Greg,
February, March, and April are great times for LP walleye. I catch 95% of my fish(including walleye) this time of year throwing a suspending jerkbait. My favorite jerkbait for LP is a Lucky Craft Pointer 100 in ghost shad, but many other colors are very effective. I prefer the natural colors because of the LP clear early spring water. the exception to this is a clown color which walleye cant help but kill on overcast days. I fish these baits on either straight 8 or 10lb flourocarbon or on 30lb braid with a 15 foot 8 lb flouro carbon leader. The key to being successful with this lure is to fish it slow when the water is below 50 degrees. The bait is made to suspend in cold water (55 degrees) so i will try different rates of retrieve, but i start with two quick pops and a five to 10 second pause and then repeat until the bait is back to the boat. If i think the fish are more lethargic i will go with a pull instead of a pop and let the bait pause for 10 to 20 seconds. if i think the fish are fired up i will fish it with a 3 to 5 second pause and a quick pop in between. I know this might sound like im getting into the weeds a bit with technique but these baits are in my opinion far and away the way to catch large fish in cold water and how you fish them is important 90 percent of the time. Always fish this bait all the way back to the boat, ive watched large walleyes at lake powell follow this bait for twenty feet before eating it 5 feet from the boat. you will also catch big smallmouth, largemouth and stripers early season doing this. usually if you catch a walleye doing this on a specific piece of structure i.e a point , reef, or windblown bank etc, you can expect to catch several more in that spot and turn it into a pattern, finding similar banks and points throughout the area that will be holding fish. Wind helps the jerkbait bite, and so does cloud cover. I fish halls and north, with good hope bay area and north a bit being the best walleye fishing ive found on the lake. Try this technique, you may not get as many bites as you would dragging ned rigs and such but this is a big fish technique and it is a blast to fish this way. also watch your line on the pauses, often your will just see your line jump and may not even feel the bite since alot of times the fish just suck it in. there are also many good cheaper jerkbaits if you dont want to spend 20 bucks a pop on lucky Craft, i fished with smithwick rogues for years, you just have to tune them sometimes. feel free to email me if you would like more specifics.
cheers
jonny
