Fall fishing

I got a chance to leave the boat in an extra month this year, but have never fished this late into the year before and don’t have any idea where to start. A friend lent me a couple of lead core rods, but figuring out where that crank is I’ve found it’s more art than science. And until I actually catch something in that method I don’t have the faith in it yet. I’ve heard using suckers this time of year works, but are you jigging them? Using a bobbber? Even heard using a spinner rig for them. I’ve seen some resorts saying a leech and a bobber, which was the go to method it seems this year, but does anyone have leeches yet? Can you still pull a crawler rig? Neighbor says he basically uses a lindy rig set up but puts a crank 6 feet behind a 2 ounce weight.

Taking a friend out this weekend, also a nube to fall fishing, and any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Think spring. Fish are moving back to their spring locations.

Sucker minnow for smallies on the rocks works great. Will get walleyes too.
Use a Lindy rig set up.

Pulling crank baits will heat up as the water cools. As it gets later into fall stick baits long lined shallow will catch walleyes.

Plenty of other ways to catch em as well but these are my go to for fall on Mille lacs.

Jig and minnow jigging raps

FYI – Water temp was still 68 degrees on Sunday.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Sucker minnow for smallies on the rocks works great. Will get walleyes too.
Use a Lindy rig set up.

This is the way, find some rocks under 20′ of water. Pay attention to the depth when you catch one. Rinse, repeat.

Spinner rig or plain snell work better? That answer will probably answer my next question, but what speed are we thinking?

Appreciate the insights so far.

I don’t know if you like to cast or not but the last two Octobers I’ve done pretty well snapping a jerk bait. Walleye, smallmouth, and even the occasional pike mixed in. The best water temps have come when its between 50-60 degrees, so it sounds like we’re not really that close yet if its 68.

Alex Fox wrote:

Spinner rig or plain snell work better? That answer will probably answer my next question, but what speed are we thinking?

Appreciate the insights so far.

Plain snell.
.5-1.0 but can vary sometimes faster.

Alex Fox wrote:

Spinner rig or plain snell work better? That answer will probably answer my next question, but what speed are we thinking?

Appreciate the insights so far.

Plain snell .5 to 1.4 mph.
Waters still warm so that bite only gets better as water cools.

I was on a large lake in central northern MN last weekend, water temps from about 68 to 70, and I caught plenty of fish. Primary options were pulling a bottom bouncer, spinner rig set up with a crawler and pulling shad raps. Primarily fished 8′ – 12′ depths. Pulled the spinners between .8 mph and 1.4 mph and pulled raps from 2.5 mph to 3.0 mph. Fishing will only get better as the temps drop. Rivers offer a lot of options also right now.

While I am sure there are many ways to catch fish on Mille Lacs in the fall, my go to has been using sucker minnows. I have had good luck fishing rocks, typically somewhere between 8-14 feet of water. I don’t use a traditional Lindy rig though. I run braid to a mono or flouro leader, then use a larger hook and nose hook the sucker. I then place multiple small split shots on the leader spaced about 6-8 inches apart. This allows you to really dial in the weight without having to retie. It is almost like having a mini section of lead core on the line. It also seems to prevent hang ups, though some are always bound to occur when fishing rock. I learned this technique from a video years ago (Brosdahl maybe?) and have had good luck with it. Hard to beat getting a good strike, feeding the fish line and setting the hook. You will typically know after the first fish or two how long to feed them line for. Of course, too long and you risk gut hooking, so typically I will start with a shorter lead time and if I am missing a lot, give it more time. I like to try and mark each spot I get a solid strike. Sometimes you’ll get a pretty obvious pattern that you can then replicate.

Plastics-Plastics and more Plastics.

nord wrote:

Plastics-Plastics and more Plastics.

On mille lacs?

For walleyes, troll cranks until the water cools then troll some more cranks.
Faster and deeper now, slow down and go shallower as the water cools.
Trolling OFR’s and HJ’s in 4-10ft after dark is a blast in October.
Live bait is hard to beat for smallies and a few walleyes as already mentioned.
Weedlines are another option. 1/4oz Jigs with plastic or minnows.

Deuces wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>nord wrote:</div>
Plastics-Plastics and more Plastics.

On mille lacs?

