When you discover that a particular depth range is where the fish seem to be hanging out, then you can't beat a crankbait. You often find this situation when the water is low and the fish are on the upper or lower edge of a channel. They might be moving from a turn to some riffles, but these fish are moving along the channel in 12 feet of water. Now is the time to tie on a crankbait that will tick the bottom at 12 feet.

The key word here is tick. You don't want that lure digging into the bottom, and you don't want it running too high off the bottom. You just want to occasionally feel a little tick here and a tick there. Get the lure running right and I guarantee you will catch more fish with it.

Let's discuss specific locations. We already covered riprap. Another great spot is where the channel intersects with a backwater area. You can easily spot where the walleyes will be. You don't want to be in the heavier current, yet you don't want to be where there is slack water. It's that in-between section where the walleyes will be holding, just waiting for a morsel to float by.

Another great spot is on the downstream segment where there is an island. Walleyes moving upriver or downriver in the channels will settle in right behind this current break to hold for a short time before continuing the migration. These spots are hit or miss, but when you hit it, you can catch high concentrations of walleyes loading up there.

When I'm motoring from one spot to another I always watch the sonar for a dip in the bottom. Anglers often just run right over these subtle depth changes, but not me. I know that walleyes like to settle into these indentations and let the current slip over their heads. Let the blade from a three-way rig settle in front of them and they will take a poke at it.

Wing dams are the community spots, but don't rule them out. When the water is low and the current not too fast, I fish the upstream sides of these current breaks. When the water is higher and running stronger I stick to the downstream edges of the wing dams.

Something I found that works well at wing dams is taking a three-way swivel rig and instead of a spinnered snell I tie a crankbait on the snell line. The snell only needs to be about 20 inches long for this setup. As you move the boat around the wing dam you just raise and lower the rig. The current provides the water flow to create the action on the crankbait, and those walleyes will pop out of the rocks and rubble that make up that wing dam and just smack the lure. You can work all the depths around the perimeter of the wing dam quite easily with this setup.

Everyone knows that walleyes in rivers go into a funk after spawning, but since there is a six- to seven-week window where the fish are pre-spawn, spawning or post-spawn, you can always find some fish biting somewhere. You just need to be in the right place at the right time, and now you know how to get there.