# September 22nd, It's a holy day on the LMR



## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

Today is the Fall Equinox the single most important day of the year for river bass fishing...
The thing I probably get the most questions about in all of my fishing is how I locate bass in the fall. Fishermen say that they constantly hear how good smallmouth bass fishing is in the fall but that they just can't catch them or they are only catching dinks. Well here's how I locate smallies in the fall. Smallmouth migrate to the best possible places they can find to spend the winter. This may only be hundreds of yards or it might be ten miles or more. This is triggered by length of day. Dr. Mark Ridgeway, a research scientist for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources found that a smallmouth migration away from classic summer habitat begins, each year, within a week to 10 days of the autumnal equinox in September. This means that day length, not water temperature is the reason for smallmouth bass fall movements. 
But there are two parts to the puzzle, just as you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink, whether or not they then bite is related to water temperature. When the water temperature sinks to 60 degrees and below that seems to be a trigger point. From then till the river hits 50 degrees the smallmouth are in overdrive feeding the strongest they do all year. So the great fishing lasts as long as the water stays above about 52. If that's a week, its a week if its a month then the fishing is great for a month. 
So between the smallmouth migration and water temps you need a couple things you might have not used all year. The number one tool for finding smallmouth bass wintering holes in the LMR is a good online satellite mapping site like Google Maps. Your looking for big bends and deep eddies with complex structure nearby. The deepest biggest holes you can find. Some of these can be places in town "fished out" during the summer, it doesn't matter your fishing for fish that might have came from miles away. Sometimes you just have to make a list of possibilities and head out to check them in person. Like I said the bass will migrate as far as it takes so you cant think well maybe this is good enough. Now until the water actually hits 50 to 53 the bass might not be right in that wintering hole. They will instead be somewhere on the first two or three riffles either upstream or down feeding like gangbusters. The two best places I know have both the deep complex structure and a really good hard bottomed riffle with a hard bottom and no silt between the feeding area and the hole even though in one case its 150 yards between the two. So obviously a thermometer is a great tool is seeing where things are at. Above 60 you can expect bass to be in transition between summer and fall patterns. And the equinox falls on either on September 22, 23, or 24 every year. On any other day of the year, the Earth's axis tilts a little away from or towards the Sun. But on the equinox the Earth's axis tilts neither away from nor towards the Sun. So sometime within a week of that expect them to come pouring into those fall feeding riffles depending on temps. Not every smallmouth migrates at exactly the same time so you can still catch bass elsewhere in the river as they stop to feed while migrating but the real action will be in those good riffles close to wintering holes starting about the second week in September and getting better and better if the weather cooperates until the water cools below 50 to 53 degreees. After that you have to fish slooow down in the deep wintering holes to get much action. Sometimes a warm day will warm things a degree or two and you can sometimes catch a smallmouth or two on a hair jig fished almost motionless under a float. Just let the current swirl it around the hole and try to impart as little movement to the lure as you can. This can result in some of the best fish of the year but it also results in a big number of fishless days too.

Hopefully the LMR clears up and lowers fast, the clock is ticking...


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## fisherFL (Oct 23, 2012)

GREAT info here, thank you OSG


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## fischa (May 26, 2011)

Awesome! Thank you very much!


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## co-angler (Jan 3, 2010)

Curious OSG, does the location of these riffles matter. At the top of a deep hole, the bottom or, at both top and bottom?



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## sammerguy (Jun 7, 2011)

Thanks so much for this great info!


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## yakfish (Mar 13, 2005)

That belongs in a magazine! Fantastic information right there. Thanks OSG!

Water temps in most rivers in the area are still above 60-65 degrees. I think the fishing is still going to keep getting better. I'm heading out after lunch today I've been looking at Google maps just trying to figure out where.


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## SMBHooker (Jan 3, 2008)

I just like to say, "autumnal equinox." 

OSG, dropping knowledge like rain.


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## BornWithGills (Feb 26, 2006)

Fantastically informative post thanks osg.


