Fall Fishing Presentation
A quick slide show: the best species for the season, how to fish them and lakes to try.
Max Creel presents
Fall Fishing: What's Biting and Where
Water cools, baitfish group up and fish feed heavily before winter. Some of the year's best fishing.
Use the arrow keys or the buttons below.
Fall · Top pick
Muskellunge
Fall is the best season: at 50-60F, big fish feed heavily on weed edges and points in 6-20 ft. Large jerkbaits, bucktails and live suckers produce. Midday is also productive.
- Large bucktails
- Glide baits
- Jerkbaits
Fall · Top pick
Walleye
Falling water in the 50s and 60s brings them toward shallower rock, bait-rich flats and creek mouths at 8-25 ft. Jig and minnow, swimbaits and crankbaits do the job. Evening is best.
- Jig with minnow
- Nightcrawler harness on a bottom bouncer
- Crankbaits
Fall · Top pick
Rainbow / Brown Trout
As water cools to 50-55F, trout head to shallower water and river mouths. Browns spawn in fall; rainbows follow bait. Spinners and minnow baits are great.
- Small spoons
- Inline spinners
- PowerBait
Fall · Top pick
Northern Pike
Cooling water at 45-60F pulls pike back to the weed edges and shallows to feed on baitfish. This is prime time for large pike on big jerkbaits, bucktails and live suckers.
- Bucktail spinners
- Large spoons
- Jerkbaits
Fall · Top pick
Crappie
As temps drop through the 60s, crappie follow shad into creeks and shallower brush at 8-20 ft. Tight-line minnows or tiny jigs near submerged structure.
- 1/32-1/16 oz jigs with soft plastic bodies
- Live minnows
- Small spinners
Fall · Top pick
White Bass / Wiper / Striped Bass
Fall is prime. Schools push shad into coves and the surface, in water of 55-70F. Run-and-gun with swimbaits, spoons, and topwaters.
- White jigs and curly tails
- Spoons and slabs
- Inline spinners
Fall · Top pick
Largemouth Bass
Cooling water to the 60s sends bass chasing shad up creek arms, often in 3-15 ft. Fast baits like spinnerbaits, squarebills and topwaters let you cover water until you find the schools. As water nears 50F they drift to deeper points and bluffs.
- Plastic worms (Texas, wacky, Carolina)
- Jigs with craw trailers
- Spinnerbaits and chatterbaits
Fall · Top pick
Smallmouth Bass
As water falls through the 60s they feed heavily on crawfish and baitfish around rocky points and mid-depth flats of 8-25 ft. Jerkbaits, swimbaits, and crawfish-colored crankbaits are a good starting point.
- Tube jigs
- Drop-shot with small minnow plastics
- Ned rig
Before you go
Pack it, check it, fish it
- Check your state's regulations, because limits and seasons change.
- Open the lake page for the map, ramps and nearest bait shop.
- Run through the trip checklist so nothing stays on the kitchen counter.