Fishing report 9-15-13

Well, the weather today kept most of you on the couch for the Packer game. There's no shame in it, it was a nasty day.

When I was a kid, the old guy down the road used to call September rains like we had last night and today..."the trigger." He always believed that the first cold rain was the start of the fall season. I can't say I have empirically tested it, but it seems to hold true.

That means much of what people have been doing to catch fish is about to change. Good news...the biggest fish will start to become very active over the next couple of weeks. I love this time of year, and I'm always amazed how many people have called it a season by now.

Panfish will suspend off of mainlake points. They'll move in a couple times a day to feed, then move back out to suspend. Points that have 6-10 FOW on top, but 20-40 FOW around them are dynamite this time of year. Vertical tight-lines, fished just above the bottom is the best way to get keepers, but slip bobbers and drifting with split shot rigs can also produce.

Bass will be coming into the shallow water to feed. You can catch them in the places you have been, but the key factor will not be cover now, but bait. As the fish start to get aggressive for fall, I try to only fish areas where I can either visually spot or mark with my electronics schools of baitfish. These can be minnows or juvenile panfish....but no bait=no fish.

Pike fishing has been picking up the last ten days, but it will get super good over the next couple of weeks. I really like to use lipless cranks in a metalic or silver pattern around weeds on the edges of flat areas. It can be amazing how many you can catch using this approach.

Musky fishing will also pick up some as the temps cool. I'd still downsize your casting presentations a bit as I've seen some massive hardware getting thrown. Having a sucker out, and doing a figure eight on every cast is critical for success. Weed edges will hold fish, but I'll be spending some quality time around points that have schools of panfish on/near them.

Good Luck,
CT