Usually, walleyes will hit the jig as it tumbles down. Sunglasses help at times to distinguish what the tree does underwater and aid in more accurate casting. Finding fish basically boils down to eliminating trees. Perhaps a combination of many factors makes this environment so attractive to walleyes. From my experiences, there doesn t really seem to be any kind of established pattern that makes some trees better than others.
Small trees can be just as productive as big trees.
Leaning trees aren t necessarily any better than trees still standing upright. Trees with a lot of branches and complex root systems aren t necessarily better than bare trees that resemble telephone poles. There are times when the fish are obviously on the shady side of the tree and other times where shade doesn t really seem to matter. Get a feel for what depth range and what areas of the lake are producing and start checking trees. When fishing the wood, silence and stealth will account for more fish.