Fall bass fishing in Iowa offers a unique advantage: the opportunity to locate concentrations of active fish quickly and efficiently. The key to success lies in starting your day with search baits—topwater lures like buzzbaits, Whopper Ploppers, and soft plastic frogs that cover vast amounts of water rapidly. This aggressive approach pays off because autumn bass aren’t scattered randomly across the lake. Instead, they’re bunched up around baitfish schools in isolated pockets. Once you locate that first strike, you’ve typically found more than just a single fish—you’ve discovered a feeding zone where multiple bass are competing for the same food source, setting the stage for an action-packed outing on the water.
Lipless crankbaits, spinnerbaits, squarebills, and swim jigs allow you to cover water quicker than a dropshot, for example. Keep a search bait in your hand until you find a concentration of fish, and then you can fall back to some of the slower-moving baits.
Wind is another important thing to focus on if you want to find fish fast in the fall. If there’s wind out of the west and your favorite pocket on the lake is on the same side, you should probably skip it. If you must fish it, don’t waste much time there. While there are likely still fish in that area, they are typically much more finicky. If you want to find fish fast in the fall, do these five things. First, do the research. Second, when you do get the boat wet, make sure you have search baits on hand so you can cover water as fast as possible. Being on the lookout for running water will help identify where the baitfish and bass are. Keep in mind that fish will be much more aggressive and apt to bite if they are in areas with wind, running water, or both. If you focus on these five simple tips, you will be able to locate bass quicker and more effectively.
Ben and Jack’s Lure Pick of the Week
Ben– My fall lure pick is the chatterbait. Chatterbait are very versatile, and can be used in a variety of different situations. Chatterbaits allow for a variety of retrieve speeds and can be fished in any water. They are easily customizable with different trailers, and can seriously impact the action of the bait. Chatterbaits are perfect for both beginners and experienced fishermen.
Jack– For early fall my top pick would be any weightless soft plastic. With these being very versatile at all times of the year they become very effective in early fall. I like to fish soft plastics slowly and give them a pop every few seconds. These generate lots of bites and can be effective for catching all sizes of bass. I like to throw soft plastics on a medium spinning rod and in some cases fish a medium heavy spinning rod when in very heavy cover. Both baitcasters and spinning rods work but I prefer the spinning rod in this application because I find the sensitivity of the rod and action is best. In early fall fishing all water depths can be beneficial to fish until you find the trend of where they are biting.
