Flexibility Helpful When Fall Fishing

It has become a bit of a tradition for my brother and I each October.  Each year, we travel up to Lake of the Woods for a fall fishing trip.  There are some years we fish the lake and other years we fish the Rainy River.  Some years we anchor up and jig, other years we end up pulling crankbaits.  We have learned over the years, one of the keys to success in putting walleyes in the boat is to be flexible.  Flexibility when fall fishing will put more walleyes in your boat.

On a recent fall trip, we were planning on fishing the river.  We didn’t have fish dialed in jigging and the first few spots we jigged were unproductive.  In an effort to cover water and find fish, we decided to troll crankbaits.  We simply wanted to cover water hoping to put our lures in front of some walleyes who might lash out at a crankbait much like they would at an emerald shiner.  Well, we had some success, but not enough success.  We caught probably ten walleyes and saugers with a couple of pike thrown in.  We weighed in four walleyes that fit the length criteria.  Not a full bag of six fish per two person team, but some fish nonetheless.

It wasn’t a great bite on the river this given day compared to what had been going on.  It had been super good up until days before.  What changed?  The shiners are the key to walleyes in the river.  The shiners come through in waves and for the past few days, for whatever reason, they just weren’t running.  Hence, we changed out tactics and it helped our fish numbers.

As each fall, there are usually a ton of fish in lake just adjacent to Pine Island.  25-30′ has been the go to for the daytime bite.  12 – 16′ the last couple of hours of the day.  Anchored up with a jig and emerald shiner has been the ticket.  There are also fish in front of Gull Rock, Twin Islands, Graceton Beach, Zippel Bay and Long Point.  Most anglers are reporting good numbers of fish with some sorting out of small fish to get your keepers.  You will get them, but will have to do some sorting.

Up at the NW Angle, fish are in the typical fall haunts in good numbers.  Points, neck down areas with current and deeper water adjacent to bays.  The fish are all around and have the feed bag on.  In addition, anglers fishing the Ontario side are catching big numbers of crappies.  Fall is a go to time for the big black crappies of this lake.

So what is the point?  Showing flexibility when you come up fall fishing has it’s rewards.  Do some intel with talking to folks at the resort or hotel you are staying.  Ask around at local bait shops.  Check out the fishing report at Lake of the Woods Tourism and watch both the Lake of the Woods Tourism Facebook page and local Facebook pages for info.  If the fish are staged in front in big numbers and it is a nice enough day that your boat will handle the water, head on out, join the pack of boats and catch your share.  If the shiners have not run up the river the past few days, perhaps boat or trailer up river to another section of the river the walleyes that ran earlier may be holding.  Don’t get locked into one stretch of river.  Explore.  There is literally 40 miles of navigable water on the Rainy River.

Things are constantly changing in the fall.  Water temps are dropping.  Shiners run one day and may skip a few days.  The size of the emerald shiners running varies which also effects the size of the walleyes running.  Flexibility and taking what the lake and river is giving.

In speaking to anglers in the fish cleaning shack, they weren’t having 100 fish days, however, they did catch some nice walleyes and had more than they could eat.  There were smiles, stories, memories and experience of the fall fishing tradition so many look forward to year after year.

To learn more about Lake of the Woods, check out the Lake of the Woods Tourism website.

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