"On the southeast side of Hubert, there is a nice long point that leads to a great sunken island where you can always find some walleyes," Johnson says. "If I'm not getting them to cooperate on the deeper structure, I'll head into the bulrush and cabbage and get out the jigs. The walleyes in Hubert are known to favor the weeds during low-light periods. A 1/8-ounce jig with a twistertail can put some fish in the livewell."

GETTING GONE WHEN THE BITE IS ON
Roach On The Road
Living in Brainerd, Roach has plenty of lakes surrounding his home, but he's ready at any time to put a few miles on his trailer when he hears of a hot bite -- say Red Lake in Beltrami County, for example.

"When the walleyes start biting on Red Lake, I know it will be fast and furious," Roach says. "Leech Lake is the same. Both of these lakes went through some tough times and some tough fishing due to a lack of fish. Both now have made tremendous comebacks and are five-star fisheries."

Red Lake is little more than a big, shallow bowl of sand and water with no defining characteristics to hold walleyes. At least, that's what it looks like.

"Walleyes on Red go where the food is," Roach says. "In the early- and late-season periods, the boats will stack up at a river mouth, and everyone is setting the hook. During summer, you just toss out the crankbaits and troll until you link up with a school of walleyes."

On the other hand, Leech Lake, near Walker, is loaded with structure, and most, if not all, is pretty productive, according to Roach.

"The points on Leech are always good starting points and those big flats of coontail and cabbage get ignored, but there are always walleyes on the edge of that veg."

Roach uses a Fireball jig tipped with a minnow or leech for both the points and the weedbeds. He recommends long casts and dragging that bait across the bottom to generate bites.

Johnson Jams Out Of Town
When Johnson gets news of a hot bite in the Alexandria region, he's off for the area lakes where, while fishing bass tournaments there some years back, he discovered the lakes were also loaded with walleyes. He now makes it a point to keep tabs on the fishing in the region and takes advantage of it when it heats up.

"Lake Mary is one of the great early- and late-season walleye lakes," Johnson says. "I can drift over the deep vegetation and cast a deep-diving crankbait into the open water and catch walleyes that are suspended right off that coontail and cabbage."

You'll find Johnson hanging around the Alexandria area come midsummer, too, but during hot weather, he usually turns his attention toward the region's chain of lakes. More often than not, he finds himself on Lake Carlos much of the time.

"There are three humps in the middle of that lake that are golden," Johnson says. "Start out early fishing the top regions of the humps and, as the sun gets higher in the sky, keep working deeper."

Johnson recommends a jig-and- leech rig for taking walleyes at Carlos.

"I cast (the rig) during the early and late hours because I'm in shallower water," he says. "But when I get into (water) 15 feet and deeper, I start vertical jigging. I like the vertical presentation because I know that bait is always right in front of the fish I'm marking on the sonar."