Deron Eck used a crankbait to lure this 4-pound smallmouth bass into striking.

The shift of summer to fall finds smallmouth bass moving to different locations within a lake.

Here are three ways of taking fall smallies on the region's lakes:

Jigging the dropoffs

Versatile bass angler Dave Lehman lives about a half-hour's drive from Forest County's Tionesta Lake.

During the fall, Lehman catches Tionesta smallies by working the lake's deeper dropoffs with skirted jigs.

"I work the steeper dropping shorelines, places where the creek channel swings in fairly tight to the shore," he explained. "Often, I'll be holding the boat in 25 or 30 feet of water and cast up close to the bank."

Shale or slate banks common along Tionesta's shore are often crawling with crawfish, so it's not surprising that one of Dave's presentation choices is a skirted jig dressed with a soft plastic trailer.

The combo is a scaled-down version of a flipping jig used in heavy cover for largemouths.

For the 12- to 18-inch smallies Dave commonly catches from Tionesta this time of year, he uses a three-sixteenths or quarter-ounce skirted jig. For a trailer, he selects a 2- or 2½-inch finesse-style crawfish. Common colors are brown-orange and blue-black.

At times when the bass aren't in the mood for a jig, Dave will try a drop-shot rig dressed with a 4-inch senko-style worm or a 5-inch finesse-style worm. He fishes both the jig and drop-shot on either a 6- or 6½-foot medium action spinning rod.

Hardbaits on the flatsSuccessful tournament angler Deron Eck eagerly anticipates the fall smallie bite, when he catches bruiser sizes in reservoirs by employing a couple of hardbait tactics."During the fall, I catch some big smallmouths by concentrating on flats surrounding secondary and main-lake creek channels," said the Armstrong County angler.The flats Deron speaks of typically lie in 8 to 12 feet of water, with the channels dropping into 15 to 20 feet. Motivated by a need to feed, smallies lift out of the protection of the channels onto the adjacent flats, where they can succumb to a properly presented lure."My first choice is often a crankbait like a 200 or 300 series Bandit," he said. "I want a crankbait that will make occasional contact with the bottom."Some days these "flats smallies" prefer a higher-riding bait. To see if they are in such a mood, Deron will show them a suspending jerkbait that hovers 4 to 6 feet under the surface.Offshore hard-bottom humpsNatural lakes, such as Conneaut, as well as certain reservoirs, such as Keystone Power Dam, feature hard-bottomed humps and ridges that collect fall smallmouth bass.While some of these humps are shallow enough to have weed growth along their shallow zones, during the fall it's worth focusing on others that are deeper and have no vegetation.Because of their lack of weedy cover, these spots are tougher to locate and don't get fished as much. A typical hump might rise to within 15 of the surface before dropping off into the deeper basins of the lake or reservoir.Two classic presentations excel at working these deep structures: metal vibrating-blade baits and leadhead jigs dressed with 3- to 4-inch twister tail grubs.Blade baits can be fished both vertically and horizontally. They cast like a bullet, ideal for shooting out across a hump, counted down and then retrieved like a crankbait.The more common presentation is to use the bait in a vertical manner, fished under the boat with a pumping motion. This method is highly precise.Twister-tail grubs can be fished in much the same manner. Many folks overlook the bait's application as a swimming bait, which is unfortunate because it also is great for being cast out, allowed to fall, and then fished back to the boat. It also can be allowed to drop to the bottom, then worked back with a dragging/jigging retrieve.Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.