Where will you be looking?

[Rick G]

I have gotten quite a few pm's in the last week asking about the location of the walleyes. To be honest, with this later than normal Spring, and water temps in the 40s has me thinking the walleyes will be super shallow. I think in most area lakes the walleyes will be in some stage of spawning, so please keep this in mind when you catch that big fat female . Some, but not all of our local bodies of water have a population of walleyes that does reproduce on its own.

I likley will be working depths under 10ft, on what ever area we find fish are holding. These holding locations should be any current areas, shallow rocky shorelines, wind swept gravel/rocks or the weeds. My first choice would be a good current area, with the cold water temps the fish should be in and around any tributary or narrows area that has some flow. If your lake does not have a river you are SOL

Just kiding, some of the best lakes in this area have no river connection. On theese lakes I would look close at any shoreline structure, such as rocky shorelines, points, weedlines or at the shoreline break it self . If you can find some clean, wind swept rocks or gravel in shalow water I would focus on this first, for some reason walleyes love the rocks . Don't over look the weed though, some of my best opening day fishing in years past has come from over the tops or the sides of shallow weed or rush beds.

This year, as in many years past, I will start with an 1/8oz Fireball jig and either a rainbow minnow or a fathead. Some people get too caught up in shiners or jumbo leeches early in the season, don't get me wrong, they do work. But day in and day out your smaller minnows will put just as many, if not more fish in the boat. Besides leches and shiners might be tricky to find by Sat, and if you do get your hands on some you likley paid a premium price. Night crawlers would be another good choice, weather it be trolled with a Lindy rig or jiged on the long shank Gum Ball jig, crawlers will turn plenty of fish this opener. After dark, long lining Shad Raps behind the boat always seems to work well, just make sure you move just fast enough to get the bait down.

I hope I covered everything, if not ask away.

[JeremyCampbell]

In those shallow depths,how far from the bottom should we expect them to bite?

[Rick G]

Close to the bottom. If you are using a jig I would lift and drop no more than 12-18in

[Borch]

I would not be surprised to see walleyes in less than 5 fow after dark and if it's a windy or cloudy day they could be that shallow during daylight hours.