Here is a snippet from the fall fishing Sand Hollow chapter of my ebook. Recently I went out with some friends fall fishing using the same principles outlined here, and we caught 51 large mouth bass. Fall bass fishing can really get the stoke juices flowing. If you like what you read, grab yourself a copy of the book at the bottom of the post. The Sand Hollow fishing guide contains a dozen chapters just like this. The main goal of this post on fall bass fishing tricks for Sand Hollow is to get you “Kraken” bass! Enjoy this free content!
Fall fishing Sand Hollow Reservoir can sometimes be super frustrating or incredibly awesome. The bass are typically starting to feed up before winter. Plus, as the water cools the lake will turnover which will bring some of the bass up shallow again. The fall turnover is when the deep water becomes warmer than the surface water. This warmer water rises up from the bottom, and the colder water on the top of the lake sinks. It’s kind of weird, but all you need to know is when this happens the deeper fish come up for a short time and start chomping. It typically only lasts one or two weeks, so it’s a short lived window.
Outside of the fall turnover you can still catch decent fish usually up until the end of November. The bass are cold blooded, so when the water cools into the low 50’s the bass typically aren’t as active, and they take a lot more patience to catch.
Make sure to check out the Sand Hollow fishing ebook which contains a fall shake down of each month of what to do, so you can catch bass out of Sand Hollow from September – November. This preview snippet contains the details of what to do in November to catch bass. If you like what you see make sure to snag yourself a copy of the ebook, and get yourself stoked to catch some bass here in November.
In November the water temperature cools off even more, but the bass are still out there “kraken”. The water will usually start off at the beginning of the month around the low 60’s, but by the end of the month it drops down to right around to the low 50’s. The water level is typically at its lowest in November. Your traditional deep water holes sometimes are too shallow this time of year. Some deep spots may only have 20 feet of water in them when they usually hold 30.
Early in the month you can still find a few fish shallow feeding up for the cold of the winter. With the cooler water temperatures the bass aren’t expending as much energy, so they put on more weight with their cold blooded bodies. Even though bass can sometimes be shallow in November, the majority of them are thinking deep. In the winter the warmest water is at the bottom of the lake, so start looking for fish in the 30 – 50 foot range this time of year. The key to finding bass on Sand Hollow in November is locating grass patches. Look for the deep grass that is still green, and that is where you will find the fish.
The bass this time of year usually respond to a couple different styles of presentations. Try using a reaction style bait, where the bait whizzes by them and they instinctively hit it. If that doesn’t work try finesse style baits, something slow and in their face like a drop shot rig.
Here are some good things to use in November:
A slowly hoping Football Jig
with green pumpkin and brown is a good bait to tempt a big one to bite this time of year. Try ripping it up occasionally, sometimes that will draw up a bass.
Find a big deep crankbait
that will get you down 20 feet or deeper, and get those bass to react! Also, try throwing a lipless crankbait
, and ripping it up out of the grass on the bottom. This can be a deadly technique for catching fish.
Use a good finesse worm on a drop shot rig for those deep fish in the grass. It’s a sure fire way to get them to bite. Use 1/4 oz weight to get your worm down there, and don’t be afraid to let it soak. It might take a while for a cold blooded bass to swim up to eat it.
The key to locating bass in the fall is to find the patches of fresh green grass down deep. Use a good depth finder to look for those patches, or use a bait to get down deep and pull up some grass for you. If you pull some fresh green grass up, make multiple casts in the same area. Hopefully, you can call one out to smack it because these grass spots is where they like to hang.
Here is a map of some spots highlighted in blue that can hold bass in the fall:
Hopefully, these fall fishing tips will get you out “Kraken” bass at Sand Hollow. I used these exact techniques and fished these same areas recently on a trip with my friends from work on October 29th. We caught 51 largemouth bass between the three of us on a full day of fishing. It was really fun. Conditions were calm and overcast. Every bass we caught was 35 feet or deeper. The water temperature was 66 degrees and cooling. Here are some pictures, and a list of some of the hot baits we found worked for us.
Here are three rigs, and baits that kept us catching bass all day at Sand Hollow on my recent trip.
We used a Jackall Flick Shake worm 
almost all day, until the wind started blowing, and caught several bass on it. We rigged the flick shake up on a 1/8 oz wacky jig head
. The key was to let this bait sit until it fell all the way down to the bottom. Then subtly shake it along. It took a long time to fall all the way down to 30 feet, but when it did the flick shake got smacked.
The Aaron’s morning dawn roboworm
produced bass all day long. We fished it a on a drop shot rig. We hooked the bait wacky style, and let it fall all the way to the bottom and danced it front of the bass.
A green pumpkin football jig
worked consistently all day as well. It didn’t catch nearly as many bass as the finesse worms, but it caught a little bit bigger bass. I used a summer craw havoc pitboss
as a trailer for the jig. We fished the jig by throwing it out, and crawling it along the bottom fairly slowly. The slow hoping along the bottom was the ticket for getting bites.
We also caught a few bass on a heavier shaky head when the wind started blowing. We used a sungill zoom trick worm
on a 3/16 oz shaky head
. It seemed to work the best in the deep grass. Letting the shaky head sit and hop along the bottom was how we got our bites on it.
We tried throwing things up shallow at first. It was slick calm and overcast. I thought for sure we would find a topwater bite, but nothing seemed to be moving. After 20 minutes, we switched baits to get down deep. We didn’t catch our first bass until we hit the 40 foot depth zone. Once, we got that figured out it was lights out. We had 30 bass before noon.
After lunch we still popped about 20 more, but the wind really cramped our style. It was blowing pretty steadily. Still we managed to smack some. It was a great day. Here are some of the pictures from our adventure. Almost every bass was in the 2 pound class, except a few who pushed to the 3 pound mark.
If this doesn’t get you stoked to go out and catch bass in the fall at Sand Hollow, I don’t know what will. These tips should help you keep on the bass. Please share this post with your friends that love fishing, so they can go catch a few as well. Plus, don’t forget to get yourself a copy of the Sand Hollow fishing ebook for more great stuff like this! I’m stoked to have gotten this Sand Hollow fishing book out there for you. A few touches and it should be ready to go.
As Always,
Stay Stoked!
The links above and below in this post are affiliate links were you can pick up baits, rod’s, reels, line, and anything else I used to “Krak” some bass on this trip. Krakenbass receives a small percentage of the sales through these links. I only use links to baits, and gear I have personally trust and know work. I put these links to make them helpful for you, and not for the small amount I make for the sale of the products. I hope these products can help you “krak” some bass! Thank you for your support.
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5 Responses
Great job, Kraken. I just got back from Sand Hollow. We fish this water similar to how you fish it. We found plenty of success. Water is so clear right now, and the bite is strong. Fish are down about 30 feet in the grassy areas. Drop shotting seems to be the most effective.
Caught 20+ yesterday up shallow. They were hitting a spinnerbait like a Mack truck as shallow as a foot of water and fighting furiously. They were definitely in an aggressive, chasing mood. Water temp was 65 at sunrise and got up to about 67 in the afternoon.
Went back on the 8th. Water was 62 degrees. Caught them shallow around the sandstone island right by the boat ramp in the morning (having a kayak really helps!) and then tore them up in the late afternoon in the sticks on the east side of the lake in 1-4 feet of water. Throwing a spinnerbait and a shallow running crank again. I’ve caught them there on a drop shot, but I hate fishing that way when they’re hitting moving baits so well.
Awesome report thanks for the tips rich! Cool to see them moving up shallow and hammering before the cold of winter hits.