Well, after dusting out the cobwebs from my boat and getting her ready to hit the Fall trolling run, I decided to hit the water Friday night with some good buddies. Hearing that water temps were in the 60’s and with the Full Moon early last week, I thought what better time to start then the present. I called up Chris, Jason and Torre and we made a mad dash up there after work on Friday. It had been darn almost 2 months since I fished for Walleyes up there. We made it to our SE rock reef right after dark and was a bit surprised to find out we did not have any competition. I also found water temps just hovering below 70 degrees as the hot sunny day probably jumped up the temps. Read the rest of the report to see how our night went. 
Well it started out a little slow, until that moon rose around 9:30. Then we soon figured out the speed and pattern. Then it was some steady action, not a torrid pace but steady. There was no doubt that they had a preference of bait and color. Good & True ol’ Husky Jerk #12 in Firetiger was what they wanted. 
The first fish to the boat was not a whopper by any means, but it was good to see a walleye none the less as Jason pulled it in with out a net. Once the ice was broken, the fish seemed to come a little more easy. Next it was my turn as I was ripping my modified clown bent lip shad through a rock hump when bam, I felt that ol’ familiar feeling of my trolling rod getting whacked. 
In came a very scrappy 19.5” eye that had me pretty excited. It was pretty consistent action form there on out as I had figured out they were favoring a certain side of the reef and mainly biting off 2-3 rock humps. This enabled us to stay off the dead (non biting) part of the reef and stay in productive waters. The first “ROUGH FISH” of the Fall trolling year came to the boat after Chris had a great battle with a 18.25” Smallie that got air borne a few times and was determined not to touch the net. This was Chris’s first Mille Lacs Smallie and largest one to date. Congrats Chris. 
We worked a SE rock reef staying in 4-10 feet of water, concentrating on the little rock bumps or little reefs on top of the reef (spot on the spot). This seemed to be key, when you start hitting bottom with your crank hold on and BOOM, fish on. The usual S turns were thrown in and there was not a definite pattern as inside or outside rod but the boat speed of around 2.2 mph seemed to be the ticket. The hot bait of the night was Firetiger HJ 12 and the HOT STICK of the evening was Jason who started with FT and stuck with FT. The size of the fish was lacking but this is normal for me being this early. On this particular reef early in the year like it is, I rarely see any thing with "Great"size. That will soon change when the water temps dip into the 50’s and the BIG GIRLS start showing up.
We ended up fishing from 9pm until almost 1:30am. The best action was in the middle of that time as the moon was rising. By the end of the night we ended up boating 15 walleyes, 1 Smallie and 1 rock bass. Like I mentioned earlier, the size was lacking, but it was just great to be out trolling cranks in the shallows again. We ended up with 2 under the14-16” slot and the rest were overs, with a handful of them just under or breaking the 20” mark. I think the largest one came in just shy of 23”, on a FireTiger and by Jason of course. 
The closest slot we had was one that went 16.25”. We started the night on a terrific August evening and ended the night enjoying a new begining as September hit and just one of many trolling runs to come this Fall. YEP, IT IS THAT TIME. 
UNTIL NEXT TIME, LIP is outie!
CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE
Bring on fall!! Nice report Lip
Great post Rob!
Nice to see that things are starting to happen in the shallows. Did you guys try any rogues??? It won’t be long now until the big girls show up!
Great report Rob
Great job.
John
Thanks guys!
Brad we did try some Rogues. One fish off a Rogue and that was a Firetiger.
Go Figure. 
Also if you notice, some of the pics shows guys with Eye Protection.
Go Figure with a boat full of Construction PM’s. 
A trend that started last year after Torre had a hook thrown by a fish only to end up hanging off his lower eyelid. 
Never can be to careful in the dark, especially if 
is involved. 
That’s how the season starts! Great report Rob!
Sounds like things are shaping up well. We usually see these smaller fish in feeding off the reefs….
Would I know this reef from past experiences???
Did anyone notice the upcoming weekend forecast?
Lows in the 30’s & 40’s will drop temps nicely.
Good job Lip.
Keep the reports coming Rob! Only 7 weeks until I’ll be up there!
Great report Rob, looking forward to getting back up on Mille again.
Jami
Nice report Lip!
Some day I’m going to have to take a trip to Mille Lacs for some fall night trolling.
It sure does look like fun!
Boog
Nice report and pics Rob! Sounds like you guys had a great time.
That is awesome Rob…my last few trips out for bass have been pretty slow (minus a few big fish) and there has not been anything consistent enough to keep me interested. I just told my bro that we might need to switch our attention to muskies and walleyes from here on out save a trip to the upper miss maybe.
good stuff.
Nice work! Great report!
GREAT REPORT ROB…I HOPE WE HAVE FALLING WATER TEMPS BY THE 26TH OF SEPT (FULL MOON)..DONT WANT TO WISH TIME AWAY BUT I CANT WAIT
Nice.
Has anyone ever tried the night bite on pepin with the husky jerks in the fall? Lake pepins a lot closer for me.
Thanks
Thanks for the up-date Rob……Lots of good things and fish to look forward to soon!
Thanks Guys and Angie.
I’m SSOOOOOOOOOOO looking forward to this Fall.
There is a great daytime bite on Pepin in the fall! I am not so sure about any night time bite on Pepin though. The bite we are talking about is over weed beds or rocks. Mille Lacs weeds start to lay over during late September and into October due to the amount of sunlight getting to them. Photosynthesis slows down and the weeds die. This exposes the miriads of perch and other baitfish living in them. Combine that with the full moon, and you have a smorgasboard like no other I know of!
Well except maybe the shiner run on LOTW and the Rainy River. 
Thanks for getting this started in August Rob. 
The big “Girls of Summer” show up for the feast, and it is often easy pickings!
When you get into the “Spot” and you have the “Feel” you can almost predict the crushing strike!
Now I cannot wait…
Your Welcome Tuck.
Tuck is right. When you are in the zone, you can actually predict bites before they happen.
I have been there a few times in my boat, but when I have been with Holst and Tuckner it happens a little more frequently. 
Goes something like this: Ok here come the spot, mix in a inside turn and……… BAM fish on!
Tuckner you are paying the Bill you old Hawk.
