Mendota has more natural structure and is larger than other lakes in the chain. It also has an 18-inch size limit in place, while the statewide 15-inch limit is found on other lakes in the chain.

Sharp breaklines and subtle humps off the end of Picnic Point and Second Point are probably your best bets for tangling with a whopper walleye on opening night. By the end of May, a good weed-edge bite develops. Pitch half-crawlers on 1/16-ounce jigs and watch for line movement to indicate a strike.

It's not a very long swim for the night-staging walleyes at Tenney Park to head through the cut into Lake Monona where a long sandbar holds plenty of fish until at least early June. When fishing at night, target the area within a long cast of where these two lakes join. During daylight hours, use electronics to find where fish are holding in a little deeper water off the edge of the bar.

Lakes Kegonsa and Waubesa at the south end of this fishery are shallower and more fertile, with less structure. Both of these lakes have solid populations of almost- to barely-legal walleyes. Weeds come on quickly on these two lakes. Right now, the weeds are submergent enough to allow presentation of a No. 9 Rapala after the sun goes down. Rockford Heights is a great place to be at 12:01 on opening night. You can catch a five-fish limit in less than an hour when using stickbaits -- once fish are located.

Contact guide Ron Barefield at (608) 838-8756.

WAUKESHA COUNTY
The movie-watching walleyes alluded to at the beginning of this article were likely hangin' out at the cinema in some Waukesha County mall, probably on a field trip from Lac La Belle. It's been a couple of months since walleyes in this 1,100-acre fishery have seen an intentional hook. By the end of June, it's almost a certainty that any walleye over 12 inches will have felt at least one allegorical jig in the popcorn.

Lac La Belle is managed as essentially a catch-and-release fishery, with a 20-inch, one-walleye daily bag limit in place. Not many walleyes make it to 21 inches, but swimming here is a legion of 'eyes in the 12- to 19-inch range that are willing to stretch your string off of points, rocky shorelines and developing weed edges. There is much to be said on following the 8-foot contour and casting crankbaits and suspending stickbaits at the shoreline for the first couple weeks of the season, especially at dawn and dusk. Tie into more than one fish and you can have a ball by switching to a 1/8-ounce black jighead tipped with a fathead minnow or one of those new Lindy Munchie fliptails in moonglow/chartreuse or fire-tiger patterns.

Similar tactics will work on Pine and Oconomowoc lakes, which are not far away.

Oconomowoc has restrictive harvest guidelines as well, with a daily bag of three and minimum keeper length of 18 inches. Oconomowoc is about half the size of Lac La Belle, but there is still plenty of water to fish. DNR biologist Sue Beyler said this lake is one of two spots where you have a reasonable shot at catching an honest trophy walleye.