By late May and into June, the fish are hungry and aggressive. Large females hang around in deep pools, eddies, and current areas, recovering and feeding for several weeks before returning to the lake. These lunkers seldom group together and are usually found away from concentrations of smaller males. My favourite time of the day to fish for spring river walleye is between 6 and 10 p.m., as big fish move from deep holes to hunt on shelves and flats. As summer approaches and the water continues to warm, river walleye associate with emerging weedbeds, deeper reed-lined shorelines, and more defined structure within the main channel.
Aquatic vegetation provides cover and forage for insects, baitfish, and walleye alike.
As water levels drop, walleye move to deep pools, current edges, eddies, channel dropoffs, sand bars, rock piles, ridges, large boulders, and submerged timber and trees. The current brings a moving buffet to them. Bottom-bouncers and Wolf River rigs work well spring, summer, or fall. Deep weedlines near the river channel also continue to produce fish in early summer. On one trip, my fishing partner, Don Leishman, and I anchored along a weedline where the Albany River dumped into a big lake.