Location advice questions for fall bass near Corvallis

[Hurricane Rex]

To start, I have not fished at all within an hour of Corvallis before, and I'm coming out of a 2 year break from fishing. I've also never fished bass in the fall, but I wanted to give it a shot during (hopefully) my last term at OSU. I did a search of the forums and found that Adair Pond would probably be my best bet, but since the last post was 2 years ago, and most of them 5+ with none of them being in the fall months (unless I'm blind), I thought I would post this to ask more specific information. Sorry if this ends up being repetitive to the previous year's posts. Specific questions are:

Where are the best places to bass fish in the fall near Corvallis? I do not have access to a boat if that helps, and I prefer not fishing the Willamette. Also within 30 minutes is preferred.

Specifically for Adair Pond, how good is the bass fishing? When I scouted it about 3 weeks ago I could see the bass visibly. Out of what I saw, this seemed like the most my style of a lake, but I'm probably missing a few spots. Crystal Lake in Corvallis (the dirty one, not the clear one by the apartments) I suspect has bass but I don't know for sure nor have I seen any posts on it.

How is fall bass fishing different from Spring Fishing (what I'm used to) in ponds? More specifically what baits would you use?

Thank you in advance for any and all advice.

 

[NKlamerus]

While I can't touch on Corvallis

Fall, in my opinion, is the worst time of year to bass fish. Not saying it's bad, but it's not as good as the other 3 seasons.

The water is low and weedy, or mud.

Soft plastics and jigs are the only baits really producing in tournaments right now, and even then good bags are 11-13lbs. The same lakes in spring are ~25lbs

General consensus is that bass are fattening up for winter, but I don't think they are that cyclical around fall personally

Waiting for the leaves to fall and mat on the surface can be productive, great time to throw a frog

 

[troutdude]

The Long Tom River OFFers both smallies and bucketmouths. I've never fished it in the Fall. But they go nuts for topwater plugs in August when the air temps are super hot. And it's generally within your 30 time-frame.

I've heard that Crystal Lake has bass in it. But have not seen any proof. However...it would not surprise me if there are fish in that pond. After all it's a stone's throw from the Willy.

There are also Simpson's ponds in Albany. On the north side of town near the river too.

 

[bass]

What I see for fall bass is that they are much more scattered than earlier in the year. Some fish are transitioning to deep water while others are chasing bait in a couple of feet of water. I think fall bass fishing is more of a grind in general, I usually can't sit on one spot and hammer them. However, for me I would say that the average size of the fish I catch is better than even in the spring (at least in the Willamette and Columbia).

Overall my general expectation for fall is fewer fish but better overall quality (on a good day). However, I certainly have more tough days in the fall than in the spring or summer. Some days in the fall they can be really hard to locate. I am not sure how that translates to the smaller waters you are describing but I would certainly fish all depths from right next to the bank to tossing a Carolina rig into the deepest parts of the pond, and then don't expect them to be in the same place twice.