APRIL
Mississippi River Walleyes
Don’t be a follower. Seeing one walleye caught every half hour in a pack of 100 boats is no indication of a hot fishing pattern.

Walleyes spawn around April 15-20 in shallow water over a rocky rubble bottom with little current. Runoff can be a major factor this time of year. Key on water less than 10 feet deep and out of the current. (Continued)

You will catch more and bigger walleyes with a plastic fliptail than using live bait.

Yellow, black and chartreuse and tomato core are the hot colors and don’t use a jighead heavier than 3/8 ounce. If that isn’t enough weight to occasionally bounce bottom on the retrieve, then you’re fishing in too much water. Bucktails or marabou jigs work, as well as plastics.

Minnows are simply a good way to feed smaller fish. For more information, call Cap’n Hook’s Bait Shop at (608) 689-2800 or Ted Peck’s Guide Service at tedpeck@acegroup.cc.

Menominee River Walleyes
Four to seven days after the flotilla gave up on walleyes at DePere, the action was just getting started at Marinette, an hour’s drive north. A Firetiger Thunderstick is very effective, especially at night near the Highway 41 visitor’s center. Remove the lure’s leading treble hook to minimize hanging up.

Door County Brown Trout
Walleyes have been the buzz for the past couple of years, although brown trout are cruising in or close to harbors on both sides of the peninsula. A 1/3-ounce blue and chrome Little Cleo is a killer, either trolled or cast. Don’t forget to buy your Great Lakes salmon stamp.

MAY
Green Bay Trib Smallies
Most anglers head to a favorite lake for the opening weekend of the general fishing season. If smallmouth bass are your favorite, grab your waders and spinning rod and head north of Titletown on both sides of the bay or target shallows in the bays and harbors at the southern end of Door County at Henderson Point.

Camouflage pattern tube jigs and similar plastics that imitate gobies work well when probing shallow bays. Polaroid glasses can help you spot bigger fish. Topwater action can be fantastic. A clear plastic lure like the Heddon Tiny Torpedo is a real killer.

Free the fighter after the dance and resist the temptation to catch them on the spawning beds. The future of the fishery is up to you. For more information, call the Door County Chamber of Commerce at (920) 743-4456.

DuBay Muskies
This stump-strewn Wisconsin River flowage may be the best-kept secret in the entire state. Toss gaudy bucktails toward the wood along the edge of the old river channel at mid-day. Conventional wisdom does not apply at this fishery!

Monona Muskies
Muskies in this Dane County lake get less attention than the other waters of the Madison Chain. Monona is a great opening day destination. Use the trolling motor to sneak back in shallow bays, looking for fish. Teasing them with a slow-falling bait like the Lindy Tiger Tube can be profoundly effective.

JUNE
Eagle River Muskies
After decades of chasing muskies around this popular northcountry destination, I’ve finally concluded the best way to hook up with a “toother” is to leave the muskie tackle box at home, except maybe a black Tallywacker or Hawg Wobbler left in the boat by mistake.

By the time a muskie reaches 32 inches here, she has felt the sting hidden in more than one offering of hair or big wood, yet she still finds great delight in terrorizing panfishermen or folks chasing bass and walleyes. Perhaps this gives our state fish the erroneous presumption of rational thought, but doggone, you’ll catch many, many more muskies on downsized baits than using $14 muskie plugs.

It would be easy to spend an entire month throwing a small bucktail with a silver blade on Butternut and Kentuck lakes, with a burning retrieve over submergent weeds with the ‘Wacker or the ‘Wobbler always a good option. The Eagle River chain itself also holds a pile of fish. For more information, call Eagle Sports Shop at (715) 479-8804.

Cohos At Racine
The annual charter fishing trip out of this Lake Michigan port will put a summer-long grin on your face. Nothing beats cohos on the grill or smoked. These fish jump all over dodger/fly combinations, with limit catches of five fish the rule rather than the exception. Toward month’s end, chinooks are also part of the bag at dawn and dusk.

Lake Geneva Smallmouths
Pitch clear hologram tube jigs around this Walworth County lake’s numerous fish cribs and sailboat mooring pods at dawn and dusk. A jumbo leech presented on a split shot and hook works so well that it should be illegal.