Fall Bite Heats Up on the Mississippi in Minneapolis

Artificial Lure here with your Mississippi River, Minneapolis, fishing report for Sunday, October 5th, 2025. We started the morning with a calm 51°F rolling in by sunrise at 6:51 AM, with another stellar fall day in the upper Midwest. Expect the high to push towards 67°F by mid-afternoon before dipping fast after sunset, which tonight hits at 7:25 PM. Skies are mostly clear, giving us one more golden autumn weekend along the river. There’s no tidal influence this far upriver, so water movement is driven by dams and recent rainfall. Flows have settled over the past week, clarity is decent, and levels slightly above average for early October. That bodes well for both shore and small-boat anglers targeting the famous Mississippi fall bite. Solunar activity is solid today: The morning’s major bite hit right around sunrise, from 7:19 to 9:19 AM, with another window opening up at dusk, from 7:39 to 9:39 PM. If you’re fishing mid-day, try to work the minor window from 3:33 to 5:33 PM. As always this season, dawn and dusk are prime—especially with cooler temps bringing predator fish up onto the flats and closer to shallows according to FishingReminder. Word from last night and yesterday’s crews is encouraging. Walleye action has picked up on Pool 1, with catches in the 16 to 24-inch range, mostly coming on jig-and-minnow rigs or hair jigs tipped with plastics. Bright chartreuse and orange are hot. Several anglers reported a mixed bag, including feisty smallmouth bass up to 18 inches and some bonus crappie and perch pulled from backwater pockets, especially around Boom Island and Nicollet Island. The famous Mississippi river channel cats are still biting, especially after dark, mainly on cut sucker and stink bait, according to Outdoor News. The best artificial lures this week have been mid-sized crankbaits (like Shad Raps), swimbaits in natural shad or perch patterns, and classic black-blue or green pumpkin jigs. Live bait fans are getting strong results on fathead minnows and nightcrawlers, particularly when drifted near wing dams and quiet eddies behind the islands. Top hotspots to try today: - **Saint Anthony Falls Upper Lock & Dam:** Consistent walleye, bass, and the odd pike. The turbulent water here pulls in hungry predators at first and last light. - **Boom Island Channel:** Great for mixed species, especially smallmouth if you’re tossing crankbaits into the current seams. - **Nicollet Island:** Underrated for fall crappie and perch, especially on small plastics or live minnows under a float. No monster reports the past 24 hours, but plenty of keeper walleye and a few mid-20 inch football smallmouth have been logged. Catfish numbers are good, but many are average in size—mainly two to five pounders, with a few ten pounders caught on fresh cut bait near deep holes. Water’s cooling fast, so fish are moving out of skinny water midday and hunting aggressively along drop-offs, riprap, and wood structure near shore. Focus on those ambush points, This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.