You bet

My 2 cents. This year isn’t fishing like typical fall fishing yet and the bite has been tough. If I were going this weekend I would say just cover as much water as possible. 15-25 ft trolling would be where I would focus. You will get a mix of smallmouth, walleye, and northern. Good time to experiment with the lead core. 2mph. the faster you go the less deep your baits run. You will be able to see with the rod If you are hitting bottom. If you are, you are running too deep so reel up 4-5 cranks. Each color (30ft) estimate will get you 5-6 feet down. No need to be kissing bottom. if you are within 3-5 feet you are probably okay. If you are catching 1-2 fish an hour this year, I would say you are keeping up with most!

If you stay 15-20 ft you can get by just long lining deep divers.

Anyone got water temps from this afternoon/evening. (saturday 9/21) I was out Tuesday and Wednesday night and had 68 – 72 degrees still. Hoping for a cool down!

Went out Sunday morning. The north end was still 68 to 69 degrees. Marked lots of fish, still not much happening. The bait shop lady actively tried to talk us out of fishing lol. Everyone I talked to said the bite is super slow.

Alex Fox wrote:

The bait shop lady actively tried to talk us out of fishing lol.

Lol that’s kinda funny. I can recall a lot of reports like that in the past, especially in midsummer. People would call it the dead sea. Seems strange to be happening in late September though. At some point you’d think the fishing would improve but we need colder weather I would imagine.

Alex Fox wrote:

Went out Sunday morning. The north end was still 68 to 69 degrees. Marked lots of fish, still not much happening. The bait shop lady actively tried to talk us out of fishing lol. Everyone I talked to said the bite is super slow.

Is this mainly pertaining to walleye? What about fishing smallmouth with suckers? I was planning to fish smallmouth with suckers later this week but if the water is still too warm and the bite is dead, I might wait until I make the trip.

I was fishing walleyes, yes, but the baitshop said a lot of people had switched to trying to catch smallies. I haven’t heard any reports about that.

Yea you’d think mid to late September the water temps would be much lower, but we’ve had basically August like temps for the past several weeks. Water levels have really gone down as well. I noticed it was down at least 4 inches from mid summer. High temps and no rain…

Water temps still 68-69, water levels seem to be back to about what we had this spring.

I saw as high as 72 this weekend. Not much for walleye action but found plenty of smallies willing to play.

Still to warm for walleyes to move shallow.

The amount of bait in the system is kind of insane right now.

We ended up taking the docks out this past weekend. Bittersweet. The lake looked like Fourth of July weekend. Swimmers, kayakers, boaters. Insane for this late in the year. I would guess the shallow water on the north end was above 70 degrees. No bibs required this year.

As far as water level, I think it’s down from the spring. I saw a lot of lines in the sand from lower units dragging. I know I made a few as well trying to get out.

I tried shore fishing for the first time this Fall last night. Calm conditions so it wasn’t ideal. Other than a few really small eyeballs swimming around in a foot or less there wasn’t any life. Northern Lights got really bright at one point. There was a boat in Vineland Bay not moving, so I assume they were bobber fishing.

I tried again for 3 hours fishing from shore on Wed’s night. I didn’t get a single bite. I had one fish follow but not hit. I saw three shooting stars. I brought a spotlight, instead of just my headlamp, so I was able to spy about double the amount of small walleyes swimming around. The wind was out of the SSE so there was a chop, but not much for waves.

.

58 current temperature. Its tough fishing always get a half dozen.

Marker buoys are out! Docks at the public access probably out soon.

-J.

Anybody planning on fishing tomorrow? Weather/ wind looks good. I might make a trip up there for the day.
Hopefully the bite has picked up since the last time I was up a month ago. Anybody been out there this week?

grubson wrote:

Anybody planning on fishing tomorrow? Weather/ wind looks good. I might make a trip up there for the day.
Hopefully the bite has picked up since the last time I was up a month ago. Anybody been out there this week?

I’ll be up tomorrow. Probably the last trip in the boat for the season and figured I’d take the girlfriend out for the first time haha.

Bunch of buddies and guides gave me the lowdown said the smallie bite is on fire which I figured. The walleye bite isn’t too bad but nothing crazy.

Looking forward to light winds and teaching her to livescope.