Wow, is all I can say. The difference a week can make. I was up last weekend with a buddy and we found that for the most part the fish still were not in the shallows. Before I explain this experience, if you don’t read any more of this post, JUST UNDERSTAND – IT’S ON! THE WAIT IS OVER.
I headed up Friday night with my wife, dad, and brother in law. We hit the water around 7:00 and literally trolled until 8:30 before we picked up our first fish. At this point in time I had on a firetiger bent lip shad, pops had a silver and black bent lip shad, and my brother in law had on a firetiger bent lip shad (All number 9’s.) We were trolling a great transition area – Rock to sand. The key was keeping the speed around 2.3 – 2.6. So we were rolling around throwing the bull [censored] back and forth and Wham! The first real fall bite of the year! A fat 26 incher just about yanked the rod out of my hand. I had the hot ticket with the firetiger and landed the next two fish after that one. After the guys switched over to F- tiger we had a great run landing a 21, 23, 2-24’s, 25, 28, and a bonus 40 inch muskie. (The 28 went a silver and black bent lip shad) My dad caught the muskie and that was a ride and a half. I fish walleyes exclusively, so needless to say I don’t have a big net for a fish of that size. That fish hit the shad so hard the back half of the plug was ripped off. Dad – you owe me a new plug! 
We called it a night around midnight, knowing we had another night of fishing to come. The night really exceeded our expectations, considering the water temp. was still 60 degrees. The only bummer on the night was that on the way in I hit a f*&^%$# rock and chipped my skeg! Not to mention I had to put on my spare prop! 
Be careful – the lake is super super low!
Saturday, we had great breakfast at the greasy spoon, watched college football, and had a few beers. God fall is great! After a good meal that evening we hit the water once again. We returned back to the transitional area that runs from rock to sand. Conditions could not have been more perfect. The wind was pushing HARD into the shoreline we were fishing. I believe this really helped our cause by holding the fish along that shoreline. The moon was bright and high in the sky, with little to no clouds. You could not really ask for better weather, as the temp. was just about warm. I won’t go into great detail on our fish but the bite started around the same time 9 pm. Once they started we never really had a lull. We caught fish in 6 to 8 feet of water from 9 until 2 am at a steady rate. The key was doing S curves right on the break line! We would actually just catch the deeper water on our S curve and roll back through the top (6-8fow) or what we referred to as the strike zone! We ended the night with 16 walleyes that we counted between 20 and 26.5 inches. Most on the upper end of that scale. Plus 2 large bonus fish – both being good size pike. Those are the fish we could remember but I know we were 20 plus but you honestly lose count with all the fish, stories, and fun going on.
Bottom line – get your 
up there because they are moving in!
Out
Wab
I have pictures if someone can post them for me – not smart enough.
