News & Stories
Late Fall Fishing on Kabetogama!
Posted by director on October 12, 2020
LATE FALL FISHING TRIP
By Bob Jensen
I took my annual fishing trip to Kabetogama Lake in northern Minnesota in early October. I’ve been going to Kab since the late 90’s. On one of my first trips to Kab I fished with local angler Wade Watson. On this trip I was looking forward to fishing with Wade again. Lots of things have changed since my first day in the boat with Wade, and lots of things have stayed the same. We had a good time and caught some fish, just like the first time that we fished together. Unlike my first trip to Kab, we caught a mixed bag of fish. In the late 90’s, walleyes were the primary fish that anglers pursued. Today, Kab is a world-class walleye fishery, it’s even better than when I first visited, but has also become an outstanding smallmouth bass lake, and the crappies, once you find them, are available in good numbers, and they’re big. They’re slabs. Fourteen inchers are often part of the catch.
We had intended to get together earlier in the year, but like many things in the year 2020, our plans were altered. We’ll talk about that later. First, the fishing.
We met at the boat ramp at about 8:30 in the morning. It was cold and windy, but Kab has lots of islands, so it’s usually possible to get out of the wind and still be in a good fishing area. Wade said that the bite had been okay. Okay on Kab is still pretty darn good. The walleyes that Wade had been catching were mostly eating blue jigs tipped with shiners. Sometimes color and minnow specie is an important consideration. Wade started with a blue jig and shiner. I tied on a different color but also attached a shiner to the jig. It’s a good idea to try different things until a pattern is established. In this case, it would have been best if I had started with blue. Wade was catching walleyes, I was not. So I switched colors, but resisted blue. Wanted to establish that pattern. After netting several more walleyes for Wade, I figured out that blue jigs were the pattern.
However, later in the day the walleyes moved into deeper water, thirty to forty feet. When they moved deeper, they quit biting blue jigs. We experimented with different colors and found that they now wanted orange jigs. We tried fathead minnows also, but shiners were still the preferred bait.
The walleyes were very tentative when they took our baits. We missed several fish, but we could tell that they were walleyes because the minnows were lightly scratched from the walleyes teeth. We found that if they minnow was even lightly marked from the light bite, the walleyes wouldn’t eat it. We had to keep the minnow on our jig very lively and fresh.
We also found that we needed to use the lightest jig possible that would still maintain bottom contact in the deep water. We tried quarter, three-eighths, and half ounce jigs. The quarter ouncers were far more effective. The walleyes hit and spit the heavier ones.
Wade had some family and friends visiting and wanted to keep some walleyes for a fish-fry. If we had been catching and releasing, we would not have been fishing the deep water. Due to pressure changes from the deep water to the surface, it’s hard to successfully release fish. When we had enough walleyes for Wade’s gathering we moved to shallower water and found a few more walleyes and crappies.
Now about fishing in October. October is an outstanding time to fish, but we had wanted to fish earlier in the year. Due to the U.S./Canadian border closure, there was no place to stay earlier in the year. Many of the resorts in much of Minnesota and other states are filling much quicker than usual. Anglers and tourists need to start planning and making arrangements now, right now, to have an opportunity to stay where you want when you want. Hopefully things will straighten out next year, but I started planning my next trip to Kab while I was still there.
PHOTO: Here’s Wade Watson with a typical fall Kabetogama crappie that ate a Crater jig tipped with a shiner minnow.
Speed Up For Better Fall Walleye Fishing Success!
Posted by director on October 1, 2020
Moving for Fall Walleyes!
By Mike Frisch
Fall is a great time to be on the water! The weather is often pleasant, the lakes usually aren’t crowded, and the fish bite. When chasing walleyes, fall anglers often head to the lake armed with a supply of minnows, jigs, and live bait rigs and “go to work.” And, for good reason, as jigging and rigging are time-honored fall walleye fishing methods that usually produce fish.
In recent falls, however, fishing partners and myself have realized better successes by being more aggressive and moving fast with techniques often thought of as geared more toward summer and late summer. We’ve being pulling bottom bouncers and live bait snells tipped with nightcrawlers and also trolling crankbaits and have found that the fish will hit them well into fall. In fact, these methods have become “go to” techniques more times than not during October when walleyes are the target.
Bottom bouncers with live bait snells and crawlers, “plain rigs” we call them, are quick-moving bait presentations that often work well when the fish are relating to mid- to deep-water structure like the edges of underwater points and flats, along sunken islands, and over the tops of sunken humps.
We rig with heavy bottom bouncers, 2-, 3-, and even 4-ounce models, to get our baits to walleyes in deep water from 15 to 40 feet and even deeper! We keep the bouncers fairly vertical while moving along quickly at speeds from .8 to 1.0 mph to quickly cover water and trigger bites from these deep water “structure” fish.
