Was such a nice day yesterday we figured we would try to catch some more Willamette River bass. We were not very successful. Between the two of us we caught 3 nice bass, one small bass, and 3 Pike Minnows. Water temp was right at 64 degrees. Prior trips water temp was up to 78. Is the drop in water temp the reason the bite was off? Or maybe we need to use a different technique?
That's plenty good for smallmouth... slightly cool for largemouth but not too bad. Weather front is moving in... bass don't like low pressure gradient just before a storm.They also don't like glassy water unless it's topwater season.Lack of breeze can put em down in the water column as protection from predators. Fish deeper on those days or up in the weeds.
@Flymph is giving you good advice on lures for this time of year. My fall jig/worm colors for largemouth were blue, grape, strawberry speckle, black, and of course anything motor oil or gold/metalflake. YMMV every lake/river is different and every day is different. That's why I always had sooooo many tackle boxes along and also prebaited rods. (I hated rerigging and preferred to be able to just grab another rod in order to change baits/presentation.)