Coming of age in the 60’s was a blessing. The 60’s are also a special time on the River. We haven’t seen the 60’s here since May…But they’re Baaack!

Fish know seasonal change is on the way. River is on the rise again from historic low levels to near-perfect pre-autumn stage–and water temps are a solid 65-67 degrees in both the River mainstem and running sloughs.

Rising river levels bring weeds. Contending with weeds is a fact of life in autumn–either contend with them by modifying presentation or move to where you can fish without bringing in salad on every cast.

Talking dead, floating weeds. Not elodea( coontail) which is a magnet for perch. The projected one-foot River rise over the next couple days will push the perch into the elodea in 18 inches- 6 fow.

Crappies are already staging in the wood–4′ down over at least 10 fow. Gills are still on main channel rocks but will begin to move toward over-winter areas as the River continues to rise–which it most certainly will over the next month or so.

There is a tremendous amount of food–mostly shad–available to gamefish now. Bass &pike won’t be far away, once you find them.

Some walleyes, too. But with temps now in the 60s I would rather go after the easy fish–relatively speaking, since willocats are now tough to come by. With a finite number of main channel rocky structures getting so much boat traffic, I’ve gone to plan B: drifting outside channel edges in 9-15 fow in running sloughs with a half-crawler threaded on a #B-Fish-N Tackle 3/16 oz Precision jig in Pyrokeet pattern.

True, 3 out of 4 fish will be shorts–but when you catch 15-20 its LUNCH…and that sweet rush of adrenaline every time you set the hook!