Cool weather will arrive soon to usher in some of the year's best bass fishing.
In many respects, fall fishing is even better than it is in the spring because there are a lot fewer anglers on the water. From late August through September, they'll spend their weekends at deer camp getting stands ready, tending to food plots and feeders, and cutting shooting lanes.
Cameron Nesterenko, 23, of Little Rock is an avid deer hunter. He acknowledges he'll devote a lot of time to the woods, but right now is still a prime time to fish.
Nesterenko and his fishing partner Andrew Wooley are two of the premier bass anglers in central Arkansas. They won five Tuesday night tournaments at Lake Maumelle in 2019, and won Angler-of-the-Year honors for the Tuesday night series.
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They are also solid performers on the Arkansas River. Lake Maumelle and the Arkansas River are entirely different fisheries, but both are excellent in late summer. The Arkansas River is especially good because high water throughout the summer kept anglers away, and its fish weren't bothered for months.
"After fishing Maumelle all summer, the Arkansas River finally started going down," Nesterenko said. "I had to switch all my tackle around."
Lake Maumelle is deep and clear. The river is opaque and shallow. Fishing them requires different tackle, different kinds of line and different baits.
"I tend to use bigger line on muddy water," Nesterenko said. "There's more cover -- stumps, rocks and grass -- to hang up on in the river, and fish just tend to be meaner out there. I use a lot of the same techniques. I just fish a little bit shallower."
Regardless of the water, Nesterenko said the key is to determine the size of bait that bass are eating and to throw something of equal size.
"This time of year, I'll throw something that's 2-3 inches long," Nesterenko said. "When I get around grass, I'm flipping a jig or a tube in the grass because they tend to get in that cover when the sun gets up."
On lakes, you usually have deep and shallow options, Nesterenko said. Versatility will generate bites throughout the day.
"On lakes, I'll throw a topwater bait to wolf pack fish up shallow right now," Nesterenko said. "In late August, there's always a population of fish up shallow and out deep, so its whichever you want to chase. I start shallow, but I'll definitely have a deep-diving crankbait, a worm, a drop shot, a jig, things like that."
For river fishing, Nesterenko said he uses 15- to 20-pound for grass, lily pads and other abrasive cover. When fishing lakes, he uses 15-pound braid with an 8-pound flourocarbon leader with spinning rods and 12-pound leader with baitcasting rigs. He uses a double uni knot to connect monofilament to braid.
On heavily pressured waters, bass see all of the latest new lures, Nesterenko said. Sometimes it pays to throw something unconventional, such as big spoons.
"A lot of guys don't throw them, and it's kind of tough to catch them on it, but if you can find the right school of fish, you can get them to fire on it," Nesterenko said. "Obviously, fish see crankbaits and swimbaits and things like that, but you can figure out something different. It could be an underspin, a spoon, a hair jig, anything like that that's a little different."
Swimbaits are popular for catching bass in deep water, and also bass that suspend in middle depths. There are a lot of different ways to rig swimbaits and a lot of ways to fish them. Nesterenko said it takes practice and experimentation to use them successfully, but again, you have to match the bait to the size forage bass are eating.
"If fish are eating 2- to 3-inch shad, they're not going to eat a gigantic 8-inch swimbait," Nesterenko said.
It's also tricky to keep a swimbait in the strike zone. Bass baits are usually bigger, but the technique is similar to fishing small jigs for crappie.
"When you're fishing offshore, you can tell by looking at your graph how fish are set up," Nesterenko said. "If fish are on the bottom, I'm going to throw something on the bottom. If I'm fishing 20 feet deep and fish are suspended at 14 feet, I'll throw a bait that will get down and suspend on them. Count it down, get to the right second and start reeling."
Wherever you live in Arkansas, you are close to a great bass fishery. The fishing is good now, but it will only get better.
Sports on 08/25/2019