At 63 degrees, surface water has cooled enough to trigger some early fall panfish movement. Crappies in Big Cutfoot Sioux Lake have made a couple of trial runs into deep water, but for the most part, they continue to relate to green vegetation. That’s made crappie fishing something of a hit and miss proposition for our guests. Cloudy, breezy weather is good; the fish roam out and away from the weed edges. Anglers can find fish by trolling spinners or moving along the weedline with plastic action tails on small jigs. When a good school of fish is found, slowing down and fishing with jigs tipped with small fatheads or crappie minnows will probably produce better catches. Little Cutfoot crappies have been a little easier to locate because more of them have moved away from the shoreline. But don’t expect to find any territory that hasn’t been fished, fishing pressure on the small lake has been heavy, even intense at times.
Our guests Mike and Atcha Nolan fished Little Cutfoot with one of the local guides and they reported having a decent catch. Their guide told us; “There were good fish biting during mid-day, we caught quite a few using jigs tipped with plastic tails. Later in the afternoon, the fish seemed to go dormant and the action slowed way down. If I was going back again tomorrow, I’d make sure to fish through mid-morning and into the early afternoon. If I was looking for an afternoon/evening bite, I’d skip Little Cutfoot and move back out to one of the larger lakes.” Daytime walleye fishing on both Winnie and Cutfoot has been tough.
When conditions are ideal, some guests, especially the seasoned anglers have been able to coax some walleyes out of the weeds. But those who are “in the know” are waiting for the evening run to begin, fishing from twilight and on into the night. Trolling crankbaits in 12 to 14 feet of water has produced walleye action along the shoreline on the big lake. Our guests enjoyed catching good numbers of walleyes during the fall of 2018. There were lots of large fish along with a healthy smattering of keepers in the mix as well.
As water temperatures cool, walleyes will become more active again and we’ve got our fingers crossed that the fall fishing will be as good as it was during the fall of 2018. It won’t be long before we find out!