Big Baits for Big Fish Right Now

Autumn has arrived in the Midwest. In a couple of weeks the countryside will be alive in color and lots of outdoor enthusiasts will have departed the lakes for tree stands in search of deer or the fields looking for pheasants or geese or ducks. Nothing wrong with that: hunting is a wonderful outdoor tradition. […]

Ideas For Early Fall Fishing

This period of time we’re in right now, the time between late summer and early fall, can provide some very good fishing, but it can also be a challenging time to catch fish. The night-time air temperatures are chilly, but the daytime temps are still warm. Thirty-degree temperature swings in a day aren’t uncommon at […]

Fish Smarter This Fall

I went fishing last week and the action was okay. I’m going fishing again this week and I expect the action to be better. As the water cools and the days get shorter, fishing for a wide variety of fish is going to keep getting better. We fish differently in the fall than we do […]

Fish the Weedline in the Fall

The weedline is a great place to find and catch fish all during the open water fishing season. Lots of anglers even work the weedline while ice-fishing. Simply put, there is almost always a fish somewhere along the weedline that is willing to get caught. In the autumn months a variety of fish will be […]

Fall Fishing Ideas

It’s time to start planning our fall fishing trips: Where we’ll go, what we’ll fish for, and how we’ll present our baits. Fall fishing in northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, and North Dakota might be kicking in now. In southern Minnesota, South Dakota, north Iowa, and southern Wisconsin, it will start in two or three weeks, […]

Get ready for fall fishing

It seems like summer just started, but it’s already time to think about fall fishing. Nature has started providing us with the signs that remind us that autumn is closer than we think. Just like summer fishing is different in some ways than spring fishing, fishing in the fall can be different than fishing in the […]

Catch a Bunch in the Fall

by Bob Jensen I got to fishing again this past week. My friend Mike Gottheardt and I were chasing smallmouth bass on a river in eastern Wisconsin.  We caught ’em good: Lots of smallmouth and some nice ones at that.  Nothing that would be considered a trophy, but some healthy bass that fought hard and […]

Give the Fish What They Want

by Bob Jensen I went fishing last week.  The open water season is winding down, but there is still plenty of time to get out.  One word of advice:  Prepare for chilly weather.  One day last week when we hit the water, the air temp was thirty four degrees at eight o’clock in the morning, […]

A Smorgasbord of Fall Fishing

By Bob Jensen My recent fishing trips have reminded me of how productive fall fishing can be, and they have also reminded me of how active so many species of fish are at this time of year.  In the spring, some fish get active early, shortly after ice-out, while others don’t start eating until the […]

Going Fishing Again

by Bob Jensen I went fishing last week.  I’m going fishing again this week, and if things work out, I’ll be going fishing the next week also.  Just a couple of days per trip, but what wonderful days they can be this time of year.  The trees were just starting to get some color last […]

Drop-Shot Rigs for More Fall Fish

By Bob Jensen For some reason, autumn is the time of year when I feel the need to share the productivity of drop-shot rigs.  It’s probably because the first time I ever tried drop-shotting was in the fall at least twenty years ago.  My friend Barry Day had just returned from a trip to the […]

Shallow Water Largemouth in the Fall

By Bob Jensen When I moved to north central Minnesota waaaaay too many years ago, I liked to chase largemouth bass.  Many of my friends thought that was strange, as walleyes were the preferred fish of many anglers in the north during that era.  And while it was true that walleyes were available in many […]

Falling for Panfish

By Bob Jensen  I’ve said it so many times, and I don’t like to be redundant, but the autumn period is a wonderful time to go fishing for pretty much any species of gamefish that swims in the Midwest.  Walleyes, bass, northern pike; even muskies are susceptible to an angler’s presentation in the fall.  Crappies […]

Night-Bite Walleyes

by Bob Jensen If you want to catch a big walleye, fall is a time when your odds of doing so are probably the best.  Spring can provide an opportunity to take a trophy, but the season is closed in many areas of walleye country.  For many walleyes chasers, autumn is the most consistent producer […]

Thinking About Fall Fishing

By Bob Jensen For many people, Labor Day marks the end of summer or the beginning of fall, depending on how you look at it.  For some anglers, Labor Day marks the end of the fishing season; for other anglers, Labor Day is the beginning of the best time of the year to be fishing.  […]