Bob Jensen has learned from Mike Frisch that if you want to catch fish, you’ve got to do what it takes.

The summer months can provide very good fishing; but when the fall months arrive, fishing can be even better! In the warm water of summer, fish eat often. The cooling water in the fall is Mother Nature’s way of telling the fish they need to fatten up for winter, so they eat often then, too. Fish that are eating are easier to catch. However, in both summer and fall, there are times when the fish eat a bit less aggressively. That makes them tougher to catch. There are things that an angler can do to lessen the time between bites, even when the fish aren’t as hungry as usual.

Mike and I were on a summer fishing trip in the Alexandria area of Minnesota. This area offers lots of fishing options. There are many different species of fish and many different types of lakes. We arrived at the lake about mid-morning. The sun was shining, and the lake was flat. Our plan was to troll crankbaits for walleyes, but bright conditions and no wind can make walleye fishing tough. We decided to fish for smallmouth bass instead. The lake we were on had a good smallmouth population, and smallmouths typically bite better than walleyes when the sun is shining.

Mike knew of several good smallmouth areas on the lake. The first spot didn’t produce, but the next area that we checked out had some biters. We cast jigs tipped with Ned Ochos and caught a few smallmouths. Next, we tried drop-shot rigs tipped with Half Shell plastics. We caught a few more smallmouths, then the action stopped. We visited a couple of other smallmouth spots but didn’t find any biters. About an hour later, we returned to the location that had provided action earlier. We caught a few more, but action still wasn’t as fast as we had hoped. It was time for a lake change.

We put the boat on the trailer and traveled a couple of miles down the road to a lake that had stained water and a healthy population of largemouth bass. Stained water is often better when the sun is shining. We started casting crankbaits along the weed line. It wasn’t long before we started catching! The largemouths were willing to eat our baits. Then we noticed that clouds were building and the wind had picked up. Since walleyes were our original plan, we decided to switch from largemouths and give the walleyes another chance. We again put the boat on the trailer and went back to the lake we started on. We tied Hornet crankbaits to our lines and trolled them over areas where we had caught walleyes on previous trips. And we completed our original goal of catching a few walleyes.

Wherever you live, there are usually fishing options. You can switch species or you can switch lakes. On the some huge reservoirs, a move to another part of the reservoir can be productive. Just remember that if you’re not catchin’em doing what you’re doing, do something else!

For more fishing insight from the pros who know, check out the summer issues of MidWest Outdoors, available by subscribing on our website.