Southern Res......in the fall...

[Winch101]

Would like to hear some theories on why the fishing is so poor in these res.

Travers / Chin etc. after they let the water down and things start to cool down ...

Travers yesterday didnt mark any fish , caught only a few pike and

pretty slow deep and shallow ....Nice Day though ...

Any ideas as I have not been much of alake fisherman in the fall ,

mostly rivers for big walleyes...

[pikester]

Well i'm by no means an expert but I do have some theories. I spend most of my time on Newell so I can't speak specifically to the other reservoirs but here is what I have discovered so far. At this time of year the walleye & pike are moving out to deeper water to set up ambushes for whitefish, etc. which have been staging in the bays & rock points. The water temp today was a chilly 41.6 deg. so according to literature, the whities are now moving back towards open water which is why the larger predators are sitting in deeper water off main lake points, old weed beds, or channels leading from bays to deep water to intercept.

This must be pretty close to whats actually happening now because I got 6 pike today & every one was caught in 18-22ft on the rocky drop-offs leading away from remaining weed beds. Was bloody chilly today, especially in the am. All fish were caught between 2-5pm. Marked quite a few walleye but they were DEEP, 25-32ft! They seemed to have a serious case of lockjaw today.