Trout provide a great cast portion of an autumn day outdoors, and will likely bite aggressively up until October when pheasants can be harvested and their feathers added to the desk to make more flies which in turn catch more trout. Simonson Photo.

By Nick Simonson

Labor Day weekend has come and gone, and the unofficial end of summer (or if you’re a hunter, and a glass-half-full type, the unofficial start to fall) has come with it.  The transition is never a clean break though, with plenty of summerlike fishing opportunities and warm days yet ahead with the autumnal equinox still three weeks away. Mentally for many of us in the outdoors, however, the rough tear the early September holiday weekend puts in the burlap-like fabric of the hunting and fishing calendars is often stitched together by lingering on the water opportunities with those rapidly advancing in the field adventures.

Sewing some great cast-and-blast trips whether parsed out over a week, or crammed into a single Saturday along with the return of college football games over the radio on the drive to and from the destination, allows for the harvesting of some incredible memories that have defined many an autumn for me and likely those who tote both a fishing rod and a firearm, and what a perfect day in the outdoors can be.  And there are a lot of willing fall fish to tie into the upcoming hunting seasons to fulfill the cast portion of the autumn combo.

Fall trout are aggressive, and where open seasons allow across the Midwest, those stocked rainbows and browns from spring which had deep water to hunker down in make a great target in autumn.  Using spoons, spinners and other fast-moving and flashy lures, anglers can quickly turn a warm afternoon into a successful one.  Additionally, smallmouth bass often get on the feed when waters are warmed by the sun on those clear late summer or early fall days, and tubes, sticks and other soft plastics are great go-tos for brown bass this time of year.  Muskies become a bit less wary and sucker season for the fish of 10,000 casts runs right up until ice-up, sometimes even overlapping with firearms deer opener as the bright orange top of a big float mirrors the blaze orange in the fields around many lakes.

Combine these opportunities with the approaching duck season openers in mid-September along with early upland game weekends such as sharptailed grouse, ruffed grouse and Hungarian partridge in the back half of the month leading up to the pheasant opener in October, and the chances to count both fins and wings on each day of the digital camera roll increase exponentially as the blast of new chances to enjoy the outdoors come to be. Connecting the two sides of the seasonal coin isn’t hard either, as often places to hunt are near or directly adjacent to great fishing.

I’ve fished a small lake for trout surrounded by a WMA, and after loading the boat bagged both pheasants and grouse from the immediate shoreline habitat open to hunting on a walk with my dog before heading home.  Many great waterfowl sloughs are connected to lakes that hold walleyes, pike and other hungry fall fish that need only a quick change of uniform and equipment from morning to afternoon activities. It’s not unusual to see a number of deer stands along a riparian stretch as I’ve drifted through in a boat or a canoe targeting sunny rock shoals for smallmouth bass this time of year either. With all the stocked waters and managed lands for fishing and hunting respectively that the modern sportsperson has at his or her fingertips, opportunity seemingly awaits at the end of every gravel road or green square on the online map to help connect the seasonal fabrics and weave the experiences together. Summer may be unofficially over, and fall activities might just be starting up, but the continuation of time outdoors both with fishing rod and shotgun (or bow, and later rifle) provides unique chances to experience everything  there is this time of year…in our outdoors.