In the spring, Walleyes are either in the river current or right close to shore and in shallow water. They will be found in bays where there is sand for spawning or weeds for protection. The males will stay in the shallow water of the bay all day while the bigger females tend to move out to points leading into the bay during the day. Some may try to go deeper. Many of the Walleyes move into the river to spawn.

You can use a light jig (3/8-oz) and cast along the shore and retrieve it quit aggressively as the Walleyes are very aggressive this time of year. In the spring, use colored twistertails like yellow or white. You can also cast with small shallow running lures like Thundersticks or Floating Rapalas in the Red, Firetiger or Chartreuse colors.

In the summer, you can cast or troll along the shore with jigs or lures. For jigs, white and yellow are still the best colors. Walleyes this time of year are not as aggressive as the spring and tend to hit a slow bait. Jig slowly with long slow retrievals. Sometimes during the heat of the day, the walleyes will sit right on bottom. You may think they have stopped feeding but Walleyes never stop feeding when you have such a high population of Walleyes and competition for food like we have. If the Walleyes do slow down in the afternoon, try letting your jig sit on bottom. Then give the jig little 3-inch high jigs. You jig might get muck on it but the Walleyes will still hit it. Sometimes they hit so lightly that it feels like you have hooked a weed. Whenever you feel resistance, set the hook

Another effective way to catch Walleyes during the day with jigs is to go into the thick weeds and slowly jig in between the weeds.

If you are going to cast or troll with lures during the summer, try using natural colors like black-&silver or brown-&-silver. Bright colors are good in the spring because the Walleyes are protecting their spawning beds well after the spawn is finished. In the summer, they are mainly hitting the lures to feed so natural colors are best.

We do carry minnows in our store. They are ultimately the best bait to use for Walleyes. You can fish with just a minnow on a hook or put the minnow on a jig.