Plain rigs work well to find and trigger walleyes relating to structure. When fish are found more scattered and away from structure, say they’re spread across mid-depth flats or roaming deep water basins, trolling crankbaits is a great way to maximize your chances for a good catch. Again, crankbaits fish quickly so lots of water can be covered and their actions are good for triggering bites.
We’ve had good fall successes trolling Lucky Shad crankbaits and Salmo Hornet baits too. These baits have actions that walleyes like and they come in lots of walleye-preferred colors too. Our favorites color patterns often change from day to day, though we often start with brighter baits in off-colored waters and use baitfish look-alike patterns in clearer waters. As always, experimentation is the best way to find the “color of the day.”
We often use Off Shore planer boards when crankbait trolling as well. Planer boards attach to the fishing line, and as more line is let out, they take baits away from the boat. This allows us to cover a wide path when trolling for scattered fish roaming basins and flats. Plus, boards also minimize the chances of fish spooking from our baits as the boat passes overhead. As water clarity continues to improve in lots of lakes, planer boards help us combat this situation and up our walleye catches!
Fishing speed is another important consideration when pulling crankbaits and again experimentation is key, though we often find success trolling around 1.8 to 2.2 mph.
If finding fall walleye fishing success is your goal, consider pulling plain rigs or trolling crankbaits. These baits cover lots of water, trigger aggressive bites, and can probably put fall gold in your livewell!
As always, good luck on the water and remember to include a youngster in your next outdoors adventure!
Mike Frisch is co-host of the popular Fishing the Midwest TV series. Visit www.fishingthemidwest.com for more "fishy" stuff.
Photo – Walleye guide Dave Cookman with a big fall walleye he caught on a Hornet pulled behind a planer board!
The Fall Crappie Bite is Producing Fish!
Posted by director on October 1, 2020
CRAPPIES IN DEEP WATER
by Bob Jensen
Wherever people fish anywhere in North America, there are a good number of anglers that look forward to the fall months. At this time of year, if a fish sees your bait, there’s a very good possibility that it will eat that bait. Right now, fish are willing biters. They can sense a change in water temps and length of day and they know that things are going to change. From now until it’s too cold to be on the water, fishing can be really, really productive.
In different areas, some fish species get more attention than others. Across the Midwest, walleyes are very popular. In the south and mid-south, bass are boss. But almost wherever you live, crappies appeal to lots of anglers, and they seem to be getting more popular. Crappies, in most places, are abundant and they're great on the table. Depending on the body of water, here's how you can catch crappies right now.
In some lakes crappies will gather in the basin of the lake and behave much like a walleye would. In fact, on a sonar, it’s easy to mistake crappies for walleyes. They'll hug the bottom in large schools. They might be near a point or some other underwater structure, but they might also be far from any structure. It’s not unusual to find them in twenty to thirty feet of water. The thing they're looking for is food. It might be minnows, but it could also be bugs that live in the mud on the bottom. The fastest way to find these crappies is to cruise over the basin while watching your sonar. Occasionally they’ll be suspended, but often they'll be on the bottom. When you see them, hover directly overhead and drop a jig/plastic or jig/minnow on them. You will almost always get bit.
Another place to find crappies is a short distance from the edge of the deep weedline. They’ll suspend within casting distance of the deep weedline looking for something to eat. The best way to find them is to watch for small dimples on the surface of the water. You need calm wind conditions for this pattern because you can't see the dimples created as Mr. PaperMouth sucks a bug off the surface when it's windy. Late afternoon and early evening are when this pattern is most productive. Again, a jig with plastic or a minnow is good, either slowly retrieved just a couple of feet under the surface or fished under a slip-bobber.
One last technique: Several times in the fall I’ve fished on reservoirs or lakes where anglers are permitted to “plant” brushpiles. They somehow connect logs and limbs and such and sink these brushpiles near a dock. The best docks are those close to deep water, twelve feet or deeper. It takes some sonar work to find these brushpiles, but when you do find them, they can provide outstanding crappie action. You can cast to them with a jig and retrieve it, but what really works well is to employ a jig below a slip-bobber. Set the bobber so your jig is just above the brushpile. By using a slip-bobber, you can let the jig sit in place, or you can slowly reel it back in. It often works well to shake your rod tip to put a little action on the jig, then let it sit still for a few seconds. If a crappie is down there, you’ll know about it pretty quickly.
A sixteenth ounce jig with a minnow is the traditional crappie presentation, but more and more, plastic is taking the place of minnows. Plastic baits come in a variety of colors and shapes and doesn’t require care like minnows do. When swimming the jig, go with a Mr. Crappie Grub or Slab Slanger. Under a slip-bobber, a Mr. Crappie Crappie Thunder is hard to beat.
There’s probably a lake, pond, or reservoir near where you live that is home to crappies. Wherever you fish and however you fish, now is a good time to get after them.
PHOTO CAPTION—This fall crappie was on the bottom in 22 feet of water when it decided to eat Travis Carlson’s bait.
To see recent and not-so-recent episodes of Fishing the Midwest television, fishing articles, and fishing video tips and updates visit fishingthemidwest.com