October Bass Fishing Lures: Best Baits for Fall Bass

October and great fall fishing go hand in hand. The weather is changing, most of us can finally throw on a sweatshirt, and — here’s the good news — for the vast majority of us, fishing actually gets better in October, right up until it gets too cold. The trick is matching your lure to these changing conditions. Here are the four categories of lures I lean on all month long, and the one simple reason October is so good.

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Bass fishing is far more about making casts to areas that have fish than it is about picking the perfect lure. A lure with no fish equals no fish. And the two times of year bass are most accessible — most shallow — are spring and fall. Whether you fish from the bank, a kayak, or a bass boat, most of your casts land in shallow water, so when the fish are shallow, they’re in reach.

Two things pull bass shallow in October. First, the baitfish are grouped into schools feeding up before winter, and the bass follow them. Second, the water slides into a bass’s preferred temperature range — roughly 55 to 75°F — where largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass are most active. Add it up and your forage (baitfish, bluegill, crawfish) is active and shallow, and shallow is exactly where you can reach them.

My first and most important category is shad/baitfish-style lures, and the four I rotate through all fall are the spinnerbait, the vibrating jig, the squarebill (or shallow-diving crankbait in general), and the suspending jerkbait. Nearly all of us — Texas to Minnesota — have bass feeding up on baitfish right now. Even in bluegill-heavy northern lakes, the fish transition to perch, cisco, shiners, or whatever larger baitfish they’ve got.

The number-one rule here: more casts plus longer casts equals more fish. That’s covering water — faster loops around the pond, positioning your body for long parallel casts down the bank, and the occasional long bomb to the middle when fish are spread across depths. Fish these in order of weedlessness for your water: the spinnerbait is the most weedless, then the vibrating jig (the Tungsten Thunder Cricket is a staple), then the treble-hooked squarebill and jerkbait. The squarebill is meant to tick the bottom; the jerkbait should be thrown over deeper water — if it dives 4 feet, fish it in 6 to 10.

Each of these has a full deep-dive if you want to master it: the chatterbait masterclass, the crankbait masterclass, and the jerkbait masterclass. Trying to decide between the bladed baits? My spinnerbait vs. chatterbait breakdown covers which to throw when.

If baitfish colors aren’t working, go the other direction — crawfish and bug lures. In fall, bass ramp up their crawfish consumption and eat more bugs in general as leaves drop and rain flows in. This is where your urchins and dice baits shine, along with the tiny stuff like a Strike King Magnum Tumbleweed on a little jighead, my Outkast Pond Finesse Jig, a swim jig (which leans more bluegill), and a flipping setup with a Strike King Rage Bug.

The equation flips here: more casts, but less distance equals more fish. I’m flipping, pitching, and skipping relatively short casts to every shallow target I can see — grass clumps, laydowns, brush piles, docks, lily pads — hitting as many pieces of cover as possible rather than parking on one spot. On my Texas rig I go heavier in the fall than my usual 1/16 or 1/8 ounce — a quarter-ounce minimum, often half or 5/8 — because I want it to fall fast in front of their face. If they want it, they’ll eat it; if not, I move to the next target. (For the full flipping-and-pitching playbook, see my creature bait masterclass.)

Believe it or not, topwater still works for all of us in October — even once it gets cold up north. For pond anglers, bass eat a topwater frog basically all year, and I prefer a popping frog over a standard one. But across the last couple of seasons my confidence has shifted to the walking bait and the buzzbait — both a little faster-moving. The walking bait casts the farthest and lets me stop it; the buzzbait covers water around snaggier cover (keep your rod tip high and it rides over everything on top).

A buzz frog is great in niche situations — still-warm days with wind and fish moving — and a plopper earns an honorable mention, though I mostly save that for creeks, rivers, and current. If I had to pick, it’s a buzzbait for snaggy water and a walking bait for open water — and yes, both still get bit on cold days.

Toward the end of the month — especially up north, and eventually in Texas too — the shallow bite tightens and some fish slide out to 5 to 20 feet, feeding on baitfish and big schools of bluegill. My two favorite ways to reach them: a medium-diving crankbait (a Strike King 3XD dives about 12 feet) and shaking a minnow — a Damiki-style jighead minnow, deadly if you’re using forward-facing sonar. That same quarter-to-5/8-ounce jighead with a paddle-tail swimmer works too when they’re on baitfish.

For crawfish or deep bluegill feeders, I’ll make long casts with a football jig — and it works around deep grass too; just pop it out rather than only dragging an Arky-style. October is also the first month I’ll tie on an Alabama rig (configured legally for your state — one hook in Minnesota, three in Wisconsin, five where allowed). Cast it, let it sink a few seconds, and reel it back with the occasional pump. An honorable mention for fisheries with big baitfish — perch, gizzard shad — is a 4.5-to-7-inch glide bait, which can get absolutely crushed by bigger fish keying on larger forage. And if you want the full playbook for finding those late-month fish off the bank, my offshore masterclass covers it.

Final Thoughts

Don’t put the rod down just because summer beat you up — October is one of the best months of the year for the vast majority of us. Remember the one word that makes it great: access. The fish are shallow and feeding up, which means they’re in reach. Lead with shad/baitfish reaction baits to cover water and find them, pick apart shallow cover with bugs and craws, keep a topwater tied on even when it’s cold, and chase the late-month fish a little deeper. Beyond a day or two after a hard cold front, October fishing can be flat-out fun — so get out there.

Related masterclasses: Chatterbait · Crankbait · Jerkbait · Creature Baits · Football Jig · Alabama Rig · Offshore Fishing

Source: Based on video content from TylersReelFishing — “Fish THESE October Lures For MORE BASS!” · youtube.com/@tylersreelfishing