This time of year is one of my favorites when it comes to fishing here in the Midwest. The walleye bite remains steady, and the crappies are on an absolute tear. As we make the transition from jig fishing to pulling cranks, fish can be taken by using both methods and neither should be overlooked. Getting away from the crowds can definitely help increase the quality and size of fish coming into the boat.
For Crappies it’s the same story as before. Concentrate on the outside of weed lines for those bigger fish and keep moving your baits. I’ve been catching crappies not only under a bobber, but dragging small jigs around tipped with either a small crappie minnow or little plastic twister tail. Dragging is something often overlooked while crappie fishing but can be an extremely effective method of covering ground and presenting bait’s in a different fashion than 95% of the folks anchored and bobber fishing.
For walleyes I’ve been focusing on two different presentations, vertical jigging with hair/fathead (see pic)and pitching shallow with gulp alive; both have produced fish with neither one out-fishing the other. Pitching small crank baits shallow followed by a slow retrieve has been another effective method now that our water temps are into the low 60’s. Doing this will yield some pike and bass, but you would be surprised how many of those walleyes do come from breaks and shallows.
Overall this spring has shown nothing but great things and I’m confident that the regulars will have yet again a great year of fishing. Crappie Madness is in full swing but please remember that Menomin has a 10 fish panfish limit and to practice some amount of CPR as these fish are quite vulnerable to overharvest. With the walleye bite improving on a day to day basis and the water temp rising, these next few weeks should be something to look forward too 
See ya out there,
Pete 
Couple more pic’s
Good job Pete
Menomin is starting to get up on that short list, thanks for the post 
Nice report Pete!
Looks like the northern waters are warming up just a tad faster than those down here in the middle of the state this year.
Nice report Pete!
Nice 2nd report. I used to go to school at Stout and had a blast fishing the river and the lake from shore when I was there. Nice to see some reports from the area. Do you fish the river much?
Cool pics and great read Pete
I don’t fish the river from the lake up to cedar falls as much as I should. The river from the dam down to 29′ gets a lot of my attention during the cold winter months.
Pete
Great report Pete.
Seems the lake is little behind schedule this year, should kick in as the month progresses.
Jeremy
Pete, nice report! By the way, the water temp was only 57F in the lake on Sat (9th) and 54F up in the river!! Lots of active Crappies up shallow, but the Walleyes were slow.
Dr. J.
Great info here Pete
Have you been contacted yet by guys looking for a guide. If not you could have a very lucrative future as a professional guide.
Thanks Doc, Say… just got your message… How’d you do tonight? I just got back from up north crappie fishing
Jeez! Water temp is all over the board, I’d blame some of the slower walleye bite on that. Not to mention the very sporadic weather we have been experiencing!
Pete
Pete, just checked your thread.
In a nutshell, I zero’ed, not counting the thump, thump, thump from a known rockbass.
I really don’t know what is going on so far this year, water temps were a solid 60 degrees, but as we talked about before-they have not been moving water and the seams have not set up in the river. Just a different year, might be time to pull cranks or spinner rigs.
Or go looking for gills.
Jeremy