Jigging up late season walleyes
One of the most endearing aspects of late season walleye
angling is its simplicity. In this complicated fast paced
world we’re living in it’s nice to get back to
the basics. Successful fall fishing requires a minimal amount
of gear and thought. With a handful of jigs, a few minnows,
and a good depth finder you’re in business. Before fall
gives way to the onslaught of winter anglers have the opportunity
to cash in on some fantastic fishing.
The ravages of the fall turnover can turn a walleyes world
upside down and make for some awful tough fishing conditions.
Even shallow lakes that don’t “officially”
turnover still go through a cooling off process and it can
take a little time for a fish’s body to adjust to the
new, colder water temps. But soon after things start to settle
down, and walleye anglers can expect to see definite improvements
in walleye activity.
Ron Anlauf reached into his bag of fall jigging tricks
to nail this nice walleye
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After the fall adjustment walleyes go
on a feeding binge that can last right through the early
season ice fishing season. One of the shortcuts to finding
fall walleyes is knowing where they are historically
caught through the ice. Instead of waiting for hard
water; open water anglers can beat the ice brigade to
the punch and cash in on peak fishing conditions. Early
season ice action can center on drop offs, deeper hard
bottom areas, weed edges, as well as transition lines
where hard bottom meets soft. Those are the very same
spots where late fall walleye anglers should begin their
search. Fish that are holding on or near any of the
aforementioned spots can be readily scanned with good
electronics like the Humminbird 997c. The 997c is a
color graph with side scanning capabilities that can
allow you to run a break or dropoff and quickly see
if and where any fish are trying to hide out. Because
late fall ’eyes are easily marked they can be
relatively easy to find. Instead of wasting a lot of
time fishing where they’re not, anglers should
key on classic spots that are definitely holding fish.
A good plan of action incluides slowly cruise over the
best looking spots, and keep going until you start to
mark fish. Once you’ve marked a few it’s
time to turn around and wet a line.
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Late fall walleyes tend to bunch up and if you’re making
one here and one there you’d probably do better by keeping
on the move until you’ve marked at least a few fish
holding close together. Once you’ve located a potential
hangout you may elect to drop a marker to help keep your bearings.
It’s easy to get a little confused, especially if your
concentrating on your electronics. If you’re worried
about other anglers moving in on your marker, try dropping
a black one. They’re almost impossible to see, unless
you get real close. One of the most consistent producers come
late fall is vertical jigging. Working a jig and minnow straight
up and down is a slow methodical method that allows an angler
to really work over an area. The technique is simply a lift
and drop of a jig, and you can actually walk the bait along
the bottom. Although they may be active; late fall walleyes
are not usually aggressive enough to chase down a fast moving
bait. The lift and drop of a jig tipped with a minnow can
be just the ticket for triggering cold water ’eyes.
Medium sized minnows like fatheads, rainbow chubs, or shiners
are perfect for tipping a jig. All will do the job but the
shiner has the edge when faced with dark water conditions.
The extra flash a shiner can provide seems to get more attention
from deeper, dark water walleyes. Round headed jigs like a
Northland Fireball in sizes ¼ to 3/8oz are the way
to go. To tip the jig run the hook through the mouth and out
the top of the minnow as far behind the head as you can. This
method will help hold the minnow in place, especially when
it’s exposed to the rigors of vertical jigging. A little
twist on vertical jigging includes replacing the jig with
a Buckshot Rattle Spoon, the very same bait you would use
for ice fishing. Instead of the rhythmic lift and drop, the
Buckshot requires more of a snapping motion to be effective.
If you can legally fish with another line you may want to
deploy a live bait rig on a “dead rod”. A dead
rod is nothing more than a rod rigged up and in the water
but resting in a holder, instead of your hand. It’s
difficult to concentrate on more than one jigging rod, and
the dead rod let’s you effectively fish two baits at
the same time. Longer softer action rods in the seven to eight
foot range are recommended, like St. Croix’s Legend
Series 7’6” spinning rod model TWS76MLF. In most
cases you’ll know when the dead rod has been hit when
it doubles over. Instead of letting a fish run you’re
usually better off setting the hook immediately. The long
rod can buy you some valuable time, time that may allow a
fish to fully engulf the bait before it feels an unnatural
resistance and rejects it. All of the aforementioned minnows
can be effective when used with a live bait rig but if they’re
available you can’t beat a red tail chub. Red tails
elicit viscous strikes from every species of top of the line
predators. I don’t know if it’s love or hate,
but whatever the reason they really hit red tails hard. They
will also let you know if there’s a predator close by.
When you’re in the presence of hungry ’eyes red
tails really start pumping, trying to swim to safety. You
can see the action in the tip of your rod. If the rod tip
starts throbbing; hang on. If you don’t get hit you
may want to spend a little more time working the area over.
Look for late fall walleye fishing to become more and more
consistent the closer you get to ice-up. Some of my best days
have occurred when the lake I was fishing had a thin layer
of ice starting to develop in the shallower bays. Another
attractive aspect of late season angling is the fact that
you can have an entire lake to yourself, and that’s
as good as it gets.
Ron Anlauf
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