Where To Fish The Warrior
My dad historically caught fish out of the old Warrior River by fly-fishing, trolling a bobber with a silver spoon or casting topwater lures at first light. In his younger and stronger days, my dad would take a cane pole with about 12 inches of line tied to a surface lure and jigger-pole fish the Warrior. With the tip of his pole, he'd flip water in front of a large surface bait. While shaking the pole to make the water flip, he'd run that big surface bait around the edges of weeds, lily pads, stumps and logs. This tactic enabled my dad to catch good numbers of nice-sized bass, even during the fall.

Today, the Warrior River has a "segregated" bass population. Although largemouth bass like my dad once caught still swim in the river, spotted bass have become the dominant species, especially out on the main river.

"Bankhead and Holt once were sections of the Warrior River, and both lakes still have river-like characteristics today," Moss said. "Before the river was backed up to form Bankhead and Holt lakes, this area had a lot of rocky shoals, waterfalls and rocky bluffs."

Even though the appearance of the river changed with the building of the Holt and Bankhead dams, the habitat in the old Warrior River didn't change.

"Before the dams were created, the Warrior River provided ideal habitat for spotted bass, and even today, the main section of the river still has spotted bass," Moss emphasized.

Spotted bass prefer to concentrate around shoals, dropoffs, bluffs and currents. But largemouth bass favor more static water conditions with less current and more vegetation. You find most of the largemouths in Bankhead and Holt in the tributaries and in the slack water, like coves off the main river.

"There's some overlap between spotted bass and largemouth habitat on Holt and Bankhead," Moss added.

Spotted Bass
Moss suggested that anglers target spotted bass this month on the Warrior. Spots are more active than the largemouths, and as the water cools off, the spotted bass feed more aggressively than the largemouths.

"Spotted bass prefer the threadfin shad, but they still will eat sunfish, crawfish, minnows and any other type of bait they can ambush," Moss advised.

To catch spotted bass, Moss recommends using jigs, plastic worms and spinnerbaits. Shad-colored crankbaits, such as a Rapala Shad Rap or a Strike King Series 3 in sexy shad, really can turn on the bass bite in October and November. Warrior River fishermen toss shad-colored spinnerbaits at this time of year as well.

When current moves through the lake, main-river points and secondary points, as well as humps and drop-offs, can pay off in spotted bass dividends for anglers fishing those lures.

Largemouths
Swimming a worm or a jig through the grass, the logjams and the tree stumps always yield fall dividends for largemouth fishermen.

Later into the fall, the bass fishing at the Warrior River continues to improve.