Fall Pike/Walleye

Lowrance Fishburn · #1 09-06-2016, 09:56 AM

Hey so I am heading up north this Thursday for one last open water trip for the season and am wondering what people think about fall pike and walleye fishing. I typically do most of my fishing in spring and early summer but have fished the fall plenty of times before. Question is, what do some of you think are hte main differences between spring and fall fishing? Aside from water temps etc, I mean more like techniques. Will be targeting pike and walleye throughout different times of the day and just curious to see what guys do come fall that is different. Cheers!

pikergolf · #2 09-06-2016, 10:06 AM

Pike will be hanging on the deep edge of weeds. Broad leaf cabbage weeds being the best type of weeds. Big plugs and spoons. Walleye I don't know as I only ever fished the river for them in the fall.

Sooner · #3 09-06-2016, 12:20 PM

I was at Fickle Lake on the weekend, the walleye were hammering my jig and minnow right off bottom. Just drifting along in the wind. 10 to 12 ft of water, just out from the weed beds and a drop off. Old standby but sure works well all times of the year.

yetiseeker · #4 09-06-2016, 01:29 PM

Some of the best fishing for Walleye and Pike are in the fall. Fish actively fattening up for the winter, less crowds, and easier to fish sunrise / sunset times due to shorter days.

If real late fall, look for live weeds. In other words, if you're cranking and find dead foliage, re-locate. You need green healthy weeds from my experience as the dead weeds will be emitting CO2, not oxygen rich water that minnows and fish target.

Also, I like to fish larger minnow patterns. Minnows like all other fish progressively get larger throughout the year - match the hatch so to speak and size up. Big fish expend less energy when they can take a large - easy meal - win - win.

cube · #5 09-06-2016, 02:14 PM

I find fall fishing here is much slower than spring fishing. When the water temps start to drop the fish scatter and the walleye no longer group up like they did earlier. (That's why they do the Fall walleye index netting in the fall when water temps drop to 15 degrees).
Right now it's probably still OK but in a week or two things change. I know Al Lindner thinks that Oct is the best month (at least in Wisconsin where he is from) but from my experience here nothing comes close to spring.

I have found in the fall that if the White fish spawn is on you can find a fair number of fish very shallow but still don't get the 150-200 fish/person/day like in the spring.

mapleleafman3 · #6 09-06-2016, 03:28 PM

Babe is a Minnesota legend. Not to nit pick or start anything.

mapleleafman3 · #7 09-06-2016, 03:39 PM

Here is a good vid from Babe on fall walleye tactics.
http://www.winkelman.com/videos/Past...ye-Tactics_174

aulrich · #8 09-06-2016, 03:59 PM

As fall progresses I start at places where you would go ice fishing ,yes turnover will scatter fish at least for a time, but I would think we are a few weeks away from that.

Once the whitefish start going shallow the pike will follow.

I like trolling in the fall in general they do tend to be anywhere but there was one thanksgiving where the only active fish we could find was in a 30-40 yards stretch.

X2 on big baits

Not as good as spring but with the colder water the bigger girls are in easier to fish water that they have been in the last month and a half or two

doyle hansen · #9 09-06-2016, 10:33 PM

-- best time in the Red Deer River is late October ... where we catch 30 apiece sometimes fish till midnight .... up to 12 pounds .... last year best night was 10/31/15 ... saved me from handing out candy haha .... all walleyes ... with a couple browns thrown in for good measure ....

-- best time for the reservoirs (for me anyways) was last October 12 to the 20th .... all big ... 10 fish days ... 6 to 11 pounds ... all walleye ... from 10 to 4 ...

--- what has been everyone else's experiences

cheers doyle

Crankbait · #10 09-06-2016, 10:42 PM

where the wind creates waves that pound the shoreline, cast just past the waves that start to curl/crest, weed beds are easy to spot too cast just past them with bait on the bottom with no weight, pick up slack as the bait bounces up and closer to you. use a rod holder and sit beside the rod to reel in the slack but don't reel in till tight. open the belly of your larger smelt or herring, squirt some red food dye in the open cavity of the bait.

good for big hens, not sure for walleye as I don't target them.

October 1st thru ice-up.

wind speed 20 km/h thru 60 km/h

dmcbride · #11 09-07-2016, 11:41 AM

I have found pike to be in the shallows in the fall close to where they spawned in the spring.

Lowrance Fishburn · #12 09-13-2016, 04:26 PM

Thanks for all the tips fella's. We ended up catching fish all over but on average about 5-7 ft deeper for each so pike were in about 10 FOW and walleye were anywhere from 10-25 FOW. Ripping cranks and slash-baits were the name of the game for pike, while bottom jigging with a bento swim bait was the ticket for walleye. All in all a great weekend, one pike at 20.28 lbs and another at 24.66 lbs. Those were the biggest and a few teenagers and close to double digits. Walleye the biggest was about 6 lbs and most in the 3-5 range and very healthy. Was too cold/windy Saturday and Sunday but hey, welcome to Alberta.

Thank you to all those who chimed in

Lowrance Fishburn · #13 09-13-2016, 04:29 PM

Here is the 20 lb pike. Having trouble loading the pics here it seems

Lowrance Fishburn · #14 09-13-2016, 04:35 PM

Cant seem to load the other pics...Will try again tomorrow

pikergolf · #15 09-13-2016, 04:38 PM

A pair of dandies there, congrats!

Spawn · #16 09-21-2016, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lowrance Fishburn

Hey so I am heading up north this Thursday for one last open water trip for the season and am wondering what people think about fall pike and walleye fishing. I typically do most of my fishing in spring and early summer but have fished the fall plenty of times before. Question is, what do some of you think are hte main differences between spring and fall fishing? Aside from water temps etc, I mean more like techniques. Will be targeting pike and walleye throughout different times of the day and just curious to see what guys do come fall that is different. Cheers!

Big female pike will be heading back into the shallows to fatten up for the winter. The big females prefer the cooling water and this is another great time to catch these big girls.
I caught a 42 inch pike in October of 2014.

Big bait worked slowly across the bottom, just keep shallow like spring fishing.
Dead bait and a slip bobber is also deadly if you are efficient at watching a bobber.

Spawn