The fall season is no doubt a very active time for most everybody; leaf raking, grass cutting and a host of other outside jobs that should be completed before the cold weather sets in. For the hunting and fishing types fall is especially active given that all kinds of hunting seasons are available not to mention there is still some good fishing to be had. Many of us are trying to squeeze in some archery hunting as well as some fall turkey hunting. We also have the statewide archery season for bear from Oct. 28-Nov. 9 and for small game enthusiasts the pheasant season opens on Oct. 26-Nov. 29 plus some other opportunities in December. In addition to all of that rabbits, grouse and squirrels are also on the fall schedule. Oh yeah, my wife and I are also planning on a day or two of hunting in the Special Firearms deer season for antlerless deer only from Oct. 24 -26; that season includes senior license holders amongst others.

As I already mentioned in addition to all the hunting opportunities there is also a lot of potentially good fishing still available. One day this past week I weighed the options, sit in my treestand with my compound bow at the ready or sit in my boat with an ultralight spinning rod at the ready-I opted for the boat and spinning rod. Fishing companion Tim Herr and I met up with my brother Dave and fishing friend Bill Wilhelm at Foster Joseph Sayers Dam for an afternoon of crappie fishing.

I know a lot of fishermen think of crappies as a spring or early summer pursuit but late summer and fall can also offer up some decent fishing. Spring fishing for crappies revolves around shallower water wood structures and the like but by late summer and early fall we head for the deeper waters. On this particular trip we concentrated our efforts in water from 17-22 feet. Now just because we were fishing deep water doesn’t not necessarily mean that you have to concentrate all your fishing efforts at the bottom. The fact is we had very little action when working our lures on or near the bottom; it’s not that the fish weren’t there-they just didn’t seemed interested in our presentation.

We were constantly locating large schools of fish (I suspect mostly crappies) with our sonar equipment at the bottom but also at all other depths throughout the 17-22 feet so we knew we were in a good location. Most of our action came from fish in the schools located at the mid to upper portion of the water we were targeting. Small ice-fishing jigs or one-sixteenth or one-thirty-second once jigs with a small soft rubber grub produced best. Crappies can be a little finicky this time of year so we tipped our jigs with a wax-worm or mealworm. I’m sure live minnows would also be a good choice. While the fishing wasn’t as fast and furious as spring crappie ventures can be, we boated enough to make the trip well worth the effort.

Like a lot of you, I too will continue to juggle my fall activities to fit in as much hunting and fishing as possible which reminds me you are all welcome to stop by my open house Nov. 2 and 3-yeah I know, right in the middle of all that good hunting and fishing. If you are interested in wildlife art stop by my studio and gallery at 4186 Muncy Exchange Road just east of Muncy. It’s all that hunting and fishing that inspires me to paint the things I do so come by and say hello. If you have any questions call me at 570-494-6665.