Why are some anglers always on fish while others struggle to catch walleyes? Even on unfamiliar waters, skilled anglers quickly eliminate unproductive spots and waste no time concentrating on the best fish holding structure and angling techniques. It's almost as if some folks were intended to catch walleyes and others to be frequent visitors at Friday night fish frys.

Nothing is more frustrating than to waste valuable fishing time on spots that aren't producing. The ability to find productive fishing waters fast isn't a magical touch some anglers have and others don't. Finding fish is a learned skill that any angler can master.

Two noted professional walleye anglers have risen to the top of their field by being able to consistently find and catch walleyes on natural lakes, rivers and impoundments. Mike McClelland and Keith Kavajecz are two of the most successful anglers on the walleye tournament trail. Both men spend 150 or more days a year on the water and most of it where they haven't had the luxury of fishing before.

With only a few days before each tournament to find and pattern walleyes, these men routinely show up at the weigh-in with limits of fish even local anglers are envious of. It seems almost too good to be true, but these guys fish new waters every week and almost without fail are able to locate fish quickly and put them in the boat when others can't get a bite.

McClelland coined a phrase in his book, How to Win the Walleye Game, that sums up walleye fishing best. "Walleyes are easy to catch; finding them is hard part," says McClelland.

McClelland's statement reads like a riddle, but his point is well taken by anyone who has found himself asking where do I start.

"Walleyes, and for that matter fish in general, aren't overly intelligent creatures," explains McClelland. "Fish are governed by a set of instinctive forces that guides them through life. Walleyes eat, grow, reproduce and avoid predators all as part of an instinctive survival system refined through years of evolution. Catching a mess of walleyes simply boils down to locating the fish then presenting a bait or lure that looks like something good to eat."

Before any angler can fry up the benefits of fishing, a school of fish must be located. McClelland suggests that the search for fish should begin weeks and even months before your scheduled fishing trip. Doing your homework is the best way to eliminate poor fishing lakes all together and start the task of narrowing down productive spots.

"Before you can hunt for walleyes, you've got to hunt for information," claims McClelland. "The winter sport shows are a perfect place to begin gathering information that can make or break your next fishing trip. Concentrated under one roof are hundreds of lodge owners, guides and fellow fishermen who can help choose a hot spot that has an abundant population of walleye and the facilities needed to make your trip an enjoyable one."

Talk to folks behind the booths until you find a region and specific fishery that seems promising. Don't forget to ask when the best fishing occurs. Walleye fisheries have time periods when the fishing peaks and others when fishing is poor. Try to plan your trip to coincide with a time period that traditionally produces a good bite.

While you're at the show get the address and telephone number of a nearby tourism bureau, other resorts and local guides. Later, contact these people and ask them the same questions. If you get the same answers, chances are the information you've received is trustworthy. Be cautious about dates lodge owners suggest to insure they jibe with the best fishing times and aren't just tough dates to book.

After you've made a decision which fishery to try, you'll want to seek out a source of hydrographic fishing maps. An organization known as Fishing Hot Spots is an excellent source of fishing maps. Based out of Rhinelander, Wisconsin the FHS organization offers maps of literally hundreds of prime walleye waters including natural lakes, the Great Lakes, rivers and impoundments. For a free catalog, write Fishing Hot Spots, 1999 River Street, Rhinelander, WI 54501 or call 715-369-5555.

Maps are often so large they become difficult to handle in a boat. Fishing maps can be reduced in size on a photo copy machine to make them more convenient to use. Some of the newer machines even allow the document to be copied in color!

A reduced photo copy is the ideal map to take into the boat and a great place to start recording important notes or reminders. Keep the original map in a safe place where it will remain clean and ready for reference if needed.

If the fishery you choose to visit hasn't been mapped by one of the major map producers, contact a local tourism or Department of Fish and Game office to inquire about other fishing map sources. A detailed map that shows bottom contours, islands, marshy areas, navigation hazards, etc., is an invaluable aid in pinpointing the fishing areas most likely to produce walleyes.

If a fishing map isn't available, get a lodge owner or other fisherman who is familiar with the water to draw a crude map marked with important features and a few spots to try.

