While I enjoy the experience of accessing a small waterbody that I've never seen and taking in the scenery along the way, I first came to fish pothole lakes while desperately trying to avoid being skunked on particularly tough spring days. Pothole lakes attached to any productive walleye fishery almost always support walleye too, unless the water is extremely shallow and prone to winter kill or summer oxygen deprivation. Either way, they can be a great bump on your spring-walleye fishing road.

Last spring was another classic late one. The water was cool and the runoff substantial. My fishing partners, Dan Daciw, Andy Colla, and I had just made a 20-mile run through a system of adjoining large lakes to access a small lake where we had done extremely well the year before. Although the lake was barely 3/4 of a mile in diameter and only 12 feet deep, an hour of fishing had us believing the walleye had been fished out. Just before we decided to leave, a stiff breeze came up that blew into an inside turn on a tiny weedbed at one end of the lake. The walleye came too, in both numbers and size.

Pothole lakes might be great for the first shore lunch of the year, but on many occasions they're no picnic to fish. Like a big lake, you still need to locate the fish and understand the different cover options available to them. Unlike a big lake, don't expect a poor fishing day to be rescued by a walleye "chop" on the water. Pothole lakes are often far too short for waves to build up. It's best to be thorough and fish around the entire shoreline of the lake, with one person dragging a bait rig on the first drop-off out from shore and another pitching a jig to the bank. If the water temperature is 60F or less, night crawlers and leeches can work, but odds are that minnows will be best, especially when fished at a moderate to slow speed. If the water is warmer, use any bait you like with a cranked-up boat speed. For me, pothole lakes are an adventure to access and never fail to amaze me with the walleye treasure they have to offer.

3. BOULDER FIELDS
Let a walleye procreate in peace and the first place it will head afterwards is to the strangest shoreline "lakescape" it can find close to its spawning ground. These areas are almost always shallow, warmer than their surroundings, support oodles of bugs and minnows, and offer great cover to ambush prey and avoid the sun. Most anglers see these odd-looking spots as they buzz down the lake to their favourite fishing hole. They're spots they wouldn't dream of driving an outboard or casting a jig into for fear of losing both.

One of my favourites is a boulder field on a shoreline within eyeshot of a spawning tributary. The bigger the boulders, the better. The best of the best have boulders at least 3 feet in diameter that don't break the surface of the water. Because they aren't visible, they're tough to locate, get little fishing pressure, and host walleye that readily hit a lure that sinks into their fortified habitat. Fish can be scattered throughout a boulder field, but the outermost congregations of boulders that form mini-structures are usually best. Look for tips, inside corners, and pockets, just like you'd do along a weedline. My presentation of choice is jigs. Floats and bait will work too, and hawg hunters will want to throw crankbaits when the waves roll in.

From experience, I find there are two more things you should know: quietly approaching the outside of a boulder field will improve your catch rate, and only a great deal of luck will prevent you from grinding your electric motor into a prime boulder that's slightly shallower than the rest.

4. DEAD TREES
Another spring spot I won't pass over is a "stick-up" area with flooded trees or sunken timber, the kind of place that's thought to be only the purview of bass anglers. Like boulder fields, the prime ones are within a short distance of spawning areas and don't see much fishing pressure. Unlike boulder fields, they're just nasty, nasty places to fish.

Look for ones with as many sunken pieces of timber as you can find and key in on individual multi-limbed trees, rather than those with just bare trunks. Polarizing sunglasses help to see each piece, allowing you to accurately toss weedless rigs and jigs parallel to each side of the trunk and then into the branches. An abrasion-resistant mono or low-stretch superline with at least 10-pound breaking strength helps to quickly haul out fish before they wrap your line around the wood.

5. FLOODED BANKS
The last place for which to keep an eye out is a flooded bank, in particular one that features dogwood, alder, or other similar small brushy shoots. Banks that drop vertically with 3 to 10 feet against their sides are good candidates. Those with gradual slopes are generally poor. The farther back the water is flooded into the bank, the more walleye the bank will tend to hold, but concentrate fishing the outside edge where fish cruise when feeding actively. Complex banks with twists and turns, rocks, fallen shoreline trees, and small transition areas featuring weedbeds interspersed with clean, hard bottom are top producers. Keep casts close together and leave no nook or cranny unchecked.

While traditional spots will continue to get the most attention from spring walleye anglers, these out-of-the-way spots often hold more fish and are better bets when the fishing gets tough. Good luck finding a few of your own.