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FeedFinding, and Catching, Your Own Fish
Anglers I respect always recommend choosing your spots before you arrive at a lake, and I agree. There's an old saying that still works for me: "Find your own fish and fish them." Via lake maps, chips, and software, locate some high percentage spots before you leave your house.
Heavy fishing pressure will shut down fish activity, and when it does, you must relocate. Always have secondary spots as a backup plan if you encounter heavy pressure at your primary spots, or even consider fishing secondary spots first. You might be amazed at your success.
For walleyes, I'm usually fishing at daybreak. I skip the 2 a.m. bobbering or trolling in early spring. I used to do that, but I find the early morning bite so much more productive that it's not worth losing sleep for the ultra-early morning fishing.
Get to your top spots at daybreak, and typically you and the first three or four boats will catch fish before the hordes appear at 8 or 9 a.m. (and shut down the bite).
If you're marking fish, but seeing no activity, you can coax fish into biting. Fish will increase activity level into good, better and best, depending on how versatile and persistent you work.
So make this the year when you learn to find, and catch, ‘your own' fish!
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