Until you experience it yourself on the water, Walt Matan insists you will never truly know how good fall fishing can be.

Great fall fishing starts with a little planning. Check out current and past fishing reports on social media of the lake you intend to fish, and then follow up with a topographic map to determine sharp, deep-water drops. Those are the edges that will hold walleyes as well as other predators like muskies, pike and smallmouth and largemouth bass.

If there is a weed edge on this drop, so much the better. Deep-water weed edges are predominant in clear-water lakes. I like to start off with an aggressive maneuver: a 1/2-ounce blade bait, ripped quickly. You can troll back and forth along this edge, raising, lowering and ripping this blade bait. Because of its design, it will fall fast and attract predators with the vibration on the lift

My blade of choice is a 1/2-ounce B Fish N Tackle B3 Blade bait. It comes in some hot colors like green glow tiger, glow pink and glow mud minnow. It has 3D prism eyes, chip-proof paint, perfect balance and ultra-sharp Mustad treble hooks attached via split rings. It produces an intense amount of vibration on the lift and is balanced to fall without hanging up on itself.

To get the proper action, I prefer a baitcasting rod like a 7-foot St. Croix Eyecon with a moderate action. It’s perfect for rippin’ blades, and you can get a good hookset with this longer rod. While many anglers like to use braided line, I like mono; it has some stretch, so I don’t pull the lure out of the walleye’s mouth. With the 1/2-ounce blade, sensitivity is not a problem.

Another technique I put on the walleyes in fall is snap jigging bucktail jigs and jig-n-plastic combos. Fall walleyes are pretty darned aggressive and finesse fishing is not necessary. I’ll use a 1/4- to 5/8-ounce, B Fish N Bucktail Wayne jig with a large chub or flathead minnow and add a stinger hook.

This combo can be aggressively snapped and then let fall on a tight line as I slowly move along the breakline. This is a killer presentation once the fish are located. A lot of times, I have one or two deadsticks set out around a foot off bottom while I cast with another rod. With the larger minnow and stinger hook, it’s a deadly punch on the big fish!

Finally, fall walleyes will key in on larger bait, so I make sure to use a larger, longer plastic like an AuthentX Moxi. The Moxi is an oversized twister tail that big walleyes can’t resist. I can cast the Moxi shallower as I hover over the deep edge, vertically jig it or snap it. It works in a variety of ways.

I like St. Croix’s 6’ 8” Medium Snap Jig rod for snap jigging as well as casting and jigging Moxis. I’ll put the Moxi on an B Fish N H2O jig—usually in a 3/8-ounce weight. I’ll use 10-pound-test, hi-vis braided line with a 10-pound fluorocarbon leader. In this case, I like braid because it is ultra-thin and allows the jig to fall quickly. With the Snap Jig rod, I can get the action I prefer and still have the needed sensitivity.

Find more fall fishing insight from the pros who know in the fall issues of MidWest Outdoors, available by subscribing on our website.