Top 5 Fall Walleye Fishing Tactics

Autumn is a wonderful time of year with mild temperatures, beautiful scenery and big fish searching for an easy meal before freeze up.  It's the later fact of fall that gets me excited to drop a line in the water.

This past fall was the first time I actually had the chance to dedicate time for some fall fishing.  I had the last week of September and the first week of October off, so we packed up and headed off to Canada.  This had been an unusually warm Fall and I was concerned that I might hit the fall turnover.  This is a period when the water temperature throughout the lake hits around 4 degrees Celsius and it mixes top to bottom.   This occurs because water is most dense at 4 degrees Celsius.  The water during turnover becomes murky and the fish are usually turned off the chew for a few days on either side.  Lucky enough though I didn't have to deal with fall turnover at any of the lakes we visited.

We went after some big pike at other lakes, but we stuck to our home base for a few days and went walleye fishing.  Even though this is a small lake and not really known to hold huge walleye we had fun fishing with great numbers and steady action.

Previously I have come up empty handed when trying for walleye in the fall, so what was the problem? Well here are a few tips I learned this fall that may help you catch more fish.


#1 Spread Thin: In the Fall fish tend to be more spread out since the whole water column is now at a suitable temperature with high oxygen concentration.  Keeping this in mind using a strategy that covers a lot of water will help put you on more fish.  For example; I spent some time drifting with a bottom bouncer and spinner / floater set up that worked really well finding walleye along a drop off in water from 20-30 feet deep.  I find drifting or slow trolling a bottom bouncer in the fall is more effective than a crank bait.  Walleye tend to take the slower moving presentations better with colder water temperatures.

#2 Key Summer Structure: Often the key summer locations like mid lake humps and rocky main lake points will still hold fish in the fall.  These well known spots that are often covered by the weekend warriors are largely forgotten as fall approaches.  The truth is these locations may even become more productive into the fall as fish stack up to feed in these areas.  During the fall weed growth dies off and bait fish are left only to the rocky areas to take cover.  These bait fish are what those larger walleye will be searching out during the fall binge.

#3 Subtle Presentation: When the big flashy summer baits are not working you have to downsize and slow it down.  Remember these fish are exposed to falling temperatures and are sluggish at times with the fluctuating weather patterns of fall.  So go for a slow subtle presentation.  You might consider using a slip float that will hold your presentation in place just like dead sticking on the ice.  This is a highly effective method for fall walleye.

#4 The Minnow:  A top fall fish magnet is the jig and minnow.  It is simple, has been around for a long time and still produces catches of large numbers of fish.  When you find them drop this presentation down and you might be into some non stop action.  Don't forget that simple works!

#5 Big Bait = Big Fish:  In the fall this is especially true for walleye.  If you want to catch a big one and you're fishing a lake where they roam then GO BIG!  A great fall presentation is working large swimbaits 5-6 inches in length slowly through the water column.  Give it a few cranks and let it fall, crank it a few and repeat.  This slow retrieve with that tantalizing tail flicker will have some huge walleye going crazy this fall.  Give it a try with a Big Hammer swim bait.  These soft baits can't be beat for fall fishing!

Hope these few tips will help you put more walleye in the boat this next fall.  Go give it a try.

Till next time, Tight Lines!

The Fishing Doctor

Hermitage Park Rainbow Trout and Jaw Jacker Review

Fishing Hermitage Park Pond rainbow trout that lurk under ice is something I enjoy trying when home for Christmas.  Unfortunately this year I didn't make it to the lake until later in the ice season after Christmas. You see this small pond is only about 12 feet deep and stocked with 3000 rainbows a year.  As the winter lingers on oxygen levels plummet and the trout are left struggling to survive.  Sadly nature wins out and the lake consistently winter kills leaving the remaining trout dead under ice.  No one can predict when this will exactly happen as a lot of factors come into play.  For example live weeds add oxygen and dead weeds consume oxygen.  Regardless I always go out to give it a try.

The forecast was for a rapid change in weather throughout the day.  It started out on the cool side, overcast and calm.  By the end of the day it was freezing cold and blowing snow. 

I tried a faithful point on the lake in the morning, but there was no trout activity on the radar at all and no strikes on the awaiting Jaw Jacker.  I decided to pack up and walk across the lake to a deeper section and see if there were any fish around.  I drilled holes starting from a shallow bank and out every 20 feet into the main lake basin.  Shortly after I set the Jaw Jacker in shallow water it went off!  I ran over and lost the first nice rainbow in the hole.

I reset the line and returned to jigging with my rod and MarCum VX 1P.  I noticed that there was some action on the flasher half way up the water column.  I raised my Kastmaster with dropper fly to mid water column and soon had something that felt like a bite.  Then the Jaw Jacker went off again and I landed a nice rainbow at 15 inches.  I returned to the jigging rod and started to have more hits and landed another rainbow.  The trout were ON which was unusual after Christmas. I attributed the action to a rapid fall in barometric pressure which sometimes turns the bite ON!  Regardless the cause I was just happy to be the one experiencing it.

Things slowed down mid day and I moved to another hole.  I decided to try a few inches under the ice in 12 feet of water.  In no time I had a strike and then another.  I got down on my belly and stared down the hole.  In no time a rainbow was staring back at me inches from my face.  They were swimming back and forth right under my nose.  This was so cool I thought.  Turns out this is typical behavior as the oxygen levels fall in a lake.  The fish start to swim closer to the ice where trapped air pockets and cracks are the only way oxygen enters the lake late in the season. 

I quickly drilled another hole and dropped the GoPro down to see if I could get any footage.  Turns out they weren't camera shy and even though it was getting dark the footage is still pretty neat.  Check out the video links below. 

I continued to catch fish on the Jaw Jacker and rod right under the ice.  Turned out to be one of my best days on Hermitage Park Pond.  I saw several other groups of people on the ice and nobody else was catching.  Just goes to show you can't always stick with what usually works.  The fish were not on the bottom and unless you moved around and fished mid water column and up to the ice there was no catching going on.  So don't forget the rest of the water column when you are out on the ice.  Also having a MarCum Flasher can really help you understand how fish are using the water column and put your lure in the high traffic area.

I've been very impressed with the Jaw Jacker on ice.  I set it up with three small ice jigs or flies about a foot and a half apart and tip with pieces of meal worm.  Drop the set up down and wait.  More often then not when it goes off there is a fat trout on the end of the line waiting to be brought in by you.  If you are allowed a set line in your province or state I highly recommend investing in some of these.  

I previously used tip downs which I built, but usually by the time I ran over to grab the rod the fish had dropped the bait.  The Jaw Jacker actually sets the hook for you increasing your odds of catching more fish!  

If you'd like to see the action from this day click the links below.  I also do a demonstration of my Jaw Jacker rig for those of you who are curious.  

Till next time - Tight Lines!

The Fishing Doctor