Fall is a magical time when aggressive walleyes show up in large schools. Why? All summer long, they have been feeding and resting. Walleyes gorge themselves on insect hatches, young-of-the-year perch, shiners and molting crayfish. Then the summer heat tells their instincts to find a good spot to rest. They feed during low-light hours, rest in shallow water to digest their food, and then drop over the side of the flats where they hold in cooler water. 

Walleyes in this summer mode will let most of their favorite food and lures pass them by unless they’re annoyed enough to instinctively bite. All this is to say that summertime often requires a lot of work to get bites. The good news is that summer makes them fat and sassy! That’s why I love the fall bite. It’s the least amount of work for the largest number of heavy fish in a day of fishing.

This will be my 31st year of fall guiding. There have been many changes in water clarity caused by invasive zebra mussels on some bodies of water, as well as a lack of vegetation due to rusty crayfish eating the lake’s weed growth. Back in the “normal,” dark-water years, using traditional 2D sonar but prior to GPS mapping or Spot-Lock capability, fish seemed to be everywhere in lakes. In reality, fish were widely scattered and less pressured, but there were not more numbers. 

Fast-forward to now. The water is much clearer and fish are spookier, but schooled up like minnows in a bait tank. The walleye schools are bigger than I remember in the good ol’ days. With today’s technology, we are seeing more walleyes in smaller spots—but not every spot.

Technology does not make a fish bite on your hook. It still takes fishing knowledge on the tougher days. A small percentage of people with technology do well on the toughest days, but when the fish bite, livewells are full of fish.

It seems that everybody caught fish in the past. Now, with spooky fish, you can’t make any mistakes in your fishing presentations. While success was wide and generally broad in the old days, the number of fish caught today is much the same. With protective slot limits to help maintain walleye populations, I think we have more fish than ever before. Allowing anglers to catch-and-release nice, trophy fish and harvest eater-sized fish under 18 inches allows you to get your fish fry while catching lots of nicer fish. I notice that you now catch fewer bigger fish on non-slot lakes.

In fall, lakes do not just give up their prize fighters. Big walleyes are at heavy weights even without spring egg weight. Unfortunately, big walleyes are often older than most anglers realize, measuring in the teens and twenties (inches) of slow-growing years for bigger slot fish. On the Great Lakes, such as Lake Erie, eight years grows 26- to 28-inch walleyes. Warmer water and shad forage equals swift growth. In the North Country, we release larger walleyes because the slot works.

The good ol’ days

In the early days of guiding, I looked over the side of the boat to see where the weed tops disappeared. My depth finder was primitive—only showing depth—but we caught fish on those dark edges where the weeds ended. When the wind blew, we pitched a jig and a leech on shoreline points and offshore structure breaks. And we caught fish. Spinners and trolling crankbaits produced on the shallow flats of all lakes. Some days, there were fast limits. Other days were a grind.

It was the same on the tournament scene. Pro anglers would troll up fish throughout the Midwest one day, and the next day, another angler would usurp the leader with a better bag of fish weight.

Angling now with GPS mapping

With advancements in fishing technology such as GPS with a map chip, anglers had a birds-eye view of where they were on the water, plus a 3-D shape of the lake’s rolling bottom. LakeMaster surveyed lakes with their technology to create maps that would appear on GPS with a microSD card, providing a 3D view of where you were along with the structure of the lake. You could see points, saddles and high spots on lake bottom structure all around the lake, giving fast access to steep breaks and points. This was the birth of A and B spots. (A=best; B=secondary).

Shortly thereafter, Humminbird introduced side imaging, allowing anglers to see structure, rock piles and weeds in relation to the side of the boat. Now, years later, new technology lets you see entire schools of walleyes, which is a modern game changer. Forward-facing sonar (FFS) with MEGA Live allows anglers to see fish nearly 100 feet away, swimming in real time. This technology allows you to swim your presentation past fish while watching how they react to your lure, which means you can make immediate cadence adjustments to make them bite. That’s a new game, although not much different than the old game with 2D sonar, fishing vertically on a deep school of walleyes.

Let’s not forget that in the past, we put down a heavy anchor on a rope to hold our spot. And if you missed, you had to bring it back up, redo and let out all the rope again. Now, we just push the easy Spot-Lock anchor symbol on the Minn Kota electric trolling motor remote to hold the boat in place until it’s time to leave.

Anglers have always had some type of fishing technology. It is all about making the fish bite!

Bro Pro Tip: In the past, many anglers had their graphs hooked up to their starting battery, leading to many battery issues. Today, with lithium technology, anglers use a lighthtweig lithium 12-volt battery to run graphs all day. I use an Amped Outdoors 12-volt 160 Amp hour battery to run four graphs all day.

