How should I fish the weeks when summer breaks into fall?
Follow the cooling water shallower, week by week. As stream temperatures drop back through 18 °C (64 °F) and lower — late August into September at mid-latitudes — rainbows and brook trout that spent summer pinned to cold refuges spread back through the whole system, and the morning-only ethic can relax into all-day fishing. On lakes, the thermocline is eroding from the top down, so lake trout begin appearing shallower than their midsummer 20–30 m (66–98 ft): intercept them at 12–20 m (40–66 ft) structure before turnover finishes the job. It is also the year's big-meal season — fish grow urgent about calories, and streamers and larger lures out-produce the tiny stuff of summer.
The full story
This answer is one piece of a longer lesson — setups, diagrams and the reasoning behind it.
Same topic, other species
- What happens to crappie as the water starts cooling in early fall? — Crappie
- When do largemouth move shallow in fall? — Largemouth Bass
- Where do muskie go when the weeds start dying in fall? — Muskellunge (Muskie)
- When do perch abandon the weeds in fall? — Yellow Perch
- What happens to pike as the water starts cooling in early fall? — Northern Pike
- What changes for walleye when the water starts cooling in early fall? — Walleye