Every walleye fishery has a few "community" spots that receive a lot of fishing pressure from local and visiting anglers. Usually these sites are located close to boat ramps and have obvious bottom structure or cover that makes them easy to identify as a fish holding spot.

Don't be surprised if community spots don't produce hot action. When everybody and his in-laws start fishing an area, it doesn't take long for a spot to get fished down. Use community spots as a starting point to determine what type of structure or cover fish seem to prefer and the fishing methods local anglers use.

Anglers can learn plenty about a lake by visiting the local bait shops. "Examining the snap shots posted on the walls or taped to the counter tops is a good way to get a quick handle on the species and size of fish being caught," suggests McClelland. "Look closely at the photos and you'll notice the date the print was developed. After checking a few bait shops you'll know exactly what time of year produces the best fish and if any fish are currently being taken and probably even the lure that was used to take the fish."

Bait shops are also a good place to begin shopping for a guide. If your budget allows, it makes sense to hire a local guide for one or two days. A good guide will happily point out community spots and provide other valuable fishing information that could take weeks to discover on your own.

McClelland suggests that anglers be open and honest when they hire a guide. "Tell your guide you have your own boat and are simply looking for some help finding fish," advises McClelland. "Chances are the guide won't take you to his best spots if you only plan to fish with him one day. That's understandable, but with the help of a lake map, it's not difficult to ferret out spots similar to the ones the guide provided."

After fishing with a guide, use a lake map and look for other areas with similar characteristics to those fished. Say for example the guide showed you a main lake point that stretched well out from shore before dropping into 20 feet of water. The top of the point had a few rocks and weeds on it and walleyes eagerly bit a jig and minnow combination.

Chances are very good other lake points with similar surroundings will also attract walleyes. In fact, these overlooked spots that aren't as obvious or popular often yield the best catches.

Information seeking is an important aspect of fishing. If you do your homework carefully, many of the obvious questions like "where do I start" and "what lures should I use" have already been answered for you. The next step is to launch your own boat, grab a map and begin exploring the spot or spots information hunting have turned up.

"Unlike most fish, walleyes are at home in a wide variety of habitats and depth ranges," says Kavajecz. "When hunting for fish on new waters, it's important to keep an open mind and try a variety of angling tactics. I think a lot of anglers have trouble finding walleyes in unfamiliar waters because they depend too heavily on a favorite angling method."

On any give body of water, Kavajecz believes that walleyes are most likely to be found in one of three general depth zones. He breaks down his search into areas that feature water from six to 10 feet deep, mid range depths from 10 to 20 feet deep and water from 20 to 40 feet deep.

Within these depth ranges, shallow water fish are the toughest to locate consistently. "Unfortunately, fishing electronics aren't much help in locating shallow water walleyes," admits Kavajecz. "It doesn't pay to cruise around in water less than 10 feet deep looking for fish marks on your electronics. The transducer signal only records a tiny piece of bottom real estate at this depth and the boat itself may actually spook fish from the area before the electronics can detect their presence."

In shallow water the only practical way to locate walleyes is to fish for them using techniques that present lures away from the boat. Casting crankbaits or jigs tipped with live bait are two excellent ways to contact walleyes in shallow water without fear of spooking the fish. These angling methods eat up water quickly and help the angler isolate the most productive waters in the least amount of time.

"It also helps to wear high quality sunglasses when fishing shallow water, adds Kavajecz. "I wear Hobie Navigator sunglasses when I'm on the water. Although I seldom spot walleyes in shallow water, sunglasses can be a big help in locating submerged weeds, sunken timber, rock piles and other cover walleyes are likely to be using."

When Kavajecz hunts for walleyes in the mid depth ranges, (10 to 20 foot) he plys the water with a combination of angling techniques that cover water quickly and studies his fishing electronics closely. Best described as a run and gun method of angling, Kavajecz selects key areas on his map such as sunken points or reefs and fishes these areas briefly to evaluate the potential of each spot.

"A pass or two over key areas is usually enough to determine if any fish are at home," says Kavajecz. "I don't have to catch or mark a lot of fish on a spot to get serious about an area. Most of the time I'm checking spots during the middle of the day when the fish probably aren't biting so hot. Catching one or two walleyes in an area tells me the spot has potential and should be fished seriously during early morning and late afternoon when the fish are more likely to be actively feeding."

