The Fall Feeding Frenzy is ON!!!

Now is the time to bundle up and get on the lakes if you are not out hunting.

After making my trip up North to Mille Lacs I was revived on open water fall fishing. I usually hunt quite a bit in the fall but since the Minnesota trip all I can seem to think about is FAT Fall walleyes. Well, guess what?? The walleyes are just as fat and hungry here in Nebraska too and there’s a good chance you’ll have the lake to yourself. At least until your friends see some pictures of these fat little beauties!!!

I spent the entire day on the water this last Sunday and although we didn’t catch numbers we sure learned a ton about where and what these fish are doing. You could watch them and the shad on the electronics move out of the deep water into the shallow water as night fell. We only stayed until 9:00 so I think we missed the best action but were still able to pick up a chunky 23 incher before we left. We have been fishing at Branched Oak and it’s not fast and ferious but when you get one it’s usually a good one. Some friends of mine had a good night Saturday with their largest being a plump 27 incher. This lake has so many shad that the eyes have plenty to eat. So be prepared to put some time in but it should be worth it in the end. I think you would have a darn good chance at catching some fish over 8 lbs right now. So get out there and fish. If you’re going hunting, take the boat with you and go fishing after you get out of the fields. They are just getting started at sun down.

Ben,
I agree, check out Chris Tuckner’s report on Mille Lacs from last Sat night. Sure was fun.
Good Luck.
Jack..

Ben, I may have to meet you at B.O. sometime for a little fall fishing!

Cool info, Ben….I was out in the canal again today, and when I got there around 1:30 you saw most of the fish down deep out in the main lake. Then I saw them move up a little bit, during the afternooon. We trolled thru them a few times and had most of our baits down deep trying to pop a nice flathead, but nothing really took off. We mainly trolled open water, but did go over a few humps. Really thought we’d pick something up off the humps, but never did. Would you troll open water this time of year? Or make sure you hit points and drops? We were going around 2.0 mph….would you go faster? You can count on my asking lots of trolling questions…..I suck at it, but am trying to get into it.

Brian, I would make S turns while trolling and see if the inside poles or the outside poles get any better action during the turns. Inside action could mean you need to slow down, outside could mean to speed up.

Depending on the water temps there, you may have to slow down a touch. 1.6 mph or there about. The fish will tell you. If you can hold one rod, try pumping it with various actions, dropping the bait back at times, and snapping it foward at other times. See if the fish have a preference or if a change in the action will trigger a strike.

Brian- Wade makes a great point. This is also what I have been doing at Branched Oak. Pay close attention to the speed but also what your bait is doing in relationship to the structure you are trolling. We have been trolling the rip rap shorelines at 1.6-1.8 mph doing the S turns out to 10 fow and in to 4 fow. It seems the eyes are waiting for shad to come off the shallows. They have been hitting when the bait is coming out of the shallows.
As far as the open water trolling I have been doing some of that during the day. I look for the shad schools and try to determine if there are active fish with them. My expierence has been that the more active eyes will be just above the clouds of bait fish. If I don’t see any above the schools I’ll go below them and slow way down and pump your rod to try to get a reaction bite. Sometimes the biggest fish will be underneath waiting for an easy injured meal to fall in their lap.
I hope some of this info helps you out. I think my cousin and I are heading up to Sherman this weekend to try some night trolling up there. What do you have going on??

Thanks for the info, guys!
We were just mainly trolling out in open water, and we were adding a few ‘S’ turns, but couldn’t get anything to go. There were balls of shad EVERYwhere in the lake. Some were so thick, the graph thought it was 8′ deep instead of 30′. We did see a few fish in the shad, and really thought we would hook something, but never did. I know we were trolling deep most of the time too, but I kinda did that on purpose in hopes of nailing a flathead looking for a cheap meal. We didn’t pump the rods at all though….is that something you do a lot of, or just occasionally?

Wish I could be there this weekend and help you catch (net!) some fish, but I gotta work all weekend, got Mon Tues off for the next couple weeks, then go to Wed Thur off. I’ll have to call and see how you guys do!

Here a pic from Sunday afternoon.

#2

Sunday night’s 23 incher.

Good pics, Ben! The last two times I’ve been trolling over there in the canal, I did have a fish on, but they both came off. I have no idea why they did that either. Very aggravating.

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We didn’t pump the rods at all though….is that something you do a lot of, or just occasionally?

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I do it quite a bit myself, but I also let the fish decide. If it’s working, keep pumping. If not, change it up. Holst has told me that he thinks the fish follow the cranks sometimes, just eye-balling it, and a change in the action can induce a strike. Speeding up, slowing down, & erratic movement can all induce a hit. But let the fish tell you what they want. Sometimes the quiet, steady swim through the water works just fine.