Long lines for early season walleyes can mean a couple of things. If you are talking about opening day, it can mean waiting in long lines at the boat ramp to launch your boat. We all have experienced the frustrations of opening day at the boat ramp, but that is another story. In this article, I am going to discuss a walleye-fishing strategy that works on opening day and beyond. Opening weekend for walleyes in the spring often brings less-than-pleasant weather. Cold temperatures, strong winds, often combined with rain or snow can make for a tough day of fishing when you add in scattered walleyes and too many boats on the lake. Long-line trolling minnow baits on opening day, and throughout the spring can save the day by avoiding crowds, keeping you comfortable, and putting fish in the boat. Shallow and Slow

On a recent walleye opener on Minnesota's Mille Lacs Lake, my partners and I were faced with cold water temperatures (ice-out less than a week prior), cold air temperatures, and gusty winds. As is always the case on Mille Lacs for the opener, we were also faced with lots of boats on the water. Drawing on countless past experiences, we reasoned that the fish would be shallow-very shallow. We agreed that fishing deeper than six feet would be a waste of time. This kept us from having to venture out very far into a rough lake, as we remained in a somewhat sheltered bay, and kept us away from many of the overcrowded "hot spots" farther out in the lake. We chose a technique that we use often in the spring; long-line trolling shallow-running minnow baits across shoreline flats near suspected spawning areas. Walleyes, especially the males, will linger near the spawning areas for a while after the spawning ritual is finished, as long as there is some prey in the area. Sand or gravel flats adjacent to rocky or gravelly shorelines are good spots to look. If these areas have some newly developing weeds nearby, or a current area such as a channel between lakes or a feeder stream, prey will most likely be found and so will walleyes. That cold, windy day on Mille Lacs, we chose a gravel flat near a rocky shoreline with a feeder stream entering in, that was from four to seven feet deep, before dropping into deeper water. Walleyes will usually be scattered in areas like this, so it is helpful to choose a strategy that covers some water. We knew, however, that it would be necessary to keep the speed of the presentation to a minimum in the cold water. This meant that we needed to choose baits that put out good action at a slow speed, and dove somewhere in the area of four to six feet at that slow speed. We also knew that we would need to run the baits a good distance behind the boat in the shallow water we had chosen to fish. In shallow water, walleyes will move out to the side of a boat's path to avoid being passed over by the boat, and then will often move back to their original path after the boat has passed. Running your baits from 100 to as much as two hundred feet behind the boat will allow for walleyes to return to the path of your baits after the boat passes by them. You could accomplish this, also, by running your baits behind small in-line planer boards. If you are trolling a large flat, in-line planer boards can help you cover more water by spreading out your baits. They can also be very helpful for running multiple lines on lakes where more than one line per person is allowed. Thin to Win

For early season walleyes, I prefer to troll thin "minnow baits" in the above-described areas. These baits have a subtler wobble than fatter crankbaits that seems to trigger walleyes better in cold water, and they often run at the shallow depths required for this pattern. That cold opener on Mille Lacs, we chose to run #13 Floating Rapalas. The three of us put out a black and silver #13, a black and gold #13, and a perch #13. Always run multiple colors until the fish show a color preference. The #13 Floating Rapala is a great spring time trolling bait, as it has that enticing Rapala wobble and runs somewhere from four to six feet deep depending on speed and amount of line out. It maintains that great action, even at the very slow speeds that are often required this time of year. We experimented that day with #11 Floating Rapalas as well, which are slightly smaller and run just slightly shallower, but the fish wanted a #13 black and silver. For slow-trolling minnow baits in shallow water, I like to use a 7' medium power, moderate action baitcast combo spooled with 10 pound test Berkley Fireline Crystal. I tie the Fireline to a small crankbait snap to attach it to the bait. The long, "softer" action rod "gives" more when fish inhale the bait which leads to better hook-ups. Don't "set the hook" hard when you feel a fish, just pull the rod forward to get a tight line and start playing the fish. Too much pressure with a no-stretch "super line" can tear the hooks loose. Fireline works well for this technique because the thin diameter allows these subtle baits to swim slightly deeper and with more action than they would with a thicker line. The no-stretch property of this line allows every movement of your bait to be seen on the rod tip. It the rod tip stops vibrating, your bait is not swimming right-it is either tangled on the line or has picked up weeds. The crankbait snap allows the subtle-action bait to swim better, and allows you to try different baits without cutting and re-tying. Finally, the baitcast rod-and-reel combo allows you to put the rod in a rod-holder if you want or need to. That bitter-cold opening day on Mille Lacs, we had the rods in rod-holders so we could keep our hands warm in our coat pockets. This pattern works after the weather, and the water, has warmed as well. In the upper Midwest, this pattern is effective throughout May and the first half of June. Until the deeper weeds in a lake thicken up and turn green, much of the lake's forage will be on the shoreline flats, as will be many of the lake's predators. Several tackle manufacturers make deeper-running minnow baits, such as the Rapala Minnow Rap, that will work well on deeper lakes where the shoreline flats can be deeper, say eight to fifteen feet deep. This pattern will produce mainly walleyes and northern, but you will catch the occasional bass and even crappie as you troll the shoreline flats in spring time. How did the three of us do that cold opening day? It took about an hour to pattern the fish. They wanted a #13 black and silver Floating Rapala, being trolled at 1.6 to 1.8 mph, 140 to 160 feet behind the boat. In four hours, we caught fourteen walleyes from 18 to 27 inches, and three northern all around 28 inches. We were fishing alone, as most of the other boats headed out to deeper water to fish live bait rigs and slip-bobbers. Most of them later reported few fish.

Trolling crankbaits catches walleyes all year long. Different times of year require fishing at different depths, at different speeds, and with different crankbaits. In the spring time, long-line trolling minnow baits at slow speeds over shallow shoreline flats near suspected spawning areas is the way to go for walleyes. This pattern allows you to fish the areas where many walleyes, and northern pike, will be, and to present a bait to many of them at a speed that will trigger them. Experiment with colors and sizes of minnow baits, as well as the amount of line out and the trolling speed until you pattern the fish. This is high percentage fishing that will consistently put fish in the boat, and is a good approach to use with kids or other inexperienced fishermen, as you can simply put the rods in rod-holders and wait for them to bend over from the strike of a walleye. I have caught thousands of walleyes using this technique in May and June over the past several years, and always enjoy a day of trolling. Give this pattern a try this spring-you won't be disappointed.