If Kavajecz doesn't catch any fish in an area or only marks a few fish on the graph, he don't hesitate to move on to greener pastures. On the other hand, a spot that shows lots of fish marks, but doesn't produce any bites may be worth checking out again later.

"Unfortunately, even the best sonar equipment can't identify what species of fish it's marking," confesses Kavajecz. "The only way to know for sure if the fish you're marking are walleyes and not a school of carp or drum is to hook one and confirm the catch with your own eyes."

After hitting the primary spots briefly, Kavajecz returns to those that showed promise and works the area over more throughly. "Now's the time to start experimenting with different presentations," says Kavajecz. "If a spot produces a few fish, it's worth investing more time and effort into. Sometimes simply changing lures or slowing down the presentation can transform a so-so spot into a real winner."

Trolling bottom bouncer sinkers armed with a spinner (nightcrawler harness) is one of the best methods for searching out walleyes in depths from 10 to 20 feet. A spinner baited with a plump nightcrawler is an effective walleye lure and bottom bouncer sinkers allow the bait to be fished through rocky or snag filled areas with little fear of hanging bottom. Trolling these deadly lures with an electric or small gasoline motor is an excellent way to cover water quickly.

Deep water represents a completely different set of fish finding problems. Lakes with significant areas of deep water often support a good population of suspended fish. Suspended fish roughly translated means you can expect to find scattered and free roaming groups of walleyes that are actively feeding, but tough to lasso. When a body of water has a reputation for producing suspended walleyes Kavajecz depends heavily on crankbait trolling and his electronics to locate them.

"It's best to tackle large lakes by systematically biting off manageable chunks of water, advises Kavajecz. I hunt for suspended fish by slowly cruising the boat back and forth in a grid like pattern while watching my electronics for clusters of fish. Most of the time I won't even wet a line until I'm marking fish. When I start marking fish in an area, I usually break out my crankbaits and planer boards and start trying to catch a few.

Trolling diving crankbaits behind in-line planer boards is the fastest way to cover the wide open spaces associated with suspended walleyes. With the boards spaced up to 100 feet to either side of the boat, every trolling pass eats up a huge chunk of water.

Kavajecz recommends trolling with an assortment of lures that dive to different depths. "Picture the water below the boat as a three dimensional grid that contains fish at different depth ranges. Mix shallow, medium and deep diving lures into the trolling pattern until the walleyes tell you which lures are best."

Fishing a school of suspended walleyes in the middle of a sprawling lake is like playing hide and seek if you don't have the right tools. Even if the fish are biting well, it's easy to blunder into a school of fish then lose them just as quickly. Suspended fish are constantly moving and without a landmark or point of reference it becomes very difficult to stay on the fish.

"When working open water fish, a graph equipped with a Global Positioning System (GPS) unit is an invaluable fishing aid," adds Kavajecz. "The better GPS units combine a full service Liquid Crystal Readout graph and graphic plotter screen into the same machine. Plotters work by printing out a plot trail on the screen that represents the movement of the boat. Like a jetstream trail in the sky follows a supersonic jet, plot trails show the angler where he has been and which direction he's traveling."

Kavajecz uses a Lowrance LMS 350 GPS that combines a Liquid Crystal Readout graph and graphic plotter in a single unit. When fish are located in an area the boat is navigated back along the same trolling route by following the plot trail. As fish are caught icons or what could be called electronic marker buoys are saved in the unit's computer and on the plotter screen as a visual reference.

"After trolling back and forth through the school, catching a few fish and recording several icons, the size and shape of the school begins to take shape," notes Kavajecz. "It's even possible to determine the shape of the school by monitoring the configuration of event markers on the screen."

The better GPS/sonar units feature split screen capability that allows the angler to monitor the graph and plotter screen at the same time. The accuracy of GPS plotter navigation system is fanominal. The highest of high tech fishing electronics, GPS systems can do a lot to help anglers find and stay on walleyes. In the near future these machines will be so affordable every angler will be able to enjoy GPS technology.

Finding fish in short order is a skill any angler can master. Dedicate some time to hunting information before hitting the water, use guides when available and concentrate on angling methods that eliminate water quickly. These tips plus a little help from GPS navigation system can help anglers find walleyes and stay on them. The time you save will be well spent fishing.