By Mike Frisch
What’s your favorite time to go fishing? That is a question as a professional angler that I hear often. My answer: October. I love October for lots of reasons.
First, I love the solitude of being on the water during a time of year when most people are engaged in other activities. The pleasure boats, pontoons, and jet skis that are numerous during summer are mostly gone now. Plus, lots of other anglers head for the woods and sloughs now to hunt. Being all alone on a nice October day with the lake virtually to myself is about as good as it gets!
The second thing I love about fall is that the fish bite now too. For example, every year in October I carve out a day or two to chase crappies. Some of my best fish catches in terms of crappie numbers have come in October. And this isn’t just a “panfish thing” either. Some of my quickest catches of limits of walleyes when I was a fishing guide came during October. And, my all-time best days for smallmouth bass numbers have all come during this month.
Not only do numbers of fish bite during October, but this is also big fish time. For example, I was on one of my favorite bass lakes near Alexandria, MN recently and caught a 5-pound largemouth and several other fish in the 4-pound range in an afternoon of fishing. That’s a good day, but not that uncommon for where I live during this time of the year. Further evidence October being big fish month: last year I was blessed to catch a 14-pound South Dakota October walleye!
That big fish came on a trolled crankbait. Another thing I like about this month is that I can still fish aggressively to catch fish. Lots of walleyes have come in my boat now trolling cranks and nightcrawlers behind bottom bouncers. As for bass fishing, crankbaits, bladed swim jigs, and other moving baits catch fish now by simply casting and retrieving them. That big bass day I referenced earlier, for example, came by casting Thunder Cricket bladed swim jigs and KVD Elite 4.0 Squarebills across remnant weed flats. This is simple “power fishing” but highly productive and one of my favorite ways to fish!
The final thing that makes October my favorite fishing month is that it’s the last full month of fishing that I will have in a boat for several months. My happy place is in a boat and I relish and enjoy every day I get to spend fishing and my October days are usually the last of my open water season!
The best month to fish? October, for the reasons just mentioned. Get out and enjoy October and remember to include a youngster in your next outdoors adventure!
Mike Frisch hosts the popular Fishing the Midwest TV series. See www.fishingthemidwest.com.
PHOTO – The author releases a big fall bass.
