In the spring of the year, walleyes are extremely spooky and fidgety.  I believe this is caused by three different factors:

1. Walleyes are not comfortable in extremely shallow water without some 35 to 60 feet water to drop into for safety.

2. In the early spring, water is usually super clear, and this gin clear water makes the walleye extremely wary.

3. The walleyes are up in these areas with one thing on their minds, and that is to spawn and move back downstream or in a lake, drop to deeper water.

Because of these spring condition parameters, you are not going to be able to drop a bottom bouncer and a spinner over the side of the boat and catch fish with any consistency.  This time of year, we are going to have to present our baits a long way from the boat, adjust our thinking and be prepared to move around a lot until we locate the walleyes.

Let's first examine how we should go about catching active, feeding walleyes.  Most likely these fish can be found downstream side of sand bars, flats or tucked in behind wing dams.

Pull up on the sand bar in about 8 feet of water and just let the boat drift downstream with the current.  For the sake of illustration, let's assume we have two anglers in the boat.  Both anglers should rig up with small jigs, 1/8 to 1/4 oz. will work most of the time.  Try using a plain lead head on one pole, while the other angler should use a white jig, such as a Fuzz-E-Grub with a plastic body on it.  At times, the walleyes will hold on better after they strike if they have some soft plastic to bite into.  These jigs should be tipped with small minnows.  Make sure your minnows are not too large, as this time of the year I have seen many a walleye turn their nose up at a large bait.  Each angler should be positioned in the opposite ends of the boat facing the shoreline and make a long cast using light line to help get added distance into the cast.

What happens is that after the jig enters the water, the boat and the jig will drift downstream at exactly the same speed.  Retrieve your jig back to the boat using a series of short twitches and hops.  If you just look at where your line enters the water and not the shoreline, you will get the sensation that your boat is not moving, and that you are jigging in calm, still water, such as a lake, because your jig and boat are drifting downstream at the same speed, and it isn't any different than working a jig in 4 to 8 feet of water on a still spring day up on the lake.

Of course, to make this system work, you can't have a gale wind blowing, which would drift your boat much faster than the jig.  If the wind was blowing up-river, it would slow your boat drift down, and the jig would drift downstream ahead of the boat.

Another method that works for me is to long line with a 1/8 ounce split shot and a minnow.  Pull up on the sand bar and let your boat start its drift downstream.  Now, cast as far as you can directly upstream.  One long cast with a 1/8 ounce split shot is not far enough away from the boat, so you have to pull out about another 20 feet of line off of your reel.  Now caomes the most important part of this split shot presentation.

Do not pay any attention to your depth finder, as it is impossible to follow a contour line.  Keep the split shot directly upstream from you at all times.  If the boat moves a little to the right or left of the split shot and minnow, kick the motor in gear and reposition the boat exactly downstream from the bait.  If you just drift aimlessly, your bait will get off to the side, and the current will sweep a big belly in your line, so when Mr. Walleye picks up the bait, there is no way in the world you can feel that strike.  When an angler makes his cast upstream, if the cast goes a little awry to the right or left, the angler is going to have to reel in and make another cast.

Fish traversing these flats expend a lot of energy fighting the current.  They often stop to rest and, usually, it is in deep water holes.  They may rest for up to 10 minutes, a couple hours, or they may even take up resdence in the holes.

Where in the hole will this fish be?  Well, if they are looking for a place to rest, they will seek out an area that has the least amount of current, and that is at the head of the hole, just below the lip, facing into the reduced current flow.

Anchor your boat upstream from the hole and let out just enough anchor rope until your boat is positioned just at the head of the hole.  Sometimes you will have to position your boat two or three times to get just the right spot, but this little extra work can pay off in a big stringer of walleyes.  take a little time to watch some of the expert river rats fish, and you will notice that when they are fishing a hole, 90% of the time their anchor will be out.  One of the best jigs for fishing these holes is a 1/4 ounce stand-up jig head tipped with a small minnow.  Toss the jig downriver into the hole and let it settle to the bottom.  Now, slowly raise your rod and at the same time, slowly turn your reel handle a couple of turns.  Lower your rod back down until the jig makes contact with the bottom.  Let your jig rest there a couple of seconds, then start the pattern over.  These resting walleyes just can't resist the minnow slowly rising up into the current then gently dropping back down to the bottom.  Sooner or later, you will pull that jig right by Mr. Walleye's nose and then--WHAM, meat on the hook.

Remember!  In cold, clear water all presentations have to be as slow as possible and as far away from the boat as you can.

These three techniques are made for fishing cold, clear water.  Once you master these presentations, make sure you have a camera along to record the results.