Fall seems to be a season for fishing specially reserved for those who truly love the sport. The public fancy may be generally absorbed in hunting or with the activities due to open up with the coming of cold weather…but the fishing is still good and the weather and water conditions are often ideal. There is a tang to the air to put a new spark of liveliness in both fish and angler. The flies and insect pests that so often make many of the early fishing hours less pleasant have vanished, too. The brilliant colors of fall are forming beside lake and stream while the fish are engaging in the last flurries of heavy feeding before the long cold winter sets in.
Fall trout seasons serve to stretch out the time when both stream and fish are at their best. The dog days of summer when the river beds are near-dry channels of sun-baked rocks with only a few deep pools connected by shallow runs are mere memories, and the streams run full and clear again to give the trout plenty of food for their appetites’ revival.
The days are shorter and trout are likely to be seen feeding throughout all the daylight hours. The fish are surface-minded because of the prevalence of grasshoppers, crickets and the many other land bugs fattened on the harvest-time bounty of Nature. Dry fly fishing is never more exciting than when the first cold nights have set the brooks a-tingle.
As the surface waters cool, the lake trout come up from the depths. The angler need no longer dredge the depths with metal line or heavy weights in order to put a lure within striking distance of the fish. The fly rod or the casting rod in normal surface or near-surface fishing will catch these fish and give them a real chance to show their strength and power. Those who have never taken lakers on the surface will be amazed at the dash and power they possess when taken up on top. Lake trout come into the shore waters or up on the shallow offshore bars in from four to ten feet of water. A long streamer fly will interest them and is the fly rod fisherman’s mainstay. The wobbling spoon is probably top performer for the bait casting rod and a similar flashing lure is the spinning fisherman’s best bet. The clear, open water of the lakes in late season, when the weeds have matured, died and sunk to the bottom, gives the spinning angler a chance to test his tackle on big and wary fish without having to worry about weeds which, during the summer, would foul up his light line and give the fish an almost certain chance to break it.
Landlocked salmon, too, come to the top to finish off their feeding before the frosty nights will seal the lakes with ice. Like the lake trout, they offer greater sport when taken on the surface with unweighted lures than they do during the hot weather when the angler must go down deep to put a lure within their reach.
Fall bass fishing is especially good, and this favorite American game fish is never gamer, never more exciting to capture than he is in the fall. He’s filled with the energy built up by a long period of spring and summer feeding, and has added another season’s growth and strength since spawning in the spring. He’ll strike hard and put up a better scrap than he could in August.
During the summer, bass tend to feed largely at night when the surface waters cool and when the summer vacation activities of outboards, swimming, etc., have slowed down. As fall moves in and Labor Day sends the vacationers home, the bass and the fishermen have the lakes pretty much to themselves again. The waters are cooling off and the days are more pleasant for fish and angler alike. Surface lures are particularly effective, but all forms of fishing usually show improved results.
Because the summer’s growth of weeds are dying and settling to the bottom, there is more and more open water as the season advances. The absence of weeds makes it possible for the game fish to see a lure at a greater distance, and in general makes fishing easier and more effective. Areas that call for weedless lures during the summer months will open up to fishing with any type of lure when the sunlight wanes and the waters chill.
Although fall fishing for bass is excellent, it doesn’t seem to be as consistent as the fishing when the season has first opened. The bass are crammed with food, though seeking more, and their feeding periods are less predictable. Morning, evening, middle of the day, the fish may hit at any time when the spirit moves them. Some fall nights produce excellent catches, and sometimes for a week at a time night fishing may be unusually poor. The main thing is that the bass are full of fight, active in their feeding…and that the fall fisherman has less competition from other anglers and from other disturbing influences after Labor Day.
The walleyes move shoreward toward the cooler water and become more active generally. The chances of taking them during the daylight hours improve, and during the fall they are as likely to feed by day as by night. Both plug caster and bait fisherman benefit by the increased activity of the fish as they move to shallower depths and daylight feeding becomes greater. Walleyes, summer or fall, favor the small, deep-running plug over most other casting lures. They are surface minded on still evenings and nights, with the smaller plugs bringing better results. Small spinning plugs are effective for walleyes, either on the surface or underwater. And walleyes, on spinning tackle, in the open water over the shallow bars or in the coves are plenty of fun.
The northern pike, pickerel and muskies, all daylight feeders, have shorter and shorter days in which to fill their bellies. Hour for hour, the fall days are better. These big minnow feeders are increasingly active in the fall, and a large plug or wobbling spoon is the best for them.
The pike family and the walleyes feed actively through the winter months while the bass become more or less dormant. Pike and walleyes will take a plug in chilly water when the bass are numbed by cold. Walleye and pike fishing can be in moderately shallow water or at medium depth in the late fall, but as the water becomes quite cold it is necessary to fish for bass at a considerable depth. In the early fall, the bass come up from the cooler depths.
Then, when the colder weather sets in, the surface water becomes too cold and the bass go down to the deeper water, proportionately warmer than the surface water, in exact reverse to the summer conditions.
The fall is a good time for panfish. It is a good time to take panfish on the fly. Confirmed trout fishermen and fly casters, finding their favorite waters closed to fishing and their fly rods idle, should find considerable pleasure in using their fine leaders and small flies to fool sunfish and perch. A bluegill may not have the rare beauty of which the trout can boast, and he doesn’t inhabit the foaming eddies and swift, deep runs, but he charges out from beneath old stumps and lily pads like a miniature express train. He hits wet flies, nymphs, dry flies, small floating bugs and streamers. He strikes readily much of the time, but on occasions he can be as finicky as the wariest trout. Trout fishermen can find extra fun with the panfish; and no time for this sport is more fitting than the fall.
Indian summer’s brisk nights and pleasantly warm days give every angler a chance to round out the season with his favorite tackle in beautiful surroundings. Maple leaves as red as fire, and birches, with their leaves of October-yellow, cast bright reflections in the dark shadows where evergreens reach out to overhang the shore. Whole hillsides glow like flaming embers above the fresh, clean blue of lake or stream. Many an angler puts his gear away too early.