September is one of my favorite fishing months of the year!\nThe summer heat is a thing of the past, and cooling water temperatures have\nfish on the feed as they prepare for the lean winter months ahead. From bass\nfishing in the Snake River to hitting trout streams and chasing trophy perch at\nLake Cascade, there are plenty of options to enjoy. Here are some ideas to get\nyou started: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alpine Lakes (Trout) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s last call for alpine lakes! September is a great month\nto visit them, as the crowds thin out considerably. Just make sure to bring\nlayers (and lots of warm clothes if you\u2019re camping, it gets chilly at night!)\nFishing out of a float tube is almost always the best way to go in alpine\nlakes, as it gives you access to the entire fishery and allows you to fish a\nwide variety of tactics. I recently hiked into Louie Lake in McCall and spent a\nglorious early fall day catching healthy westslope cutthroat trout. Rapalas,\nPanther Martin spinners and hopper patterns were the ticket for me. My friend\nMark did equally well fly-fishing exclusively, picking up fish on leech and\nhopper patterns. Louie Lake, if you go, has trophy rules that require\nartificial lures and barbless hooks. There are countless alpine lakes to\nexplore in the McCall, Cascade, Stanley and Idaho City areas. Get out and fish\nthem before the cold weather arrives! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Snake River (Bass) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bass fishing can be absolute fire in early fall,\nparticularly for smallmouth in the Snake River. The fish sense cold weather\nahead and put on the feedbag\u2014it\u2019s not uncommon to catch smallies with gullets\ncrammed with crayfish and minnows. Many lure options will work in the fall.\nSome of my favorites are crayfish-colored crankbaits, spinnerbaits, soft\nplastic crayfish, small swimbaits, drop-shot rigs and topwater plugs like the\nWhopper Plopper. If you find a fishy area, stay put! Fall bass will stack up in\nfavorable feeding areas. Be prepared to move around and try several access\npoints if you need to, as floating weeds can be a nuisance at times. In\naddition to the Snake River, you can find good fall bass action on the Payette\nRiver as well as C.J. Strike, Brownlee, Anderson Ranch and Swan Falls\nReservoirs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lake Cascade (Perch) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Lake Cascade is notoriously finicky, but fall is one of the\nbest times to fish it. The perch are hungry and active, and there\u2019s also good\nfishing for rainbow trout and smallmouth bass. Drop-shot rigs with live worms,\nNed Rigs and crankbaits are good options, particularly the drop-shot for\ntargeting perch. I recently fished Cascade with local guide Chris Weber, and we\nhad an awesome day catching perch (and a little of everything, with seven species\nlanded). Most of the perch we caught were over 12 inches, with the biggest one measuring\nin at 15.25 inches and 2.2 pounds. It\u2019s an awesome trophy fishery! For the most\npart, we found perch schooled up in 15 to 20 feet of water over mud bottoms\nnear rocky transitions. Water levels are dropping, but the Blue Heron and Van\nWyck boat ramps are still accessible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Owyhee River (Trout) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The fall months are synonymous with brown trout fishing, and\nthere\u2019s no better place to catch trophy browns than the Owyhee River in eastern\nOregon. Fish can almost always be taken on the fly\u2014hopper patterns, small zebra\nmidges, pheasant tail nymphs and sculpzilla streamers are good options for\nearly fall. Minnow imitations including Rapalas, spoons and spinners will also\ncatch fish. Remember, fishing the Owyhee requires an Oregon license, and all\nbrown trout are catch-and-release only. Tight lines! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" September is one of my favorite fishing months of the year! The summer heat is a thing of the past, and cooling water temperatures have fish on the feed as they prepare for the lean winter months ahead. From bass fishing in the Snake River to hitting trout streams and chasing trophy perch at Lake…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1993"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1995,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1993\/revisions\/1995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}