Cold fronts have been moving in, Lake Erie waters are cooling, and that will prompt the shoreline walleye fishing after dark to heat up. Many of the early entries in the Fall Brawl walleye fishing derby last year were caught while casting from piers and breakwalls, and one of the hot new casting lures has been the Dead Eye Junior.

Hurricane Helene caused plenty of flooding and damage along the Florida Panhandle last weekend, causing a Nor-Easter as it also kicked up along the Lake Erie coastline producing big waves around the Western Basin of Lake Erie.

The nasty weather shut down the walleye and yellow perch fishing, and produced a cool front to lower Lake Erie water temperatures that should bode well for the fall fishing season.

While anglers have been waiting to get back out on the lake, they’re trying to figure out where the schools of walleye will be found when the waves settle and waters clear. Before big winds arrived last week, some fair catches of walleye were biting east of Pelee Island, north of the Vermilion Dump and in deep waters off Lorain and Cleveland.

The top techniques were trolling Tru-Trip diving planers and spoons and nightcrawler harnesses.

The yellow perch fishing had been fair to good around the G Can, D Can and H Can seas of the Lake Erie Firing Zone, with perch spreaders, crappie rigs and Perch Fly Rigs. As Lake Erie settles, look for the schools of perch to gather in pods off the Firing Zone “cans,” the Marblehead Lighthouse, and west of Mouse Island and the Catawba Peninsula.

With north winds and cooling water temperatures luring Lake Erie walleye within casting distance to the Ohio shoreline to feed on gizzard shad, expect the night bite to pick up. Both casting from shore and trolling the near-shore waters should improve.

A hot walleye lure so far in the early night bite season has been the Dead Eye Junior, a short-billed jerk bait that also works well as a trolling lure in a lot of conditions. It’s a good bet for the Fall Brawl walleye derby on Oct. 19 through Dec. 8, with a lot of the early October entrants last year weighed by anglers casting from the shores and piers from Catawba Island to Sandusky, Lorain, Cleveland and Fairport Harbor.

Fall Brawl Sign-Up Parties are scheduled at:

• Saturday, Oct. 5, noon-4 p.m. — Central Basin Bait & Tackle, 910 Main St., Huron
• Tuesday, Oct. 8, 5-8 p.m. — Jann’s Net Craft, 3350 Briarfield Blvd., Maumee
• Friday, Oct. 11, 2-5 p.m. — Sandusky Bait Company, 101 Shelby St., Sandusky
• Saturday, Oct. 12, noon-4 p.m. — Bay’s Edge Bait & Tackle, 5359 E. Bayshore Dr., Port Clinton.

Big walleye will be the name of the game in the Lake Erie Walleye Trail’s Bays Edge Championship on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 11-12. The Lake Erie Walleye Trail teams, with the Team of the Year Trophy still up for grabs, will launch each day at the Shelby Street Launch in downtown Sandusky.

Each day, the competing anglers will head to Bay’s Edge Bait and Tackle for the weigh-ins, which begin at 4 p.m. The fishing crowd waiting for them to arrive can celebrate from noon-4 p.m. at the Fall Brawl Party, and food and drinks will be served at the weigh-in.