I have probably said it a hundred times, will again. I fish hard in the fall. In my opinion, some of the best open-water fishing of the year occurs in the fall. So, I try to finish open-water fishing each year with a flourish.
Like everything else in fishing, although they may all be good, some autumns are better than others. My fall bite this year was hit and miss. I would have liked a few more big fish (which is always true), but there were some days when I did not do too bad.
I hint each year that the fall bite starts earlier than many believe. If you wait for someone to tell you it is “on”, you are already too late. Once again this fall, early, I started off with a few of these:
No, none of them were as big as I really wanted, as big as some I have caught before, but I still love ’em. It seems every flathead has a little different coloration or pattern. Oh, and they are apex predators; if you look close, you will see I don’t need no stinkin’ live bait.
Making frequent trips close to home, I do not necessarily fish waters with lots of walleyes. However, I pick up a few every fall, and often catch some big fish. This fall I caught some early and some late, nice fish, but no real monsters.
I slipped in some nice panfish one warm afternoon, but did not take any pictures. Sorry.
A few bass show up every fall and interestingly, they often are some of the last, latest fish I catch from open-water. One reason I love fall fishing is the quality of fish caught, and many years the biggest bass of the year show up late.
You can see sometimes they come late in the day as well.
I often finish up with some cold-water fish, trout, around Thanksgiving. That did not happen this fall, as I actually got on the ice during the Thanksgiving weekend (Happy New Year 2023). Which brings me to now, to the point where I am pretty much waiting for more safe ice.
I wait until this late every year to give a report on my fall fishing adventures. Just know that in the fall I am fishing, hard. I ain’t got time to give frequent updates, and besides one reason the fall fishing is so good is because many have already put up their rods and reels for the year. No sense encouraging folks to do otherwise, unless you take notice and plan for next year.
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