BIG PELICAN LANDING — Surface temperature was 66 degrees at sunrise Monday, down another two from fair week and enough that I am willing to use the word fall in a fishing column without apology.

The walleye are not in a true fall pattern yet. They are thinking about one.

Deep structure still produces during the day — eighteen to twenty-four feet, crawlers slow, keep the boat moving just enough to know you are not anchored. But the evening fish are showing shallower on the first breaks, and the early-morning bite has stretched later than it did three weeks ago.

Harold Aas, who has occupied the cleaning-station bench long enough to qualify as infrastructure, put three eaters in the livewell Saturday between 7:10 and 8:05 and said all three came from water shallower than fifteen feet.

“That does not make a pattern,” he said. “It makes supper.”

The northern pike have stopped acting tired. This is welcome only if you enjoy losing a jig to a fish that was not invited. Panfish remain on the weed edges. Bass are still good around rock and docks, particularly after the lake’s five-day fair-week quiet.

Labor Day will bring one more burst of boat traffic. The public landing will have an extra deputy Saturday and Sunday mornings, and anglers who can fish before six will avoid most of it.

I wore a jacket Monday until nine.

Nobody made fun of me who was also outside.