Door County Fall Fishing The Bay Of Green Bay

Well we are all well into the fall season and I am sure many of you are focusing on the hunting season which you have been waiting all season for and I hope it is a safe and successful hunting season for all. Like myself I also know that there are many of us that look forward to the Fall time for some of the best fishing of the season. The Fall season provides fantastic opportunities at catching the largest fish of the entire fishing season.

With the days getting shorter and shorter and the temperatures getting cooler the day time heating becomes less and the water temperatures begin to drop and the fish know that winter is coming soon and they begin to put on that incredible fall feeding frenzy. Fish will begin to move in to there fall areas where they will be close to where they will winter over these areas are generally really close to deep water with feeding shelves where they can easily slide in to these areas to feed and quickly retreat to deeper water when they are less active.

Here in Door County I have been targeting both Walleyes and Smallmouth Bass with the walleyes being a little more elusive the fish that we are getting have all been nice big fish with a few fish being caught between 11 and 12 pounds. When targeting the Walleyes we have been using a casting approach casting baits such as the Rapala Rippin Rap, also catching a few fish on Rapala Snap Raps and also finding success on some custom made blade baits. Like I had mentioned we are not catching a lot of walleyes and they have been difficult to locate most days but when we catch a fish we will work that area very thoroughly and will often catch more fish in and around that area.

The smallmouth bass have been cooperating very well for us over the past month with lots of fish being caught daily along with some really nice size fish with a few being over 6 pounds. we have been targeting these bass in water depths  from 20 to 35 feet of water. On days when the wind is blowing which seems like every day we find more active fish along the wind blown shorelines in shallower water. On days with less wind and high sunlight we have had to slide out to deeper water to find our fish. The key to our better success has been locating schools of bass and working around those schools. We have been catching our bass also casting Rapala Rippin Raps in size#6 along with running live bait rigs with succer minnows on 2/0 VMC circle hooks. Even if you are gearing up for the hunting season try to take some time to get out on your favorite lake for some fantastic fall fishing opportunities and who knows you may just catch the biggest fish you have ever caught. Good luck fishing and be safe.

Paul Delaney

WWW.lateeyessportfishing.com