What types of areas do you look for in the fall?

With the water temps cooling steadily, what types of areas do you try to target from now through November? As usual I'm not looking for anybodies honey hole, just a general idea of water depth, terrain types to target or any ideas..... I started this crappie madness about a year ago. The channel with grass mats on both sides, that I've been waiting all summer to fish the edge of, are not there this fall. I don't know what happened to the mats, but they gone, so I'm back to square one.

I hope I don't have to fish bridges to catch them. No disrespect meant to anyone who fishes bridges and enjoys it but that constant road noise just drives me crazy. I hear loud noises, ALL day, 5 days a week. When I fish I want to hear peace and quiet other than talking to my fishing partner of the day.

Best bet is to go to Captain D’s. You want ever be disappointed! :Rofl

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Originally Posted by Slabprowler

Best bet is to go to Captain D’s. You want ever be disappointed! :Rofl

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It'd be a whole lot cheaper! :)

Try points, docks, the rip rap around bridges that have a steep drop off into the water.

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Find the bait. Fur I would fish channel ledges on creek channels in Guntersville. Shooting docks is productive also. I would find docks near deeper water. Forget Captian Ds. Go to the catfish cabin. Isn't it close to you? Weekend doesn't look good. Front coming through friday rain and wind sat. I hate wind!

I target wood. I prefer trees that have at least 10' out front or maybe the fish do. I like stump rows in 3-6 fow close to deep water with bait. Someone on here said a while back that the best bet is to target 17 fow plus or minus 5 foot. That made me a better fisherman and I have stayed with it.

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Thanks for all the advice. Coach, I can be at Catfish Cabin in about 5 minutes from my shop. 8 minutes from home. It ain't as good as it use to be. I got to Top of the River in Guntersville most times now.

To find wood, I have to go to south sauty or further north. I have found little to none on the lower lake which is where I'd prefer to fish, since I'm closer to that.

I find them in the fall to be in the same places I found them in the spring.

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water close to channels and/or deeper water. Look for stumps, brush piles on ledges or close to the deeper water. Fished this past weekend in a creek with 25-30 foot deep channel. Found lots of fish on the ledges which were 12-15 feet deep. They were congregated around stumps.


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Me and Garrett went last Saturday and caught 12 in 20' of water fish was around 12' water temp was about 76 and we was fishing in some brush and standing timber and we fished for 2 or 3 hours and most of the time in the fall and winter places like that is where I do best at around here.

If I was at a new lake right now. I would scan creek channels looking for brush ,the deeper the better. Docks closed to the channel would be worth a look to. I hump would would probably hold a few as well.

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What he said.


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Sometimes the river channel ledges hold fish also.

Thanks for all the input. I went again this afternoon and tried several drop offs. Nada. I didn't see a whole lot of fish on my mega unit. I did see one "Christmas tree" shaped pod of crappie but they weren't holding on any structure.

I did go hit a deep water (12 feet) dock about 20 minutes before dark. I haven't shot docks much at all and I was sorely out of practice. After about 25 attempts I got back into the swing of things to where I could get the jig back up under the docks, AND I caught a nice crappie. I think I felt about as excited as when I killed my first deer. LOL I got several bites but didn't connect on any more.

Glenn, you'd have caught 50 off that dock.

There is some structure on the south end of Guntersville, but that's few and far between. I've scanned lots and lots of creek channels and rarely find anything other than a rotted off stump. The further north on the lake that I fish, the more structure I find. The lake is approaching 90 years old. I think most of the old timber and stuff is just gone. I remember when I was young being able to fish remnants of standing timber. The trees were broken off, or rotted off just at the water level. I know where that spot was and I can't even find stumps there now. I have found stumps and I have seen a few fish on them in the past few weeks, but have yet to see a "wad" of crappie on one. 99% of the boat docks are in shallow water and 9 out of 10 good docks are built to where they have boards blocking the fishing under them. The only reason I could fish that dock today is because the water is low.

And, it's impossible to know how many fish are holding in the grass that's on the lake.

I'm spending a whole lot of time thinking about all this. LOL I AM gonna figure it out but I'm gonna ask a lot more questions before I do. :)

If you build it they will come( brush)

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I tried further up the river today. Shot some new docks. They weren't in as deep of water as I thought they'd be. We didn't catch a fish on the docks. I marked fish and structure in the creek channel on the river side of an island on the way to fish the docks. My plan was to fish docks until around 5:00, then go back and fish that creek channel. The wind changed our mind. We got tired of rocking and rolling on the river, and found a steep dropoff with a deep water "channel" on the back side of a point. Fish were few and far between.

I'm about to pull out my long poles and try pulling jigs pver the tops of grass, like I did in the spring and see if that does any good.

I'm finally getting to put the boat in the water after a long gap...after reading this do yall think it's worth fishing under bridges with the water temp where it's at? Prolly going to Scottsboro tomorrow.

They are under most the bridges several being caught ! Not in huge numbers that I’ve seen ! Good luck hope u get on a mess!

Bridges can be feast or famine. The crappie are always there in some numbers but won’t always bite. I’ve marked hundreds on the eddy side of pylons and just couldn’t get a hook in one. Other times, you can fill a livewell.


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As water cools fish are going to set up according to fall pattern. This is not going to occur over night. Stay around brush and stumps on creek channels and it will pay off for you. I would start fishing south saulty some Fur.

We had a crappie tourney in TN last weekend and it was won by a team fishing brush in about 20 fow 12 foot deep in the brush. Best 7 went over 11 pounds. Me and my partner was fishing brush in 24 fow about 12 foot deep and we caught 16 crappie there, had 8.91 pounds/2nd place and big fish at 2.03 pounds. I said that to say, its probably about the best bet for this time of year to be in deep water fishing at the depth you see fish on graph. I too hate that bridge noise at Guntersville. I would be shooting docks there if I were fishing there this week. Good luck to you.

Have you tried fishing any of the docks at Honeycomb (south east of the bridge)? Usually they are pretty good this time of year and most those docks are in 10 - 18 ft of water IIRC.

Brad just come down here.


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Originally Posted by YaBoyMaxWeezy

Have you tried fishing any of the docks at Honeycomb (south east of the bridge)? Usually they are pretty good this time of year and most those docks are in 10 - 18 ft of water IIRC.

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No sir, not lately.

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Originally Posted by CrappieFlopper

Brad just come down here.


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Thanks and I may end up doing that, but trying to go after work on a weekday driving over there doesn't leave much fishing time. I'll plan a weekend trip over that way sometime soon.

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Originally Posted by Slabprowler

They are under most the bridges several being caught ! Not in huge numbers that I’ve seen ! Good luck hope u get on a mess!

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Did pretty good at Town Creek fishing dead center between pylons. A buddy of mine was at Honey Comb and 15 ft limited out. Good luck! I wish I could get to fish more, but I am stuck on the bank for now and Big G is 2 hours away ... so I am having to wait till Spring. Everyone I know with boats don't like fishing in the cold. Be safe out there Fur. I tried Lay Lake the other day and the Draw Down was 5ft ... nothing but mud. NOV 1 is the refill date back to normal.