All walleye anglers know when summer is ending and fall is beginning just by the way the walleye are acting and eating. As the water temperatures start dropping the walleye start feeding more. More food helps them to stay alive when they slow down during the cold winters. You will have incredible luck catching a walleye during the fall because they are looking for anything they can find to eat. They will strike at just about anything in the fall months. As the water gets colder, the walleye tend to move to the deeper waters around underwater structures such as island, humps and points.



Even though the walleye are on the move, trolling is going to work well for hooking the big fish. When you find a location that has many walleyes, you can jig or rig and catch many walleyes. You can use leadcore to get the bait lower down in the water. You should use an eighteen-pound leadcore test line with a ten-foot leader. The test line should have some stretch or you could snap the line in the cold temperatures. Before you even get out on the lake, you should look at a map to see where the underwater structures are because this is where you will find the walleye.

To fish with live minnows during the fall, you can catch your own. The best live minnow is one that you have taken out of the water you are fishing. These minnows will stay alive longer in the colder waters. You will also be able to cast the minnow more than just once and it will still be alive and moving. The bigger the minnow the more chances you will have that the walleye is going to take the bait. During the fall, the walleye are looking for bigger baits. They are also starting to slow down because the water temperatures are dropping so you need to present the bait to them in the area that they are located. They do not want to have to chase the bait at this time.

The great thing about fall walleye fishing is that the fish are going to be located in one or more areas instead of spread out all over the lake as they are during the summer months. They will be by the underwater structures, all you need to do is drop the bait right in front of them, and you should have your catch. They are hungry and prefer the food to come to them. You can use just about any presentation, but the live, larger bait is going to work the best.

The early fall walleyes will still be by some of the weed beds that are still around, but as these weed beds start to die off, the baitfish will move and so will the walleye. You could fish the weed beds as long as the walleye stay there. They will gradually start moving to deeper waters. You might see them in ten feet of water at the end of August and by the middle of September, they could be in twenty feet of water. As the temperatures keep dropping, they will move to water depths of twenty-five feet or deeper.