Originally published in Lake of the Woods Area News, Volume 55, Number 4, Fall 2025
As an angler, one of the most appealing features of Lake of the Woods is its diversity. It is one of the best multi-species fisheries in the world and all of its different basins offer a variety of water clarities and fishing opportunities. If you are on Lake of the Woods, you can fish shallow, deep, around sand, rock, or weeds. Another aspect of the lake that anglers might overlook is current and how it can put fish in predictable locations.
Lake of the Woods has a massive current to it. While it’s fed by a number of rivers and creeks around the lake, most of its inflow arrives via Rainy Lake and flows out into the Winnipeg River at the two dams in Kenora, on the north end of the lake. Throughout the year, the current never stops, even keeping the water open throughout the winter in some of the narrow neck-down areas where the water really gets pushed through.
For anglers, current is our friend because it can put fish in predictable locations where we can catch them. In some of the areas with fast current, fish will hide behind rocks or high spots and wait for food to flow past. Areas with slower current can be appealing because they simply attract a lot of life in the form of baitfish. For anglers looking to get out on the water this fall and catch some fish, these types of areas are excellent, especially for walleye, bass, pike and musky.
The areas with slower current will attract baitfish, sometimes to spawn, sometimes for their own easy forage options. These baitfish attract the bigger, predator fish to these areas with moving water. We just have to get our lines in the water and figure out the sweet spots or the best depths to focus on. Trolling, casting and jigging can all be effective in these locations.
Current can also be wind driven, especially if the wind blows from the same direction for a number of days. The natural current in the lake picks up if we have multiple days with a south wind because it pushes a lot of water north, from the south end of the lake. It will also create current between islands or saddle areas, which can attract fish or put them into a mood to bite.
As a general rule, the down current ends of the neck-down areas are usually better than the up-current side, especially if you’re fishing a tight channel or saddles between islands. The predator fish will usually hang out on the bottom ends, waiting for food to naturally come to them. When they feel extra active, I’ve seen the biggest fish move up to feed around the most obvious points and pieces of cover, making them high-percentage spots to fish.
One of the most well-known areas for walleye in the fall is Keewatin Channel on the north end of the lake. Drifting with jigs in the channel and in front of the west entrance is a great way to catch walleye that are visiting there to feed before winter. There are other similar areas around the lake that attract walleyes in the fall. I’ll usually concentrate on keeping my jigs in between 20 and 30 feet of water on these drifts.
In early fall, before smallmouths move to deep water points and humps for the winter, they too feed heavily in areas with current. Bass don’t eat a lot during the winter, so they feed heavily in the fall, preserving as much energy as they can to get through the winter. Anglers can find good luck casting jigs or crankbaits around areas with heavier current, particularly in the Big Narrows section of the lake. There are countless areas around the lake that have noticeable current that will attract bass. Look for boulders or larger chunks of rocks in these neck-down areas that the bass will hide behind and then fish your lures around them. Bass can be caught shallow well into October in these areas.
Maybe even more than the other species, pike and musky can be found around areas with current in fall as well because the current attracts baitfish like cisco and whitefish, a favourite forage of these big predator fish. The cisco and whitefish spawn in these areas in fall on shallow rocks, which is the reason we’ll find these big fish in shallow water late into the season.
For years, anglers would troll with large crankbaits and catch fish but as electronics have improved, more anglers are casting in these locations to sweet spots revealed on upgraded mapping or casting to fish they might see on forward-facing sonar. Both casting and trolling remain effective.
Whitefish Narrows, French Narrows and Ash Rapids are examples of the types of places where you might find a big predator hanging around the current in the fall. The Big Narrows area is popular with musky anglers in the fall as well because it loads up with the baitfish that these big fish prefer. If you are fishing these areas, whether you decide to cast or troll, choose larger than average baits that mimic the cisco and whitefish that these fish are focused on.
Fishing on Lake of the Woods and across the Sunset Country region is excellent in the fall. While we might have to bundle up a little bit on those last few trips, the fish are almost always biting as they prepare for another long winter.
If you get out on the water this fall, don’t be afraid to fish around some of the areas with current and you’ll probably find what you’re looking for.
