Innholdsfortegnelse for October/November 2021 i In-Fisherman

It helps to have an overarching perspective of what’s at play as we try to put a presentation plan together—no matter the fish species. A business plan, you might say, so we can make magic on the water. The ideas Buck Perry taught so many years ago remain constant. Depth control is the first order of business, followed by speed control or, said another way, the way we work lures (and present live- and deadbaits). No surprise that these factors usually play forth in obvious fashion in our magazine articles. A case in point in this issue: I have been intrigued the last several years, following the exploits of Casey Ehlert and Lyal Held online, catching big bass on crankbaits in November when our fishing in Northcentral Minnesota is about…

October and November are magical months for diehard walleye anglers, especially on rivers. Flowing water concentrates hungry ’eyes in predictable places across the Walleye Belt. Yet these sweet spots remain largely overlooked and underfished by the masses, particularly as winter closes in. Opportunities for fine fishing arise on rivers of all types and sizes, from large, channelized waterways flush with locks and dams to river-run reservoirs and small, meandering, natural rivers. Tributary mouths, too, are flowing-water hotspots not to be forgotten on lakes large and small. Over the years, I watched many of these patterns play out while working tournament trails including the In-Fisherman Professional Walleye Trail (PWT) and Masters Walleye Circuit (MWC). Fall qualifiers and championships often centered on or included riverine environments, and savvy competitors fished these systems…

I look forward to no other event on the crappie calendar more than when the fish start sliding out to deeper water in the fall. It’s like hitting the jackpot on a slot machine. At first, a few dollars trickle out, followed by a windfall. The transition is tied to turnover, one of the most misunderstood processes that happens from Texas to Minnesota to Ontario—everywhere crappies flourish. The only difference is in the timing and extent. “Water temperature is the key,” says Dan Dannenmueller, 2011 and 2012 Angler of the Year on the Crappie Masters Tournament Trail. “Water temperature controls both the food and the fish. Crappies love water temperature around 68°F. As we march deeper into the fall, surface temperatures drop quickly, while deeper water is much slower to…

Fish move below the ice. A lot. Certainly, the ones living away from vegetation and other cover more or less never stop swimming, every bit as much and often, just as fast and continuously as they do during summer. Up until a particularly exhausting and enthralling day on the ice last winter, this was one of the great mysteries of winter panfish location. Outside those precious peak evening bites—the few hours when panfish seem to converge on your lure from every direction—where do they go? “Out there,” certainly. Somewhere in the lake basin. But where? And why? As we noted last winter, the rise of live-scan sonar has largely rendered the problem irrelevant. Given a few hours and enough physical stamina to drill a handful of holes, unearthing roaming perch…

Shrinking ‘Eyes? Curious Connections— After an angler, cited by a conservation officer for possessing walleyes under the minimum length limit, contested the violation by claiming his fish had shrunk, biologists with the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish, and Parks (where the case had occurred) investigated this possibility, for shrinkage of walleyes caught in open water and ice-fishing.* Walleyes caught in open water were either placed in a cooler with ice or into a livewell. Ice-caught fish were placed in a cooler with ice. Biologists measured the fish at capture and every hour for the next 10 hours. Some fish also were checked after 20, 29, 36, and 44 hours. Finally, the biologists froze the fish and then checked them 30 days later. In poaching cases, fish often are held…

You’ve probably heard about the need to downsize and slow down as waters cool in fall. Hair jigs and small jigs can bring a few big bass as vegetation dwindles on the flats. But what if you learned that once bass stop biting jigs and finesse baits, the best bite of the year lies ahead?—At water temperatures in the low-40°F range or below? Scoff if you like, but Casey Ehlert and his buddy Lyal Held have discovered a mother lode of big bass that can be caught as lake temperatures fall toward the freezing mark. These anglers approach recreational bass fishing with a passion, trying new methods to catch fish most anglers ignore and taking full advantage of advanced sonar technologies to open new windows on the underwater world. They’ve…

Doc unhooked his twenty-fifth axe handle of the morning, and tossed it over the side. We were at Knobby’s Kezik Lake fly-in fishing outpost, and had set our sights that day on Mr. Big, aka Esox lucius . That’s when Doc’s nose stuck itself into our conversation. “You ever notice that a pike smells like an old rubber boot?” he said. “I don’t know, Doc,” I said. “To me they have a surprisingly fresh scent, like newly mown grass.” “I can understand that,” Doc said, “especially if you fertilize your lawn with canned cat food.” “No, really. After I get used to it, I don’t mind it a bit.” Doc shucked the cellophane wrapper from a cigar the sickly hue of a roadkill salamander. “Then I suppose you will complain…

■BRULE RIVER BRULE, WISCONSIN Steelhead » One of the most gorgeous steelhead rivers in all of North America offers 12 miles of fishing from Highway 2 to Lake Superior, with sleek fish running 24 to 26 inches or so by early to mid-October. A good day is two to three fish although many days are better, and there also are brown trout and coho salmon. Contact: Capt. Josh Teigen, 715/813-0575, joshtiegen.com In-Fisherman ■LAKE FORK EMORY, TEXAS Crappies » This famous largemouth bass lake has turned into one of North America’s finest crappie fisheries, with scores of fish from 13 to over 15 inches. Lots of great guides work Lake Fork and other area reservoirs. Contact: Texas Crappie Guides Public Group on Facebook. Doug Stange ■ PINEDALE AREA WYOMING Multispecies »…

At first glance, it appears to be an endless, repetitive process. Further examination reveals an art form of constant variations in the lengths of pulls and pauses, and changes in speeds. It’s about establishing a cadence, modifying the shape and appearance of baits, and breaking from a prescribed rhythm. To be successful, anglers must manipulate the manner in which baits move through the water and behave throughout the figure-eight, imparting rips, pops, stalls, and accelerations on lures the size of small rodents—all to trigger some of the biggest bites of the year. The cold-water season is primetime for working “pull-pause” baits, and if you’re not in the game, you’re missing out on one of the year’s most consistent big-fish bites. Captain Luke Swanson operates Livin’ the Dream Guide Service in…

»TOP LATE-SEASON PATTERNS AROUND THE CATFISH BELT« Channel cat fishing in the fall, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways: I love the cool, crisp air, and the lower, stable water levels in rivers. I love that recreational boaters aren’t on the lakes messing up my slow-trolling and drifting patterns. I love fewer mosquitoes. I love having all those chunky channel cats pretty much to myself because everybody else is busy with football games, hunting seasons, and raking leaves. Well, I should be raking leaves too, but if I have to choose between catfishing and yardwork, catfishing wins. People need to keep their priorities in order, and as water temperatures decline, fishing for channel catfish should be high on any angler’s list. Fall offers some of the…

When we see nothing, we see black. We get to wondering what’s in nothing. When Old Sol calls it a day, revealing the scary neighborhood where we really live, we wonder and maybe fear what’s out there in space; and to what’s out there looking our way, we’re part of a black mystery. Closer to home we have blackwater lakes and rivers. We can’t see their occupants and likewise, without breaking the water line, those denizens of the dark have no idea about us and our place in the solar system. From a land of muddy streams and lakes we enter Florida, where the clean water is either clear or black, as if this had determined the Georgia-Alabama border. Each day our clear water turns black as the inside of…