Fall fishing

There is a lot going on in fall for walleyes, such as the angle of the sun, shorter daylight, decreasing water temperatures and fall turnover on deeper lakes. All these breadcrumbs start leading walleyes to traditional autumn haunts. Winter is right around the corner, so just like their summer sleep, walleyes now need to feed to get ready for the long sleep of winter. When the days get shorter, the bite picks up and we see more daytime feeding activity.

When water temperature drops to the 45 to 50 range, the thermocline breaks down. The surface water above the thermocline starts mixing with the bottom water, bringing oxygenated water to the deep, main basin. This allows fish to drop to the deepest points of the basin. Many lakes will turn algae-green or murky during turnover. I find that the largest walleyes in any given lake seek out the last green, surviving weeds, ambushing all the food that they hold. Some shallow lakes don’t have an actual fall turnover period. Lakes that are less than 40 feet deep can turn over simply due to prevailing fall winds. Large lakes with expansive flats often turn over by wind, while deeper bays need the cooling temperature gradient for them to turn over.

Meat or plastics?

The hunt for big minnows and bait shops that carry them in September and October demonstrates that dragging big minnows can equal bigger walleyes. Redtails and creek chubs get fast hits! Even minnows as large as 8 inches are gobbled up.

A live bait rig with a Gamakatsu finesse, wide-gap hook is perfect for fishing live chubs. Use size 4, 2 or 1 for bigger chubs on an 8- to 10-pound Sunline fluorocarbon leader with a 1/8- to 3/8-ounce bullet sinker. When fishing shallow rocks in 4 to 8 feet of water, use the same hooks with a series of small split shots spaced out on the leader for fewer snags.

Plastics have also changed, from stiff and limited action and colors, to super-soft with incredible colors that look like young-of-the-year baitfish. I’ve used a variety of colors in the North Country. Sometimes, smelt works better than blue shiner. Other times, pink or glow does well. Pick up some different colors as cheap insurance. Eye Candy plastics from Northland Fishing Tackle are super-durable but extremely soft to fool walleyes into biting. They absorb scent, so give them a little dose. I use many different scent brands, and they all work to help the fish grab and hold onto the bait longer.

Sink or swim

In fall, you can use large minnows on a tungsten, short-shank jig. Hook a minnow up through the nose and pitch it through a group of fish. When they hit, feed it just like a live bait rig. The wide gap on Northland short shanks works extremely well on 1/16-, 1/8- and 1/4-ounce jigheads. Many walleye tournament anglers use this method. Try different colors. Gold is hot on some lakes, but it’s moonlight or sunrise on others. Black and metallic olive are new super-hot colors.

Jigs enable a great presentation, allowing you to make bottom contact. There are times when a big walleye is following a jigged chub when letting the jig crash into the bottom triggers an attack. There are days in fall when I like to throw a jig with an underspinner just to add flash and bulk to the jigging presentation. Throw a paddle tail on and swim it through a school of walleyes. If they hit, you may not use a minnow all day. 

My favorite is a Smeltinator underspin in gold or Winnipeg color. When there are a lot of pike, I also use a Deep-Vee underspin for the same method. Pitch it out slowly, roll the handle of the SEVIIN reel to get the willow blade flickering, or just jig it like a regular jig. Either way, the spinner still flashes and calls to the walleyes. Single-hook chubs, but double-hook smaller chubs or shiners to keep them better secured for aggressive jigging and long casts.

Bro Pro Tip: When I jig, I double-hook minnows to save on bait. Simply put the hook through the mouth and bring it out through the chest. Push the jig collar in the minnow’s mouth. Then turn the hook and poke it back through the belly and up through the back as straight as possible. You can push the tip of the hook out slightly for fishing in a clean-bottom area, but leave the hook hidden for fishing in weeds and rocks.

Fall cadence

As the fish become more active, fast moves trigger more bites. When water temperatures hit 60 degrees, rip jigging will put more fish in the boat. When the water temperatures decrease to the 50s, one- to two-foot buggy whipping motions get bit. When the water goes below 50 degrees, one- to two-foot hops with a long pause triggers fish. In water below 40 degrees, it’s a slow reel and no hop with a 2- to 4-inch continued twitch and a one- to two-second pause. The little twitches make soft plastics swim and wiggle and walleyes instinctively crush them.

Fall hooksets

For heavy hooksetting, set the drag lighter than normal on all St. Croix rod combos. As the water gets colder, walleyes grab the jigs towards the tips of their mouth so setting the hook with your reel becomes an asset. Reel in fast until the rod tip bends, then sweep to drive the point of the hook through the walleye’s mouth. If you jerk the rod, you will miss eight out of 10 fish in colder water.

Fall wear

I have seen 90-degree heat and glass calm in fall. I have also seen snow and had to shovel docks and my boat. I always come prepared with Fish Monkey Stubby Guide Gloves for hot days and Stealth Dry-Tec for Arctic cold fronts. My AFTCO Reaper Hoodie keeps me cool on warmer days and warm on colder fall days. Advanced-technology clothing that is breathable makes all the difference.