If you want to catch a fish, put your bait where a fish lives. That might sound basic, but the most basic concept of fishing is to fish where the fish are. You can have the nicest boat around, lots of expensive rods and reels and tackleboxes full of lures, but if you don’t put your lure near a fish, all that other stuff is going to do you no good. Here are some ideas for finding different species of fish this fall.

Let’s start with crappies. Crappies are abundant and popular almost everywhere. In spring, we catch them near cover like rushbeds and docks and timber in shallow water. In fall, if you fish those areas, you probably won’t be eating crappies for supper. In most places, they’re not in the shallows in large numbers now.

In some lakes, the crappies will be on or near the deep weed line. The clearer the water, the deeper they’ll be. Sometimes they’ll be 25 yards off the edge of the deep weed line. On a calm evening, you can see them creating dimples as they suck bugs off the surface of the water. Try a Mr. Crappie Grub or an XL Shadpole on a 1/16-ounce jig. If they’re finicky, tie on a Shoo Shiner jig, tip it with a minnow, and work it under a slip-bobber rig. Even when the crappies are being fussy, a Shoo Shiner/minnow combination will get at least a few to bite.

Crappies will also be found on bottom in the basin of some lakes. Cruise the basin in 20 to 30 feet of water with a close eye on your sonar. When you see a concentration of fish, work them with 1/8- or 1/16-ounce jigs and plastics. Try a variety of shapes and colors until the fish show you what they want.

Walleyes can be in a lot of places, depending on the lake. Different lakes provide different hangouts. In shallow lakes with stained water, you can sometimes find walleyes on windblown points in water two feet deep.

In deep, clear lakes, they’ll be on deep structure in 20 feet or more of water. Or they might suspend away from structure near baitfish. They’ll go on a night-bite in other lakes. Research the body of water that you’ll be fishing to determine where you should focus your efforts.

Largemouth bass will also be in a variety of areas, but as the weather gets colder, you’ll find fewer of them in the sloppy shallows that many inhabited during the summer. On a warm, overcast fall day, you can find them cruising reed beds near deeper water. Reeds in 6 to 8 feet of water, close to cabbage beds in deeper water, can be very good. The bass hold in the deeper water during cold conditions, then move shallower when there’s a day or two of warmer weather. A Tour Grade Swim Jig tipped with a bulky piece of plastic, something like a Rage Craw, will get largemouth bass to bite. Big bass like bulky baits in fall.

Some lakes have more options than others for fall fish. In some lakes, there will be just a couple of types of areas that will hold fish. On other lakes, you need to try different things to get bit. Keep that in mind for getting lots of bites.

For more insight and tips for fishing throughout the year, check out the articles in every issue of MidWest Outdoors, available by subscribing on our website.