Fall fishing has its own set of challenges for fish and fishermen alike. Here are my ace presentations for putting muskie, walleye and smallmouth in the net, no matter the conditions. For the most part, winter and summer are periods of general stability. Water temperatures stay within a comparatively narrow range, fish lock onto predictable food sources and they show up on classic types of spots fairly regularly. In fall and spring, consistent fishing can be as common, just as long as you keep these season’s transitional and temperamental themes in the front of your mind.
I’ve always loved getting on good fish in the fall. It makes me feel like I’m staying one step ahead of them. Even though their world is about to undergo a huge change for upwards of six months, I’m still able to have success catching them during this period of tremendous, tremendous change.
Where I fish in the central Canadian Shield and northeastern portion of the Great Lakes, having a few pet presentations in my back pocket really helps. In my experience, this time of year is a lot less about running around and reinventing the wheel and a lot more about laying bets on small handfuls of winning presentations, used on small handfuls of winning spots. Let’s take a look at what I’ve found to be some of the most consistent ways to get on muskie, walleye and smallmouth bass.
FALL MUSKIE
For me, my whole mentality changes in fall when it comes to muskie fishing. In summer, I do a lot more ‘milk running’ over chains of spots and focus on finding fish. When the water dips down into the fifties and later, the forties, I focus more on fish finding me. And the colder it gets, the more doggedly I stick to this. I shrink the box way down.
Instead of running ten spots a day, I’m a lot more confident working three or four. I keep my bait wet, and I rub good structures over and over, waiting for a window to open.
Differing angles. Differing depths. Timing lunar events and changes in conditions, always focused on being in the right zone when a fish shows up or flips the switch. Like a lot of guys, I believe that trolling is the most efficient method, given such a huge need to have your game up and running when go-time rolls around.
Like you’d expect, high-efficiency trolling calls for high-efficiency trolling lures. You need a bait that can be run at a variety of depths, handles a range of speeds, and can be used to grind structure and cover and come through trouble-free. On top of all that, it needs to attract, then trigger, then solidly hook muskie that take their shot at it. I’m not a big lure changer at any time during the season, let alone in the cooling waters of fall. Year in, year out, my number one tool is the ten-inch, jointed Believer. You can get these plugs in a huge array of colours and finishes, in both rubber-tailed ‘Super’ versions and—most uniquely— with a range of rattle options, from heavy clunkers, to machine gun shakers to dead silent.
There’s a really short list of crankbaits that you can work from the surface to over twenty feet deep and at speeds from a slow, wiggling crawl to a hammering, wandering speed trap. A lot of the fish we find before and after fall turnover hang on sharp, rock lips, points, shoals and walls. Nothing walks over and through these classic spots better than a Believer. That ten inch size is ideal for calling muskies in, appealing to their swelling tummies and hooking them solidly. Backing up over snags in cold water on rough, fall days isn’t fun. Believers are the most snag-resistant baits I’ve ever ran, bar none. That broad, rounded snout is one in a million for picking through rock and wood. They’re outstanding weed lures, too.
WALLEYE
Jigging, rigging and other classic walleye methods just get tougher and tougher to pull off in nasty fall weather. Big winds and heavy seas are common this time of season and just like with muskie, crankbait trolling is game you can play in any conditions. If you added up the number of fish over ten pounds taken between Thanksgiving and freeze-up every year, crankbaits would definitely be right up there. You’re able to offer fish realistic finishes and profiles (not many would argue that crankbaits are some of the most lifelike lures out there) and best of all, cold, rough weather can actually really fire up crankbait trolling. I troll with Off Shore’s OR12 planer boards a lot of the time, and wave action along, with the ‘boat surge’ it creates, gets trolled lures stuttering, stalling and just running seductively all around.
One of the best tips I can offer for crankbait trolling is also one of the simplest: don’t limit their use to open-water situations on giant bodies of water. More than a dozen years ago, I began flatlining, board trolling and even casting on much, much smaller bodies of water that we’d long buttonholed as ‘jig and minnow only’ by the time the leaves turned. Wrong! We’d shoot ducks all morning and then head out onto a handful of inland lakes after lunch. Watch for walleye to suspend and to hug structure. In those tight spots, run flatlines, watch your rod tips and feel for bottom. Over open water, no matter how cold it gets, don’t be afraid to slowly work crankbaits ten, twelve, even fifteen feet over the marks on your graph, behind trolling boards.
SMALLMOUTH
Speaking of watching the graph, one of the best ways to target really big smallmouth in cold water is to vertically jig them, using specialized jigging lures. Down in twenty to thirty feet of water, there’s no point in stopping to fish unless you’re marking fish. The same old rules apply: fall is about pinpointing hot zones and beating on them. The vertical game from your boat is just like ice jigging. Get on top of fish and work them over, straight up and down. Smallmouth bass really ball up tight in deep water, and even more so in fall.
Heavy lures that you can fish with great feel and control are the tools. Designed for precision vertical jigging, blade baits like Reef Runner’s Cicada are magic on fall smallmouth. On the upstroke, the Cicada thumps and flashes. On the way down, it kicks out to one side, catching water on its big, cupped fin. No other blade bait on the market has that specialized fin. Just as though the ice, split time between ‘calling’ moves and ‘triggering’ moves. Lots of fish suck this bait in as in hangs and bobs on a tight line after a few bumps or rips. And don’t be afraid to pound these babies off bottom. Cicada’s come with a pair of double hooks, like you’d find on a Williams Ice Jig. They’re both set onto the belly of the bait with the points facing backwards. You can get pretty aggressive scraping bottom with this set-up without snagging. Certainly more than you can with trebles. Those little hooks are crazy sharp and also hold fish amazingly well. Not many deep, fall smallies come up and jump, but the ones that wallow and head shake near the boat won’t throw the hooks. Cicada’s are heavy for their size, but still won’t lever free. With unsettled weather, shorter days and our watery play lands undergoing big changes, fall is the time for working confidently and most of all, burying your chances.
Cold water makes it so much easier to handle and release big fish. With any luck, some of the ideas above will help you get a couple, no matter what you fish for. And make sure to send us in your photos!