If you understand the types of areas that largemouth and smallmouth bass each prefer and can find a lake that meets those needs, Dave Csanda says you can catch both species on the same day, fishing on the same lake.

In the November issue of MidWest Outdoors magazine, we talked about fishing “connected waters,” referring to smaller bodies of water, bays, harbors, rivers, etc., attached to larger bodies of water that support numbers of trophy fish. The idea was to take advantage of fall migrations of big fish into smaller areas, creating “fish in a barrel” situations. Many anglers recognize that this occurs during spring spawning movements. Fewer understand that similar opportunities also occur in fall as big fish follow schools of migratory smaller forage fish into confined areas, creating outstanding trophy-fishing situations.

Something similar can occur even within a single body of water. For example, in early fall, after the fall turnover, forage fish often make a brief movement into shallow water, followed by gamefish eager to feed on them. Water temperatures and oxygen levels are very attractive in the mid-shallows at this time—particularly in southern reservoirs where coves may have grown too warm, stagnant and oxygen-starved during the peak of summer to attract many fish. After this short flurry, however, both predators and prey tend to head back out to deeper water for the period from mid-fall, thru winter, until shallow pre-spawn movements occur in spring.

River walleyes run upriver in fall to winter-over in deep holes or the scour holes below dams. Smallmouths, and some walleyes, may instead run downriver to winter over in the upper portions of reservoirs, particularly in smaller, shallower-river environments. The upshot is, fall sees seasonal movements and concentrations of fish that you can predict, follow and take advantage of.

Given this principle, deep-water basin areas of lakes, and the structures that immediately adjoin or lie within them, tend to be your best spots from mid-fall up through ice-up—at least for trophy gamefish. Deep water offers stability in terms of temperature changes. Shallower lake sections go through a roller coaster of ups and downs as fall water temperatures fluctuate, but deep water tends to remain consistently attractive to big fish. This is particularly true in weedy lakes, as falling temperatures and reduced sunlight penetration cause most weeds to die and fish to desert them, except for perhaps the deeper, outer rim of remaining healthy weeds rimming the basin. As such, these deep weed lines can become seasonal hot spots for schools of big largemouths, large pike and even muskies.

This is not to say that shallower areas are never good in fall. For instance, panfish and pike in rivers tend to move into backwaters and bays, assuming they will be safe from being trapped in extremely shallow water under the ice. Here, they can escape current throughout late fall and winter, rather than fighting it. And walleyes in shallow prairie lakes known for ambushing frog and waterdog migrations from swamps into shallow bays at night in mid-fall. So, the sudden appearance of easy prey can outweigh the necessity for deep water—even if only for a short while.

At first ice, shallow bays are among the first places to freeze, providing the earliest fishing opportunities for safely walking out to catch panfish and perhaps pike while the rest of the lake is still questionable or even ice-free. Crappies and bluegills tend to avoid the deepest lake areas anyway, although perch typically drop deep onto main-lake structure.

In the end, when you understand what different species of fish prefer at specific times of the year, and match that to the options a lake or river offers, you should be able to find and catch them. And at times, run into those “fish in a barrel” situations that make for great days on open water or ice.

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