| As the weather gets colder, so does the water | | | | to a fly rod and flies or small little jigs. With a fly rod, |
| temperature. And just like people, fish tend to slow | | | | you can use dry flies, like a Royal Wulff, if you notice |
| down outside and are not as active. During the | | | | fish feeding on the surface. If you don't see fish |
| summer, fast retrieves of lures like crank baits, | | | | rising, then switch to a wet fly or a streamer and |
| rooster tails, top water lures and spinners works | | | | slowly retrieve your flies. With a dry fly you can let it |
| because fish like bass and pan fish are actively | | | | sit on the top of the water and twitch it every 5 |
| feeding. But when the weather starts to get cooler, | | | | seconds or so to imitate a bug. The best size fly to |
| the fish tend to slow down and feed less often. The | | | | use for pan fish during this time would be a size 12 or |
| first phase of fall fishing is to slow down, the second | | | | smaller fly. If you're after bass, you can use a little |
| phase is to go smaller. | | | | larger size fly. If you're fishing with lures, try small |
| When the weather first starts to get cool and you | | | | tube jigs and either jig them over a boat or toss |
| notice you're not catching as many fish as you once | | | | them out and slowly retrieve them bouncing them |
| were, the best thing to do is slow down your | | | | off the bottom. You can also attach tiny lures onto |
| retrieve. Experiment with different speeds until you | | | | the back of larger lures or use a split shot to get |
| start catching fish and stick with that speed. If you're | | | | small lures cast out. |
| worried about your lure getting caught on the | | | | Eventually the weather and the fishing slows down |
| bottom or in the weeds because of the slow | | | | to the point where you're not catching any fish and |
| retrieve, then you might want to switch to a top | | | | your hands are freezing. At this point, you can either |
| water lure or a floating crank bait. That way you can | | | | wait for Spring to arrive or you can wait just a little |
| retrieve your lure slowly without worrying about it | | | | longer for the lake to freeze and take up ice fishing. |
| going down and snagging. | | | | Eventually whether it's ice fishing or extreme cold |
| The second phase of fall fishing happens when your | | | | fishing, you're going to want to fish deeper down and |
| slow retrieve doesn't seem to work as well as it did. | | | | use live bait on the end of jig heads. This fall, don't |
| Rather than giving up for the season, you may still | | | | give up, go slow and small and you just might extend |
| be able to catch fish by downsizing your lures. Switch | | | | your fishing season. |