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## fishmonster11 (Jul 5, 2009)

great post OSG awesome information. Appreciate it


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## deltaoscar (Apr 4, 2009)

Great stuff OSG, thanks for sharing. Copied and pasted.


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## Dolomieu (Aug 19, 2008)

OSG, you are the guru of not only LMR bass fishing but river smallie fishing in general. More information can be gleaned from you and a number of other anglers on this site than anywhere else, print or online. Thanks again for sharing your insightful knowlege.


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## sammerguy (Jun 7, 2011)

This info paid off very well for me today. Thanks again!


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## buzzing byrd (Feb 27, 2008)

steve, sent you a pm.


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## 9Left (Jun 23, 2012)

Well that does it....I'm cancelling my subscription to Field and Stream, In-Fisherman and Fish Ohio...very nice post OSG...thankyou!


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

co-angler said:


> Curious OSG, does the location of these riffles matter. At the top of a deep hole, the bottom or, at both top and bottom?


I've not been able to see an upstream or downstream pattern. I did back in the summer go to one of my fall spots in swimming trunks and wade the thing all over to see what it was like underwater. I was struck by the fact that it was hard from the riffle down thru the run and thru the hole to the next riffle. It was a mix of gravel and rock the whole way. Towards the lower end (where I don't normally catch fish) there are some big boulders from a couple feet across to four or five across in the deep (about shoulder deep) part of the run. This is about 100/150 yards up and one other riffle away from one of the deeper holes in this section of the river. But also the riffle itself is a bit different than most. It has a current break that in normal flows makes a visible straight line down the run it is so strong. So is it the hard bottom, the big rocks that might serve as staging areas, the current break, a combination of a couple or all three of these?? I think next summer I'm going to have to dissect some more of these fall spots with swimming trunks. Sometimes the more I try and find out the more questions I come up with...


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## fishmasterflex (Feb 25, 2008)

Really good info. Thanks osg

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## Crawdude (Feb 6, 2013)

Thanks for sharing this info. The wheels are really spinning in my head now, pouring overs spots in my head I've scouted this past year that match this criteria.


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## gibson330usa (May 15, 2012)

Applause. Thanks OSG.


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## GarrettMyers (May 16, 2011)

Good stuff OSG.... The river is almost back to a normal level.


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## Britam05 (Jun 16, 2012)

That may just very we'll be the best put together post I have ever read. Not only on here but on any fishing site. Thank you very much OSG


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## Atwood (Sep 6, 2005)

While some folks are looking for deep holes and floating hair jigs, we'll be pounding them on buzzbaits in a foot of water until the end of November. It works every fall.


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## ghurlag (Apr 27, 2013)

Kudos, OSG. Give a man a fishing hole, he's a fisherman for a day. Teach a man how to find his own fishing hole (and leave yours alone) and you've made a fisherman for life.


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## sammerguy (Jun 7, 2011)

Thanks again this is paying off with dividends so far! 3 spots and 6 or so smallies today! Nothing huge but fun none the less. I was pulling a weightless Senko along the top for a few feet and letting it settle, and bam they would hit it.


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## SMBHooker (Jan 3, 2008)

oldstinkyguy said:


> Today is the Fall Equinox the single most important day of the year for river bass fishing...
> But there are two parts to the puzzle, just as you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink, whether or not they then bite is related to water temperature. When the water temperature sinks to 60 degrees and below that seems to be a trigger point. From then till the river hits 50 degrees the smallmouth are in overdrive feeding the strongest they do all year. So the great fishing lasts as long as the water stays above about 52.


Ah yes, I call this the "Death Degree" it is so remarkable and amazing to me when I'm fishing the fall bite hard and the temp hits that 52 degree mark and it's over... completely over, just like that. Spring and fall I really like to bring a thermometer to the stream... especially in the fall so I know just how close to the "Death Degree" I'm getting. The closer it gets the more anxious I become. lol

(oops, meant to post that in BBB's thread)


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