Every year is different, but this year, if you love to fish in the fall, there’s been a lot of really nice weather to get out and fish in the upper midwest.
This fall on Devils Lake, the JMO team has been doing a lot of fishing along old road beds and over deep rock piles. Traditionally, we use a lot of jigging raps and glide baits like Tikka Minos or Shiver Minnows this time of year. This year, however, it seems like the bite is better on live baits, so an old school simple jig and minnow have been the go-to. The biggest thing we’re seeing with our forward facing sonar is that a lot of times these fish want it moving pretty aggressively. The aggressive movement also seems to call fish in, so we’ll spot lock over areas where we’re noticing some clutter on the bottom that might be young of the year white bass with walleyes mixed in.
A lot of times when jigging minnows later in the year when the fish won’t go on the glide baits anymore, we’ll fish that jig and minnow a little bit like a glide bait – in the sense that you let it fall on slack line to hit the bottom. A lot of times, these fish are hitting it by pinning it right next to the bottom. It’s just a bit slowed down, subdued version of what you would do with a jigging rap. Lift the jig up 3-5 feet and let it fall right back down and you’ll notice these fish tip up and hit it right off the bottom. It seems like these fish, for whatever reason, sure like it when you make that bottom contact right now.
Just an observation from this week on Devils Lake that might help you put more fish in the live well right now.
