The last few weeks have made this October the warmest I can remember. As enjoyable as the weather was, it was bittersweet for me. The warm sunny days kept the water from cooling off like it usually does this time of year. The water is still in the 50’s, where it usually is in the low 40’s by now. This has made the walleye very difficult to catch consistently. We are still catching some walleye but not near as well as it will be once the water gets into the mid 40’s. On the sweet side, the excellent smallmouth bite has continued right through October. We’ve experienced some of the best crappie and smallmouth fishing of the year recently.
The smallmouth are still in 5-15 feet of water hitting anything that resembles a minnow. These fish are looking all set for winter with their oversized bellies. This has been one of the best years for smallmouth fishing, as well as the crappie fishing. It seems there is no end in sight for the crazy crappie action. They are still hovering over deep water 40’-45’ in massive schools. With a basic fish locator it’s very easy to locate these hungry schools of fish, as they will almost black out your screen because there are so many crappie in these areas. About 5-6 years ago we had the perfect spawning conditions for crappie. Fast forward to today and the Alexandria area has numerous lakes that are filled with big, beautiful crappie.
As the water temps continue to drop over the next couple weeks the walleye will start to feed much heavier. Even over the past few days we have noticed an increase of food in the bellies of the walleye we have caught. This is a great sign of what’s to come in November. Normally October is the peak for the fall walleye bite, but with the warm weather this year early to mid-November will most likely be the prime walleye bite everyone has waited for.
The crappie and walleye action over the next few weeks should be some of the best fishing of the year, so don’t put the boat away yet! I know it’s difficult when the calendar says November, but trust me it’ll be worth your effort to get out!
