5 must-know tricks for landing lunker walleye, brook trout, bass, perch & pike in fall

Pike and other big fall fish are sucker for cisco-imitating presentationsDon’t winterize your boat and stash away your tackle just yet—late fall is the best time of the open-water season to target and catch the biggest fish in the lake. The days are getting shorter and the water temperature is plummeting, however, so the curtain is about to drop. With winter soon barreling in, that means the lunkers are putting on the feedbag, making it prime time for some end-of-season power plays.

Key to striking it rich is understanding that giant walleye, jumbo perch, princely pike and huge smallmouth bass all share a common late-fall strategy. That being? They all stage in key areas to intercept hordes of soft, silvery, oily, nutritious ciscoes—often the most numerous fish in the lake—migrating out of deep water to spawn (see “Cisco sites” on p. 5). Here’s how to capitalize on the feeding frenzy and land those late-season lunkers and more…