The crappies here in the Twin Cities are starting to show late summer patterns, moving up on the docks to feed in the evenings and at night, even with the recent heat. This evening my partner and I will be testing one of our favorite fall crappie docks to see how far that has progressed. Last evening I hit another and for quite a while it was a fish on every cast. Once this pattern starts to work, it generally continues for us until the Park Board and the DNR de-install the docks around the beginning of November. For us late summer and fall are every bit as good as pre-spawn and bedding time.

I normally expect this to start around here when the tomatoes start to ripen and the potato vines start to die off. Both are happening in my backyard garden.