The author caught a fine stringer of walleyes on Lake Koshkonong. Photo by Ted Peck.

A recent DNR survey shows walleyes are Wisconsin’s most sought-after game fish. We chase them in rivers and flowages where there is no closed season, in lakes and boundary waters where the first Saturday in May holds a true festival attitude and in special places like the St. Louis River where the season doesn’t begin until mid-May, not long after walleyes move up this Minnesota/Wisconsin boundary water from the chilly waters of Lake Superior to spawn.

Walleyes across the state are either spawning or coming out of spawn this month. On the Rock River in southern Wisconsin, the spawn always seems to happen around April Fool’s Day at about the same time fish are carrying on the family name on the Wisconsin River from the Dells south. Later, walleyes move in an incredible migrational push into the Wolf River to spawning marshes above Lake Poygan.

About a week after the main spawning push at DePere, those marble-eyes are going gonzo on the Menominee River about an hour to the north.

By the time opening day rolls around, walleyes in the southern two-thirds of the state are already settling into summer pattern, with some fish in deep, clear north country lakes still working through their post-spawn funk. Sport-fishing is big business and a major recreational pastime in America’s Dairyland. As we ease into another walleye fishing year, all appears well. But the specter of viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS) is on the minds of both fish managers and anglers.

Potential destruction from VHS could be monumental. The DNR has taken drastic measures to stem the spread of this disease. But the proactive stance taken against VHS will have some effect in years to come, as the DNR suspended walleye stocking in many lakes that depend on stocked fish for good fishing until the situation become sorted out.

It will be several years if we feel this ripple -- if we feel it at all. Walleye populations depend on natural reproduction, and there are good years and there are bad years. Things have a way of averaging out.

The following is a look at some of our top waters where your case of terminal walleye fever can at least experience a sense of remission until you take the boat out of the water.

LAKE KOSHKONONG
This 10,400-acre shallow basin lake straddling the Rock/Jefferson county line is the epicenter of walleye fishing in the Rock River system. Waters of the Bark and Crawfish rivers join the main stem of the Rock just above the lake. Both of these smaller rivers see an influx of spawning walleyes in the spring.

The river system from Koshkonong’s inlet upstream to Fort Atkinson generally offers the best walleye action per surface acre of the entire system. The Rock is slow-moving here, ideal for a controlled drift downstream while vertical jigging a 1/8-ounce leadhead tipped with half a night crawler throughout most of the summer and into autumn.

Many anglers have yet to figure out the post-spawn pattern for walleyes in the segment of the Rock River near Blackhawk Island. The same pattern that works so well for post-spawn walleyes in the Wolf River holds true on the Rock River, with a twist.

The key to success here from about April 7-20 is to cast Shad Rap-style crankbaits. Many fish are sliding back downstream a little higher in the water column. Cranks, which run down 4 to 7 feet, are right in their strike zone.