Seasons roll through one after another in nature’s cycle. When we are in winter, we are thinking and wishing for the summer to come. Looking forward, dreaming ahead, planning for the next fishing season or for another trip in our beloved golden hole.
The hot days of summer offer action in and out of the water, with holidays and vacations for many. Much has been said and written, and countless songs celebrate the summer.
Indeed, summer is nice and I enjoy it, but it is just the precursor, for what truly is the very best fishing season of the year, for many fish species, in many areas, in both freshwater and saltwater across North America. That season is now. Starting in September, going strong through October and into November, we anglers experience the core of the core, the heart of the heart, of the fishing season.
For many fish species, fall is the time to eat heavily and get fat to prepare for the sparse winter to come, because right after winter comes the spawning season for most. While cold winter water might lead to lethargy for some species, those that spawn in spring require the energy reserves to produce eggs and sperm. This takes a lot energy, so they must feed heavily in the fall, and take every opportunity to fill their stomachs. It’s a fantastic opportunity for anglers to cast lures or bait to fish that are more concerned with their next snack than anything else.
In my homewaters on the Florida shoreline, snook and tarpon will be feeding ravenously on scads of mullet during the famous mullet run. At the same time, walleye will be raiding schools of minnows along the shorelines of a lake in Wisconsin. In Texas, largemouth bass will be ready for any chance to swallow a crawdad lurking around logs in a reservoir. Fat stripers will boil on the bunker in their fleeing dance somewhere between the mainland and Cuttyhunk Island in Massachusetts, and calico bass will be involved in a mass killing baitfish along the California kelp lines. And this list could go on and on for countless species and fisheries across the continent.
If I were able to build a year for fishing on my own terms, I would make six months just like September, six months like October, and I would add in a glimpse of November. I know this doesn’t add up to 12 months, but let me just dream. My perfect fishing year would mean it would now and forever be the best time of year.
But enough of that, I need to take my hands from this keyboard and grab my rods. I suggest you do the same. The short window that is the best time of year has already begun.