After a long winter off soft water, the anticipation of dropping a line into a "sure spot" keeps many of us awake the night before the walleye opener. But when we get to old faithful and the bites fail to come, many people don't know were to turn. It doesn't have to be that way. Walleye need to rest, eat, and recuperate after spawning, and with a little know-how you can find them. You need a plan, though. Call it a blueprint for spring walleye.

The most typical scenario for opening day is to fish where walleye are known to spawn, providing, of course, that they're not closed sanctuaries. Walleye, particularly males, often hang around for several weeks after the spawn. Big females disperse quickly. The smaller fish are hungry and co-operative. The bases of falls, dams, and rapids typically hold good numbers of post-spawn walleye. They can be scattered everywhere in current, but backwaters and eddies out of the main flow will harbour the lion's share of biters. I like to anchor at the head of a pool or just inside a backwater and drop a jig and minnow to the bottom. In medium-slow current, a 1/4-ounce head is about right. In deep water, or where a backwater has more current, you might have to bump up in jig weight to whatever it takes to get a minnow to bottom. A simple lift-and-drop action is usually enough to catch a count, but you can cover more water and intercept more fish by casting out, letting the jig drift on a tight line, and then hopping it along bottom back to the boat. Adding a No. 6 or 8 treble-hook stinger never hurts early spring jigging success. You'll catch many more bait nippers.

For dirty water, I'm sold on rattle jigs. There are several types, but Northland Buck Shot Rattle Spins make just enough sound to draw attention in dark water and are subtle enough not to spook fish in clear water. Prop jigs, such as the Northland Whistler or Lindy Lil' Hummer, are also great fish-getters in coloured water.

When walleye leave spawning areas, it's time to put on your thinking hat. Post-spawn walleye don't want to travel far for food and they really don't want to chase it, especially in cold water. They'll hold in the first area that has a lot of minnows, insect life, and the sanctuary of deeper water nearby. A rivermouth or estuary is always worth a crack. Walleye cruise rivermouth flats, sometimes quite shallow, looking for baitfish, dragonfly nymphs, and whatever else they can scrounge. Finding rivermouth walleye generally means trolling spinner rigs and minnows along bottom to intercept pods of fish. There are dozens of spinner rigs these days, in every conceivable blade shape, colour, and bead configuration. What's best? Take your pick. Be assured that the thump of any spinner blade, followed by a tasty-looking minnow, does something to walleye that few other presentations do.

One problem with spinner rigs is that they tend to hang up. You can partially solve this by running a bottom-bouncer - a chunk of lead poured onto a piece of wire bent at a 45-degree angle. The sinker wire ticks along the bottom and the spinner, tied onto a leader and a swivel connected to the top part of the wire, follows just above it. This setup is largely snagless and provides you great feel. Bouncers and spinners are perfect for kids. Bouncers, however, aren't great to use in water less than 10 feet (3 m) deep. So, rubber-core sinkers remain popular and successful to keep spinners slapping bottom for walleye, but you'll get snagged more often.

Here are a few tricks. I often re-tie commercial spinner rigs with 12-pound abrasion-resistant line. I've never seen the sense in having 20- or 25-pound-test on a walleye spinner. I also add a rattle bead for sound. In stained water, I use a large No. 4 or 5 Colorado blade to throw out a heavy pulse that will help walleye find the bait.

Rig a minnow on the spinner hook so that the point is farther up the body. Run the hook through a minnow's mouth, back out the gills, and then back through the body. The minnow will die, but be fresh and tough to pick off the hook.

At times, crankbaits catch as many fish as spinner/minnow combinations, but more importantly, they help you catch larger fish. Over the years, I've had great luck trolling a No. 5 or 7 perch Shad Rap or CC Shad on sandy flats where walleye are cruising for baitfish. I troll with 10-pound test on light baitcasting gear and let the crank dig into the sand and pop over rocks and weeds. This technique is especially deadly if the weather is stable and the air temperature warming.

Other things to look for when seeking post-spawn walleye are shorelines adjacent to rivermouths or in bays after a west or northwest wind has blown for a couple of days. The fish might be in less than three feet (1 m) of water. In fact, I've seen them so shallow that the spines on their backs were breaking water.

To get these shallow walleye, pitch 1/16- or 1/8-ounce jigs and twister tails towards shore and swim them back. If you try to jig normally, you'll break off a king's ransom in jig heads. There's really no need for live bait here; shallow fish in windy conditions are almost always aggressive biters. Stick with rubber or scented grub bodies in white, yellow, orange, or brown.

Wind-blown shores are another situation were crankbaits shine. Toss shallow-running minnow baits like the Husky Jerk into the foam and work them back with a choppy retrieve. If you toss it, they will chomp.

In shield lakes, most large walleye go deep after the spawn. In more fertile systems, like the Kawarthas, many big fish stay shallow, cruising flats and weed edges, while others relate to wood and weed clumps. Warm, shallow bays are a good bet. The best way to catch these shallow walleye is again to pitch a light jig tipped with a minnow, worm, leech, or plastic grub or minnow body. Shallow-running crankbaits are also effective.

When there are no shallow fish, search deeper. This is where electronics help. Look for the first sharp break off a long flat or a main-lake point to hold the most walleye. During a cold front, the fish stack like cordwood off primary breaks. In most lakes, a break will be in more than 10 feet (3 m) of water. In fact, I've found post-spawn fish as deep as 50 feet (15 m) during brutal cold fronts, although they generally come shallow again as conditions warm.

Electronics are your underwater eyes. Turn off the fish ID on your LCR and zoom in on the bottom 10 feet of water, or you'll never learn to see what a walleye really looks like on your unit. You should be able to mark deep walleye as blobs sitting right on bottom. More active fish mark like crooked fingers.

Deep post-spawn walleye want live bait, and the best way to give it to them is via a live-bait or Lindy rig. The basic rig is simple: attach a 1/4- to 1/2-ounce slip- or walking-sinker on 8- or 10-pound-test main line. Then, slip a small plastic bead on the line and attach a barrel swivel. Take four to six feet (1.2 to 1.8 m) of a quality clear monofilament and tie it to the swivel. Finally, tie on a short-shank No. 4 or 6 hook. Grab a 3-inch fathead minnow or 4-inch sucker, nose hook it, and you're ready for business. Deep-water walleye can't resist this rig.

Fish it vertically and move slowly over the break. Keep the bail open on your spinning reel and press your index finger against the line and rod blank. If you feel something pick up the minnow, release line and let the walleye take the bait. Then, close the bail, reel up slack, and set the hook hard. The feel of a big walleye pumping out line below you is a sweet thing indeed.

Spring walleye fishing is supposed to be easy. That's the way most of us like it. But when the bite goes sour, the real architects of angling success always have a backup plan. Like toilet paper and matches, a blueprint for spring walleye is a good thing to have in your pocket come opening day.

This article is written with permission by Fish Ontario. Visit their website, http://www.fishontario.com, for more Ontario fishing information.

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