Fall fishing

[tim long]

Hello everyone,

We are going into the fall fishing patterns now. At the end of August the temperatures got very warm and I saw the water temp go up 10 degrees in 2 days . Then we had 5 nights of electrical storms in a row and the temperature fell back down 14 degrees. The fishing went south at that point. I was really struggling to catch a few legal walleye during that time period that lasted about 2 weeks.

Last Friday I had a guide trip with some folks that were staying here at the resort that didn't really want a guide trip but rather wanted to learn some different techniques of fishing for walleye. That's what I really like to do,teach people that really have the desire to become a better walleye fisherman. So my game plan was to just go around the lake and hit different areas of the lake and show them how I would fish these areas if I was working it on my own. That's what we did. I didn't have the pressure on myself (well maybe a little) because they new the fishing was tough and they just wanted to learn and didn't really care how many fish we put in the boat.

We caught some fish doing several different things. Rigging in the rocks with bottom bouncers and night crawlers, jigging with minnows, and working lindy rigs. We were catching fish with every method we used but never really lit them up. So after a couple of hours of trying different things I wanted to try to put some quality fish in the boat for these guys. We decided to go troll some crank baits for the remainder of the day. It is a good method to cover a lot of water and put fish in the boat. I went to an area that I have been catching fish on regular basis but not so much during these past 2 weeks. We made 3 passes and did not catch a fish, so we were going to leave and try something else. It was really bugging me that we did not pull a single fish while I was marking all kinds of fish, but could not get a strike. I told these customers that it was really bugging me and that I wanted to stay there but make a little change in my presentation. I'm seeing fish on the screen, I know they are walleye but I can't get them to bite.

I changed from a #5 shad style bait to a #7 shad style bait. Not much of change but what I was noticing with the fish I was catching in the past few days prior to this trip was that the walleyes were regurgitating perch minnows that were about 3" in length. After we put those number 7's on we caught 15 walleyes in about 2 hrs.

Moral of the story, be willing to change, don't get caught in a rut.
It's that time of year to be trying bigger baits, both live, and hard baits.

I would really like this be an interactive forum so we can all learn from each other. I would like to see other people telling their stories. Join in and let's make this a fun site to visit and maybe we can learn from each other.

Thanks to all you that visit this site.

Keep a tight line, good night,

Tim Long

[Mark Benson]

Tim:

Looking at coming up to try to troll up some walleyes... I am thinking they are shallower than deeper, have they shallowed up some as fall has progressed??? I would be coming up from the Minocqua area and am wondering if there are better places to start looking that are Fishing Hotspot/community-spot related??? Thanks for any info of places to try to start.

Mark

[tim long]

Hi Mark,

The fishing has been pretty good lately. We have a lot of local folks fishing from shore right now and doing very well. Most are fishing in 8' of water or less.Mornings and evenings.
I did have have several customers recently doing very good in that 7-8 of water fishing the weeds with slip bobbers. I think that if you fish any wind blown side of the lake, and an area that has rocks you will do good with the walleye. Have not really herd anything about the perch lately.

Mark, if you have any other questions for me you can give me a call at the resort (906.575.3542) I would be happy to talk fishing with you.

Remember if you need any bait when you come up to the area our bait shop is open and we have a nice variety different minnows for you to chose from.

Take care and good luck,

Tim

[Mark Benson]

Tim:

Thank you for your reply!!! I will put your phone number in my cell phone so that I can call as we typically put in on the west side at the Co. park. Sounds like i was understanding the bite well, just need to dial in some spots. Again thanks for your reply!!!

Mark