While the woods are heating up and the waters are cooling down, this time of year is a great time to catch trophy fish. People are switching gears to hunting season which is leaving fish less pressured and more apt to seek food before the winter, and walleye are high-quality fish to hook this time of year.
DGIF’s walleye fisheries produce ample opportunities for catching this fish. The fall is a prime time to fish for walleye (and most other species) because there’s fewer competition with other anglers and walleye are feeding aggressively as winter approaches. Virginia provides great recreational opportunities for anglers to catch a unique fish species that is not found everywhere. And, walleye are considered to be among the best tasting freshwater fish to eat.
Walleye are annually stocked and most impoundments in the western and central parts of the state offer the best fishing. Smaller impoundments still provide great opportunities.
George Palmer, DGIF Fisheries Biologist, says the top destinations for walleye are:
•South Holston Reservoir
•Philpott Lake
•Claytor Lake
•Little Creek Reservoir
•Flannigan Reservoir
•Leesville Lake
“This time of year offer aesthetic value and fewer people on the water,” said Palmer.
Staunton River and New River are great destinations for walleye as well. Anglers can frequently catch them from the bank using a top water or crank bait, or simply a night crawler. Trolling for them and fishing at night are effective tactics, too.
“Anglers that have learned to fish for walleye do very well,” said Steve Owens, DGIF Fisheries biologist.
Most good-size walleye range from 4-6 pounds but can weigh up to 10 pounds.
Come fall, Virginia’s gamefish go on feeding frenzies as they try to put on weight before the hard times of winter begins. At least that’s what many state anglers believe. But is that belief a fact or fake news? Veteran DGIF fisheries biologist John Odenkirk weighs in.
“People do like to talk about the fall feeding frenzy,” he says. “Innately, it would seem that the fish would want to eat more in the autumn before the colder water of winter decreases their activity.
Was this New River smallmouth caught because it was participating in the fall feeding frenzy – or was it active because conditions were right?
“However, if the fall feeding frenzy were something that could be or had been documented, it likely would have been published in the scientific literature. And I have not seen anything in that regard. I have seen fall days on the water when the fish were extremely active, but was that just the randomness of visiting a fishery at just the right time?”
Like many anglers, Odenkirk has witnessed extremely active bass, stripers, and other species feeding ravenously in the spring and summer months. How are those feeding frenzies different from the ones observed in the autumn period? After all, aren’t gamefish always – at any season – instinctively wanting to consume as much food as possible? That is, of course, how fish stay alive.
Fish can even forage very aggressively in the winter. For example, a warm, overcast January afternoon when the water temperature rises three or four degrees can cause fish to feed heavily – relatively speaking – for an hour or even two. Odenkirk adds that frontal conditions at any time of the year can also spur feeding activity.
“An impending strong cold front can spur ravenous behavior almost any time as the barometer begins to fall,” he says. “However, it is certain juvenile fish need adequate biomass to survive their first winter; and if a fall feeding frenzy is the ticket for survival, then so be it.”
Takeaway thoughts? Go fishing whenever you can; pay attention to frontal conditions, cloud cover, and air and water temperatures; and change and adapt your game plan as necessary.
–Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries
