Fall is my favourite time of year to fish. The fish are fattening up, the weather is cooler, and you can often more easily identify “where they will be”. When my brother and I decided to make a one-day run up to one of our go to spots at the Bayfield Inlet, we were hoping for a good day, but didn’t expect what we experienced.
It was October, so our plan was to look for any weeds that were still green, counting on the fish to be hanging around the oxygen-rich water. We were also keeping an eye on the water temps, to see if there were obvious changes in our various spots. Our first stop was a small two-part bay off the main channel, and we decided to troll into it so we would watch the graph and get some intel, but a couple minutes in a 38in Pike decided to say hello. Not a bad first fish :).
Our program for the day was to leverage a manageable breeze to create drifts. We’d troll or drive up to the start of the run, and let the wind push us as we casted over the tops of the weeds, letting the bait drop into the holes. We’d make small corrections to the drift, and change the start point to keep moving over new water.
We caught a big number of Pike that day, and while many were in the 25 inch range (still very fun to catch), we caught many that were 35in and up. All of them were clearly getting ready for the winter, as they were thickening up.
In addition to the weed beds, we did cover the deeper water off the shoals. Here the weed beds were still intact, but the fish were far less active. We put a bit of time is so that we didn’t miss an opportunity, but we returned to our most productive spots after having given them a rest.
While were were having lunch on the shore of a picturesque bay, we kept hearing some thrashing off-shore. We were considering if it was perhaps a beaver / otter, or an injured bird. After some observation, we realized it was fish feeding along a weed edge. Well well….right after lunch another sizeable pike was landed.
Our go to lure was a #70 Williams Wabler. I was using bright silver all day. I think the #60 would have worked just as well. The key was to make long casts, and retrieve fast enough that you didn’t get stuck in the weeds immediately, but also to alter the cadence so the lure would drop and dart. Often the strike would happen as we let the bait fall.
I bookended my day with another 38in fatty, in the same bay where we started. It was amazing the number of big fish we pulled out of an area about the size of a football field. It really was a spot within a spot. I love my spring fishing trips, I like the warm weather of the summer, but nothing beats fall fishing for me, and I bet you can tell why!