Fall Freshwater Fishing

The cool evenings of fall signal water temperatures dropping in the lakes. That means fishing will go through another transition period. The lakes are turning over and the oxygen is getting mixed back into the deep water. The shallow water cools first, and this moves the baitfish and the gamefish up into areas where a crankbait or light jig will work effectively. A lot of people love fall because they make the transition and adjust their tactics to suit the situation. Others still insist on using the techniques that caught fish all summer, and sometimes these anglers can get very frustrated. One example would be the angler who uses his sonar in the summertime to locate a big school of walleyes, and then backtrolls through them with a live-bait rig and catches a limit of fish. After the lake turns over, this won't work as well because those walleyes spread out and you see only a few fish here and there. Instead of relying on your sonar to find fish, drop a lure that can cover some ground like a bottom bouncer with a spinner or a crankbait. Keep moving and pick up one here and there until you get your limit. Walleyes might move very shallow in the lake you're fishing, maybe as shallow as a couple of feet. Fall is a great time to anchor the boat and toss out a slip bobber to find these shallow fish. If there are walleyes in a few feet of water on a shallow rock pile, they won't hesitate to take a minnow right in front of them. The best way to get it there is with a bobber. The big pike move back into the shallow water in the fall. You might have been catching those big pike in the spring when the shallow water was cooler and then they disappeared for the summer. They are back. Back in the cooler shallow water where they can feed on all those baitfish. Big pike are feeding aggressively so don't hesitate to give them a moving lure. Big bucktail spinnerbaits zipped over the top of the vegetation work well. Rock piles can be a big pike magnet if there are perch in the lake. Tie on a perch colored crankbait, and get it down to those rocks. There might be a 10 pounder sitting there. Fishing for big bluegills in the fall can be a lot of fun. These fish will be in that shallow heavy cover. You may have been catching them on the deep weedlines just a few weeks ago, but now you need to pitch those wax worms into the lily pads and around the bulrush beds. The big sunfish will spread out too, so don't get locked into one spot. If you are fishing a big bed of lily pads you will want to make sure to drop that bobber into all the pockets in that bed. Fall is a great time to be fishing, especially if you want to catch some big fish. Let it be known that the fish are transitioning this time of the year because of water temperatures and lake turnover, so anglers must transition, also.