I have been fishing the near shore walleye from bank for a decent amout of years now with good sucess, but have herd the storys of the great days in the past when the numbers of eyes were way bigger then present levels..Anyone think this latest high numbers of eyes will make for some better early season shore fishing?

SHHHHHHHHH
 
LOL 

I hear ya....lol

GPS Coordinates, please.

Just kidding, from what I've read on an Ohio board, it's looking pretty good. I've never done it, but I've heard that late afternoon or night is best (of course that makes sense for walleye fishing in general). They were catching 13 pounders before ice last fall/winter.

eggy,
  one thing ive learned over the years of shore fishing for eyes is that projected numbers mean little to the amount of fish you'll actually catch in any given year. last year was relatively slow compared with past years despite large numbers being predicted. the wind, lake and stream conditions dictate success more than numbers of fish estimated in the lake. during the years when it was slow lake fishing in the summer months i had great success from shore and vice versa. last year the smolts did not stay near the shoreline in either the numbers or length of time that they have in past years. i also noticed a dramatic drop off in the number of insect hatches. last year they simply didnt happen in the volume they had previously. aside from this there are 2 things that ive learned in my 20+ years of shoreline eye fishing. one, you cant catch em if you aint fishin for em, two you catch quite a few more fish when youre quieter and not cussing quite as much...lol ring any bells? good luck chasin eyes this year, last year i never ran into you up in erie. maybe i will this year. even though i live in montana now, wild horses cant keep me from missing the opener.                                                                                 m.f.

And to think I thought all the cussin made me catch them...lol..It sure seem to work more than once...Who knows maybe they were just comminting suiside so they did not have to listen to me any more.. Anyways I had my reasons for my cussin in the past but finaly my life is way better these days and I have toned it down a good bit these days. Did not get any time to hit the shore eyes last years as my fishing parner/girlfriend was out of commision due to major knee surgery so it was alot easyer just to go panfishin with her since she could not wade at that time.

I have a friend who fishes for walleyes in the spring at the mouth of Elk creek at night.  He says he does pretty well around the time when the steelhead and smolt start running out to the lake and the walleye feed on the smolts.  I didn't think the walleye were around that ealy in the year?  I'd sure like to try that sometime.  He gets the fish on stick baits like rapalas.  Sounds like hit or miss fishing, but sounds fun!  Have you ever tried this egg sac?

humm..I belive so...did I just say that outload..oops...

Why don't we have an early season, reduced take season like Ohio?  I know we don't get the river runs, but like Shut Up said, there is definitely evening/night walleye activity that seems to coincide with smolts making it to the lake.  Its got to be a smorgasboard for the post-spawn eyes. 

It would be nice, otherwise, it is hard trolling opener in May trying to convince fish that are eating random emeralds, young of the year perch, and gobies until the pelagics (smelt & emeralds) set up in deeper water.

eg sak yur stuped forr evn strting thiss thred
lern to keepp yur mowth shutt dummas