Show: Redtail Bonanza in Minnesota
Destination: North Central Minnesota
Anglers: Gary Parsons and Mark Boyd
Season: Late-October

While any time is a great time to get out on the water and do some walleye fishing, there's something about the fall of the year, especially during the full moon of October that drives many anglers to feel they Must go fishing. Maybe it’s the fact they know winter is just around the corner and there are precious few good fishing trips left in the season, or maybe it’s because this time of year is traditionally a time the bite is so good. No doubt it’s a time that fishing pressure dwindles, and you can often find yourself having a body of water all to yourself. That's the way it was for us on this trip. Hard to imagine ... a couple of beautiful fall days, on a northern Minnesota lake full of nice walleyes and smallmouth bass, and we were the only boat there. It really doesn't get much better than this.

Pattern:
The lake we fished on this particular show was very much like a lot of natural lakes you’ll find across the northern part of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. Not real big, not really heavily fished, but a lake that has a good variety of structure both deep and shallow, relatively clear water and a solid population of walleyes and smallmouth, with plenty of potential for the occasional trophy.

There are a lot of fall patterns that will work for putting walleyes in the boat but one technique in particular seems to work just about anywhere you would care to fish in the fall ... live bait rigging large chubs on steep breaking structure. It’s not the easiest pattern to master really. Boat control is a big part of it … staying tight on steep structure takes practice, especially if you’re dealing with any wind at all. And just hooking a fish on a large minnow rig can be difficult, because it’s all in the timing of the hook set and getting the hook to find its mark in the jaw of a fish that has a mouth full of chub. But when it’s working, as it often will on many natural lakes and reservoirs in the fall, it’s a fun and productive pattern to be sure.

The key to fishing these lakes this time of year is to find the structure the fish are most relating too. In this case it was the sharp breaks from shoreline flats as well as mid-lake humps. For what ever reason, walleyes (and many other species for that matter) like this type of structure in fall. And they bunch up there, so once you find a good spot, the chances of catching a few fish is pretty good. In fact, this is one pattern where its often tough to specifically target walleyes, because in the fall, these structures will harbor most every predatory fish in the system including northerns, muskies and even bass right along with the walleyes. This lake had a good population of both walleyes and smallmouth bass, and although our quest was for walleyes, who’s going to turn their nose up at a feisty fighting smallmouth now and then … they’re still fun even though they don’t have teeth!

The breaks where we found the best concentrations of fish were ones that had a hard bottom with scattered rocks and some wood debris. It’s the type of bottom that has a tendency to "eat" a lot of conventional bait rig offerings, but the live bait rig we use on this show is one that is ideally suited for these conditions. The set-up went like this; a 7’ Walleye Angler Signature Series model WA70MS-HM85 rod with a Bass Pro Shops Pro Qualifier model PQ1000B reel spooled with Berkley Trilene Maxx 6 pound test line. The rig sinker was a new one we just love and it works great in these snag infested situations, a Fin-tech Rat-L-N Fin-"Tech Stik" (1/2 ounce). From there we tied on a size #12 swivel and then a leader of 6 pound test Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon. On the business end we used a Mustad Fine Wire Octopus Beak hook model 92604R (red) in size #2. We’d bait that with a 4 to 6 inch Redtail Chub and we were fishin’. Another hook Gary likes to use when fishing big chubs is a modified Mustad Live Bait Hook model LB10546. This hook is even lighter wire than the 92604, and Gary likes to modify it by bending it in such a way as to open up the gap of the hook making it ideal for fishing big minnows. (Parsons is constantly tweaking on things … guess that’s why he’s winning tournaments and Angler of the Year titles and I’m working behind a desk 99% of the time). Gary does a great job of demonstrating his custom hook bending techniques on this show, so you won’t want to miss that!

Another thing in this show you’ll want to pay attention too is the way we set the hook when rigging these fish. It’s not the way most people think of setting the hook when fishing … in fact its not like setting the hook at all. As with many live bait rigging tactics, we fish the rig with the bail open on the spinning reel, holding the line with the index finger. When we feel a bite, we let the line out so the fish can move off with the big Chub, then we position the boat so we are back over the top of the fish. Then the key is to slowly reel in the line until we feel the fish and instead of sweeping the rod to set to hook, we simply start reeling fast, allowing the rod to load up and the weight of the fish to set to hook. It’s a very effective method, and when you watch the show you’ll learn more about the advantages this has over other hook setting techniques.

Fall fishing ranks as one of our favorite activities. The fish are feeding, the boat traffic is almost nonexistent, and it’s just a magical time of year to be on the water. I really feel that as you watch this show, you’ll not only enjoy the fish catching as we did, but you come away with some great info to help you get your Next Bite!