Between now and early June, the water temperatures shouldn't warm much beyond 65 degrees. After walleyes spawn -- or at least make spawning attempts -- you'll find them close to where the food is but especially in less than 12 feet of water. This could be around artificial structure like fish cribs or natural cover like the branches of a fallen tree along the shoreline. The forage base could also be hiding amongst larger rocks along the edges of a natural reef, or tucked into any available weed growth.

Weeds are always a good place to go looking for May walleyes. On lakes where weed growth is minimal, the attraction of this foliage is enhanced in spades. Looking for walleyes in a lake with one weedbed is like looking for a cop in a city with one donut shop. A similar dilemma is faced by walleyes, because the forage base has been decimated over the winter. Minnows are in short supply because young-of-the-year baitfish aren't in the system yet, and those that are still around are schooled in survival.

Crawfish could be the easiest meal. Walleyes on a mudflat? The water will be warmer here than over a sandy bottom, and if crawfish are plentiful, the walleyes will be nearby. Mud bottoms can also hold baitfish forage like bloodworms. This kind of sediment is also more conducive to weed growth than rocky/rubble or sandy bottoms. This kind of habitat can also foster insect hatches. A walleye will probably swim right past a jumbo leech under a slip-bobber to eat a little marabou crappie jig that looks like a shadfly if a recent insect hatch has made shadflies the easiest available food.

This insect hatch will also be coming off back in a shallow, marshy area -- not in classic, rocky "walleye water." Why would any walleye be swimming back in water better suited for pike and frogs when there is an island with gravel and bigger rocks just a quarter-mile away? Because the walleyes are going to go where the easiest meal can be found!

Make no mistake, you want to start looking for fish on classic structure like a windblown rocky-rubble flat, reef top or area with influence from some kind of current flow. A slackwater pocket out from where a 36-inch galvanized drain tube moves water between lakes isn't exactly classic walleye water, but if food is there, walleyes won't be far away!

Necked-down areas that are either natural or manmade like bridges with an earthen roadbed on either side -- or that 36-inch drain tube -- are always good places to look for walleyes if there is significant water on either side of this barrier, even with no current driven by an inlet or outlet stream. Prevailing wind over a day or two can actually stack water up on the windward side of the barrier. When the wind subsides or changes direction, the law of gravity takes over and the water flows back to whence it came. This creates current that draws in baitfish looking for an easy meal. Of course, the next link in the food chain is skulking in close proximity.