Mike Frisch: The perks of October fishing

What s your favorite time to go fishing? That is a question as a professional angler I hear often. My answer: October. I love October for lots of reasons. First, I love the solitude of being on the water during a time of year when most people are engaged in other activities. The pleasure boats, pontoons and jet skis that are numerous during summer are mostly gone now. Plus, lots of other anglers head for the woods and sloughs now to hunt. Being all alone on a nice October day with the lake virtually to myself is about as good as it gets. The second thing I love about fall is that the fish bite now, too. For example, every year in October I carve out a day or two to chase crappies. Some of my best fish catches in terms of crappie numbers have come in October. And this isn t just a panfish thing. Some of my quickest catches of limits of walleyes when I was a fishing guide came during October. And, my all-time best days for smallmouth bass numbers have all come during this mon