As far as lure and bait selections go, you have several options. Use live night crawlers as you would a regular plastic worm, Texas-rigging them and allowing the bait to remain near the vegetation as long as it can. A second option: bobber-fishing minnows near cover. Allow the injured baitfish to move through the water in an attempt to entice strikes. A third, more artificial option involves getting the wind in your face and throwing next to the vegetation with a 1/4- or 3/8-ounce spinnerbait and move the lure right beneath the surface of the water.

Brad Dyer, a local angler who has spent his share of days on Lake Byron, had this to offer: "Lake Byron is not always known for its pike fishing, which is why we have done so well there: Not a lot of people fish it for northerns. Fish Lake Byron with the thought in mind that you're going to catch a big pike near the lake vegetation."

MAY
Largemouth Bass
Nebraska
Go to Zorinsky Lake in Omaha, and you'll see other boats; go to Grove Lake near Meadow Grove and you may not even see other people. From the lake's put-in at the spillway, anglers should fish the cove straight across from them. Though this cove might be heavily covered in moss at some times of the year, fish a weedless soft plastic through the sludge. Fish green and white scumfrog poppers, allowing them to sit next to the bank in any patch of open water you can find. Even thinly covered mossbeds should produce thunderous strikes in this cove.

If fishing the thick stuff isn't what you want, you'll still have several options. Slow-roll sinking lures down the long sides of the lake. Wooded with steep dropoffs, these areas allow anglers to drop either a spinnerbait or a soft plastic down the eroding banks.

Analyze the clarity of the water when considering spinnerbait size and blade choices, fishing lures with more shine when the water isn't as clear as you'd like. Once those areas have been fished, take a smaller spinnerbait in the 1/4-ounce range and work the shallow far end of Grove right beneath the surface.

After fanning the shallow flats, chase any other aggressive bass out with Baby-1 lures from Mann's. They sell a bunch of colors, but chartreuse appears to be the way to go.

JUNE
Walleyes
South Dakota
Rory Saari at Ed's Bait Shop near Devils Lake is very up front about what he thinks he can do for anglers. "Regardless of the time of year you are here," he told me, "I can put you on 10 different places to catch walleyes." I like that confidence.

When I go, I'll fish it in early June where walleyes in the 6- to 10-pound range are quite common. At this time of the year, anglers should be looking for shallow water in the 2- to 10-foot range.

Fish for walleyes much as a bass angler would fish for bass, working crankbaits in shallow water. At the same time, anglers can use 1/8- to 1/4-ounce jigs with minnows or night crawlers. The areas that most walleye anglers fish are in the shallow coves in East Bay and the flooded hay fields off the main lake. Where the lake used to level out around 30 feet, it's near 50 feet now, so formerly shallow areas now lying at much greater depths are immense. Find these areas, and you'll find your walleyes in June.

"We are one of the top three walleye lakes in the nation," Saari assured me. At Ed's Bait Shop, anglers can get free maps, equipment, and maybe even a few tutorials. Call the shop at (701) 662-8321 if you have further questions.