"Fall Fishing on the Mighty Mississippi: Your Weekend Angling Outlook"

Artificial Lure here, coming to you from the banks of the mighty Mississippi River in Minneapolis with your fishing report for Sunday, September 28, 2025. It’s a picture-perfect start to fall around the river. Sunrise hit at 7:05 AM this morning, and it’ll slide behind the horizon at 6:57 PM. The weather is clear, with a mild start around 52°F, warming up to about 73°F by late afternoon. Wind’s gentle out of the south-southwest at 6–10 mph, making for comfortable casting and easy drifts. Water temps around the Twin Cities section of the Mississippi are holding warmer than normal for this season—expect mid to upper 60s at surface, which keeps the bite lively. No tide to worry about on freshwater stretches, but river flow is steady, and clarity is decent outside a few recent rain pockets. According to Outdoor News, this week brought a good multi-species bite around the metro, with anglers reporting solid action on walleyes, smallmouth and largemouth bass, and even the occasional northern and plenty of panfish. Focusing on walleyes, most fish were caught between 17 and 27 feet. Crappies and sunfish are staging up on deeper edge transitions but working their way closer to the banks as temps dip at night. Mixed bags include decent numbers—last couple days saw groups landing 4–10 keeper walleyes per boat, plenty of eaters in the 14–18 inch class, and solid numbers of smallies especially below the falls and around bridge pilings. Top lures this week: jigging with a 1/8 or 1/4-ounce jig tipped with a fathead minnow or soft plastic, especially chartreuse or orange. For the aggressive fish, round out your tackle box with medium-diving crankbaits in shad or perch colors, especially early and late in the day. Bass are leaning toward moving baits—try spinnerbaits, swim jigs, and ned rigs along rocky shorelines and eddy seams. If you like plastics, a dark green pumpkin tube or a curly tail grub will get things done. Live bait is king right now: fathead minnows for walleyes and bass, and waxies or small pieces of crawler for panfish. Big fish hunters are running sucker minnows along riprap and below the lock and dam, pulling in both walleye and the occasional toothy pike. For hotspots, two perennial favorites: Boom Island Park—shore casting below the Plymouth Avenue bridge is lights out for mixed species, and small boaters or kayak anglers are doing well above and below the St. Anthony Falls area, especially tucked inside the channel cuts behind Nicollet Island. Downriver, the stretch around Minnehaha Regional Park is heating up, with good current breaks and gravel bars holding hungry fish. Best fishing windows today will be early (right at sunrise) and again from midday into late afternoon. Solunar tables are calling the peak bites from a bit after noon until 2:40 PM, so if you’ve only got a couple hours, aim for these slots. With autumn moving in, keep an eye out for schoolers and baitfish running shallow. Some of the biggest fall bass make surprise a This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.