When Gary Roach launched his boat that early spring day, he thought there was a good chance walleyes would be biting. Roach has been a walleye guide, a competitive walleye fisherman and a fishing educator and author while still actively pursuing walleyes all over the country. When he has a feeling that the fishing will be good, odds are it will be.

His premonitions were spurred by the fact that the weather had been riding a stable high-pressure pattern for the past few days and was about to change as a slow-moving low-pressure front was heading toward him.

Roach understands walleyes’ early-season movements better than anyone. He knows where the fish should be at any given time in the season. His main thought that day as he was sliding his big aluminum walleye boat into the water was to make sure he had his good rain gear packed where he could get to it quickly. He was sure the walleyes were going to be on the shallow points and big sandflats roaming in water depths of 6 to 12 feet. His plan was to tempt them with a jig and minnow.

According to Roach, walleyes are guided by two urges. One is reproduction that only affects these fish for a short period in early spring. The rest of the time, a walleye’s location is dictated by its urge to eat. In the early season, the forage base tends to locate on shallow structure, so that’s where Roach began his search.

Weather determines how aggressively walleyes feed. During stable weather, the fish will be in a neutral mode that reflects regular feeding throughout the day. Get a bait in front of a walleye in a neutral mood and you’re likely to get a bite.

As a low-pressure or cold front pushes out a stable weather pattern, walleyes can become aggressive. Although it may seem to be a good time to be on the water as the front is approaching, the chances of being caught in rain, high winds or even lightning should also be considered. A good exit strategy is imperative when trying to position yourself on the cusp of an aggressive bite.

After the cold front digs in, walleyes display a negative feeding mode and that means using techniques that allow a bait or lure to trigger a reaction instead of an eating response. Cold fronts also drive walleyes into deeper sanctuaries where they hold tight to the bottom, so a slow finesse-driven presentation is necessary to generate a bite.

In lakes where walleyes actively spawn, males tend to spread out on shallow flats and points near rubble-bottomed areas where spawning took place. The females, typically the larger fish, migrate to the edges of nearby dropoffs to recuperate for a few days before transitioning to deeper structure. Since the shallower males will be active, anglers should target the shallow fish.

The lake Roach chose for this early-season period had a good population of reproducing walleyes. There were some bays where vegetation was emerging after winter’s cold waters knocked it down. The main basin had diverse bottom features including mid-lake sunken islands, sandbars and rockpiles. There were some long, tapering points and wide, slow-dropping sandflats, and around much of the main basin, a rim of cabbage, coontail, curly-leafed pondweed and milfoil was beginning to emerge in 6 to 14 feet of water. Roach headed for the biggest sandflat on the lake.