassy Shad & Moss Back Shad are great colors right now) around any remaining shallow wood in the back half of creeks. With the water low right now, whatever remaining wood you find should easily produce bass. Last year, my partner and I constantly produced good limits cranking RC1.5s off wood while others were flipping plastics to the same timber.
The lipless (LV) bite is just starting to pick up as well as the water temps drop to the mid-low 60s. The LV RTO 200 in MS American Shad or Aurora Gold (on cloudy days) can be the ticket to a few big fish early each morning, especially if you can fish these baits around rock (dams, walls, boat ramps, etc.).
The key to fall fishing in Dallas-Fort Worth is to continue to move around various sections of the lake until you find baitfish and active bass. If they are not biting on the dam, go into the marinas, go try main lake rock, then go up the main creek halfway back and look for rock or isolated wood, etc. Keep moving around, and your efforts will pay off.
The shad are on the move, so just because you caught them somewhere last weekend does not mean they’ll be there this week.
Also, make sure you check out the power plant lakes, especially Squaw Creek – 45 minutes south of Fort Worth. I’ll spend most of my weekends down that way until mid-February. It’s not uncommon to catch 20 to 60 bass a trip, or focus on the larger fish, and you have a good chance at catching a 20-plus-pound bag.
Good luck.
by James Smiley
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