Doug Burns, a former PWT veteran, once told me once that watching the thermometer is especially important during the early days of spring. "It keys everything in the springtime," he explained. "Their (the walleyes') strongest instinct in the spring is spawning, and the water temperature is key to that."

Look for potential spawning water that is in the 40- to 48-degree temperature range, said Burns, who also encourages anglers to search for the right bottom substrate to fish over. "You need an area with a hard bottom, preferably gravel or rubble with current," he offered. "The current can be either from a river or a windswept point where the wind is creating the current. Those are the areas that walleyes are going to use for spawning."

A final consideration for early-season walleye anglers: Simply use a little brainpower to figure out where the fish are and what they're doing on any given day.

Gofron agrees, pointing out that walleyes will typically spawn in water depths of 2 to 12 feet. "Ninety to 95 percent of the time, the walleyes are seeking hard bottoms and shallower rocky structures for their spawning efforts," he remarked. "They will spawn on weeds too."

Of course, while the period of the spawn is itself a great time to target walleyes, Gofron is of the opinion that it's also important for anglers to get on the water during the pre-spawn phase if at all possible. "When (the fish) do spawn, afterwards, the females will recoup for a few days, so the bite will be really tough," he said. "Actually, it will be pretty tough during the actual spawn."

According to Burns, all of this revolves around the circle of life that springtime's warming water initiates. "The other thing that happens with the warming water is the start of the food chain," he noted. "The plankton starts to bloom, the minnows follow the plankton, and the walleyes follow the minnows."

With that in mind, what about presentations to pre-spawn and spawning walleyes?

Burns will most often fish shallow at this time of the year with 1/8- to 1/4-ounce jigheads tipped with a Berkley Power Minnow. In darker water, he opts for brighter colors like a chartreuse shad, while in clearer water, he'll tend to use more natural colors like a rainbow/silver-flecked bait.

A key to any early-spring bait selection, Burns asserts, is to match a water body's natural baitfish at that time of the year. Those include leftover baitfish from last year such as minnows and young perch that aren't quite a year old yet. "In some lakes, like the natural pothole lakes of the Midwest, the bullheads are a key baitfish," he said. "Some people find that hard to believe, but they are."

In Burns' view, getting the size of the baitfish right is vital. "In the spring, the baitfish is left over from last year, so they're big," he observed. "A lot of times people think it's spring, and the water is cold, so they tend to downsize their baits. But that's just the opposite of what is happening in the water, since these baitfish are last year's fish. Some of the Power Minnows that I use in the spring are as long as 4 inches."

As for Gofron, an angler with 32 Top 10 PWT finishes to his credit, early springtime presentation ideas start with fishing at a slower-than-usual pace. "The water is colder and the fish aren't as aggressive," he said. "I'll also be trying some vertical-jigging and some spinners. I'll be trying night crawlers and minnows on the jigs at times, and I'll be trolling the spinners with the night crawlers."