New York has a legitimate claim to the best smallmouth fishing in the United States, and almost all of it is at its best in the six weeks between the first hard frost and ice. Fall smallmouth feed heavily, group up on predictable structure, and lose most of the caution that makes them difficult in a clear-water August.
Why fall is the season
Three things change at once when surface temperature drops out of the 60s.
Fish leave the summer spread. Through July and August, smallmouth in a big lake are scattered across offshore reefs, sometimes suspended, often in 25 to 40 feet. As water cools they consolidate onto steeper structure adjacent to their wintering water.
They start eating for winter. Fall smallmouth are willing to chase, which puts jerkbaits, blade baits and swimbaits back in play after two months of drop-shot finesse.
The crowds go home. Boat pressure on Lake Erie, the St. Lawrence and Cayuga drops sharply after Labor Day. On a Tuesday in late October you will frequently have a world-class fishery to yourself.
The St. Lawrence River
Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties, running from Cape Vincent through Clayton, Alexandria Bay, Ogdensburg and Massena. This is the Thousand Islands, and it is one of the premier smallmouth fisheries on earth.
The river's structure is granite: shoals, current-swept points, deep drops right off shorelines, and shipping-channel edges. In fall, look for:
- Current seams beside islands and shoals. Smallmouth face into the flow and eat what comes past.
- The deep edges of main-river shoals — the transition from 15 feet to 40 feet, particularly where gobies are abundant.
- Back bays and weed edges near the mouths of tributaries on the coldest days, where fish follow bait.
A goby-imitating tube on a 3/8 to 1/2 oz head is the standard, and it is standard because the river is full of round gobies and the smallmouth have organized their whole lives around eating them. Drop-shots, blade baits and jerkbaits all produce as water drops through the 50s.
The St. Lawrence also fishes well from a small boat. Much of the productive shoal water is close to launches in Clayton and Alexandria Bay, and current does the work of covering water for you.
Eastern Lake Erie
Chautauqua and Erie counties, out of Dunkirk, Barcelona and Buffalo. The eastern basin of Lake Erie holds one of the highest densities of large smallmouth anywhere in North America.
Fall fish move from the deep summer flats — often 40 to 60 feet — onto shallower reefs, rock humps and shoreline breaks as water cools through October. By November the fish can be surprisingly shallow, in 12 to 25 feet along the shoreline drop.
The two limiting factors are wind and access. Lake Erie is shallow, wide and unforgiving; a west wind builds a dangerous sea in an hour. Watch the forecast honestly, and if you are not confident, fish the Niagara River or the harbor instead. Barcelona and Dunkirk harbors themselves hold fall smallmouth around the breakwalls.
The productive fall baits are big: a 3/4 oz blade bait, a large jerkbait, a hair jig, a football jig with a craw trailer, and a 4-inch swimbait on a 3/8 to 3/4 oz head.
The Finger Lakes
Deep, clear, glacially carved lakes running north–south through the middle of the state. All of them hold smallmouth, and several hold exceptional ones.
Cayuga Lake (Tompkins, Seneca and Cayuga counties — Ithaca at the south end, Union Springs and Cayuga at the north) has a huge shallow north end that concentrates fall smallmouth on gravel and rock in 8 to 20 feet.
Seneca Lake (Seneca, Yates and Schuyler counties — Geneva, Watkins Glen, Dresden) is deeper and clearer, and fall smallmouth relate hard to the shoreline breaks and the few shallow shelves the lake has.
Keuka Lake (Yates and Steuben counties — Penn Yan, Hammondsport, Branchport) is smaller and easier to read, with excellent rock structure at the branch and around the bluff.
Canandaigua Lake (Ontario County — Canandaigua, Naples) and Owasco Lake (Cayuga County — Auburn, Moravia) round out the productive smallmouth water.
Because Finger Lakes water is extremely clear, fall smallmouth here respond to jerkbaits better than almost anywhere. A suspending jerkbait worked with long pauses over 10 to 20 feet of rock is the highest-percentage bait in the region from mid-October on.
Oneida Lake
Oneida, Oswego and Madison counties, out of Sylvan Beach, Brewerton and Cleveland. Shallow by New York standards — averaging around 22 feet — and famous for both smallmouth and walleye.
Fall smallmouth on Oneida pull onto the shoals and rock humps in 8 to 18 feet and can be caught casting rather than dropping. Blade baits, tubes and jerkbaits all work. The shallow average depth means the whole lake cools fast, so the fall pattern arrives earlier here than on the deeper Finger Lakes.
Rivers worth a day
The Susquehanna River through Broome and Tioga counties, and the Delaware River along the Pennsylvania border, both hold good river smallmouth that stack into deep pools as water drops. River fish in fall are extremely predictable: find the deepest slow water in a stretch and you have found them. A hair jig or a tube dead-drifted through that pool is all it takes.
What changes as the water cools
Above 60 °F — smallmouth still chase. Topwater at dawn, moving baits all day, and fish scattered across offshore structure.
50 to 60 °F — the sweet spot. Jerkbaits, blade baits, swimbaits and hair jigs. Fish are grouped and aggressive.
40 to 50 °F — slow everything down substantially. Blade baits and hair jigs worked on the bottom, and long pauses on anything suspending. Fish are stacked in specific spots and you may run a mile of shoreline without a bite, then catch a dozen in twenty minutes.
Below 40 °F — fish are in wintering water and largely done chasing. Vertical presentations only.
Handling matters more in cold water than people think
There is a persistent belief that cold water makes catch and release harmless. It does reduce thermal stress substantially, which is real — but a fall smallmouth is a heavy pre-winter fish that has invested a season's feeding into surviving until spring, and it still needs its slime coat and it still needs to not be dropped on a hard deck.
Wet the surface. Support the belly. Keep air exposure short even when the air is cold — freezing air can damage gill tissue in November on the St. Lawrence just as surely as hot air does in July.
Before you go
New York's black bass regulations include a statewide season with a catch-and-release-only period outside it, and several waters carry special rules — the St. Lawrence and Lake Erie in particular have their own provisions. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation publishes current freshwater fishing regulations by water body. Confirm the rules for the specific water you plan to fish.
Check your regulations before you go. Seasons, size limits, slot limits, bag limits and access rules change and vary by individual water body. Confirm the current rules with the relevant state or provincial fish and wildlife agency. Nothing on this page is a substitute for that.
