There aren’t enough days in October for all the outdoor opportunities, but here are a few of the region’s best options.
Submitted photo
October is arguably the best month of the year to be outdoors in the Midwest. Archery deer seasons are open across the region. Upland hunters are stretching their legs across the plains. And anglers have so much opportunity, they don’t know what to do with themselves. This is the month to spend as much time outdoors as possible.
If you like catching largemouth bass, now is when they are feeding agressivley. Same goes for for toothy predators like northern pike and muskie. Panfishing is hot across the region and anglers are staying busy filling freezers with bags of bluegillm, crappie and perch filets. With a little planning and calendar management, sportsmen can have it all in October. Now if only the month were a little longer. Here are a few suggestions for where you could enjoy the outdoors this month:
Indiana: Cagles Mill Crappie
Cagles Mill, also known as Catarct Lake, is located in the west-central part of the state near Cloverdale. The 1,400-acre impoundment is well known for it’s crappie fishing. October is a top month for putting limits in the livewell. The reservoir is used for flood control, so conditions vary, but at normal pool wise anglers focus on fishing standing timber or sunken brush in depths of 4 to 6 feet deep near creek channels. Crappies are caught on jigs or under a bobber with a minnow. White crappie are usually found a little deeper than blacks. In October, crappie are are usually biting below Cataract Falls at Lieber SRA. Night fishing is also popular around boat docks with artificial lights.
Michigan: Archery Deer
As home to Fred Bear, Michigan is often regarded as the birthplace of modern archery hunting. Perhaps no desintation in the country has the potential to transport one back to the early days of archery deer hunting like the Upper Pennisula of Michigan. With a strong deer population spread out across millions of acres of public lands, hunters have the opportunity to hunt forests where they’ll likely not encounter other hunters. Camping is free on most federal lamds, so traditional deer camps pop up all over during the season, which opens on Oct. 1. In the Central UP, Delta and Marquette Counties are known for record book bucks. In the western reaches, Ontonagon and Iron Counties produce lots of big, old bucks. The Hiawatha National Forest and Ottawa National Forest offer more land than any group of hunters could need. Brook trout fishing and grouse hunting are solid add-ons to an October archery deer hunt in the UP.
Minnesota: Ducks
From sitting on stools in small marshes to layout boats on Lake Superior, Minnesota has a lot to offer duck hunters. Duck season is broken down into three sections, North (Sept. 23-Nov. 21), Central (Sept. 23-Oct. 1 and Oct. 7-Nov. 26), and South (Sept. 23-Oct. 1 and Oct. 7-Nov. 26). In the Land of 10,000 Lakes, there is more duck hunting opportunity than one could hope for. Lac qui Parle Wildlife Management Area located near Appleton offers 33,000 acres in Western Minnesota. This is known to be a top-tier destination for duck hunting. The area is made up diverse habitats attracting a slew of duck species. On the opposite side fo the state, the Mississippi River system is home to countless sloughs and backwaters that fill up with diucks as they migrate south for the winter.
Missouri: Pomme de Terre Muskie
Pomme de Terre is a premiere muskie lake in a part of the country where muskie aren’t expected to be found. Located at the southern edge of our coutry’s musky zone, Pomme is well-regarded as the place to go in the Show-Me State to tangle with one of these toothy predators. When the water temperature drops into the 60s in October, the fish are feeding aggressively in the shallows. Focus on water less than 10 feet deep. With 8,000 acres of surface water, this big reservoir is clear with a rocky bottom. If you can find a distinct weedline along a dropoff back deep in finger, you’ll want to fish that with a large in-line spinner or big, shallow running stick bait. MDC first stocked muskies in Pomme de Terre in 1966. They have thrived there ever since. Quarry Point Public Use Area is a good starting point.
Ohio: Fall Turkey
Fall turkey hunting is nowhere near as popular as spring turkey hunting. This is good news for those strong souls venturing out into the October turkey woods. For the hardcore turkey hunters out there, fall can be a great time to pursue these magnificent birds without much competition in the field. Fall wild turkey season opens on the second Saturday of October. This year, that date is Oct. 12. A top tactic in the fall is to locate a flock of turkeys and purposefully break them up, then work on calling them back together. Blue Rock State Forest and Fernwood State Forest are two public properties wehre you may be able to break up a large flock of turkeys and call one back to you.
South Dakota: Lake Oahe Northern Pike
Northern pike can be found throughout Lake Oahe. This is a pike fishing destination where anglers can target both numbers and size, and October is one of the best months of the year to fish for them. This time of year, as pike are gorging themselves ahead of the coming winter, anglers focus on the mouths of the bays. Throwing spoons, spinners, and stickbaits on , cloudy and chilly days over points is the top tactic, but floating large minnows under bobbers at varying depths is another favorite method of catching pike. Numerous guides and outfitters offer pike fishing excursions. South Whitlock Resort near Forest City boasts about your chances of boating big fish over 40 inches. Their website media gallery backs up this claim. Lake Oahe is big water, and can be dangerous on windy days in small boats. Use caution when tackiling this giant reservoir.
See you down the trail…
Brandon Butler writes an outdoors column for The Republic. Send comments to [email protected]. For more Driftwood Outdoors, check out the podcast on www.driftwoodoutdoors.com or anywhere podcasts are streamed.
