"If you don't pay attention to these minor details," said Courts, "I guarantee you will lose fish because they will pull those small hooks right out."

CASS LAKE
On Cass Lake, Courts uses a two-tiered approach to catch the pressured walleyes there. He keys on the sharp dropoffs and the bulrush beds.

"I use the same routine on the dropoffs that I do on Winni," said Courts. "A live-bait rig with a minnow at the base of this breakline will get bites, but if the fish out there won't cooperate, I don't hesitate to hit the bulrush beds. Most walleye fishermen don't even consider the bulrushes an option."

Using a weedless jig and a scented plastic trailer, Courts casts right into the bulrushes.

"It's not as thick as it looks from the surface," he said. "You can slip a jig through there pretty effectively. You feel those perch there tugging on the plastic body and then it stops. The next thing you feel is the walleye inhaling the jig."

Courts also likes these bulrush beds at night and uses a lighted slip-bobber to dangle a glow jig tipped with half a nightcrawler or a leech.

"You never see too many boats on any lakes at night and they're missing a tremendous walleye bite," said Courts. "Those walleyes move up onto those shallow bulrush flats at night to feed, and I can't imagine anyone not enjoying it when that bobber disappears under the surface."

LAKE OSAKIS
"On Osakis the walleyes get pounded everywhere," said Courts. "They get beat up in the bulrushes, in the weeds and on the midlake structure there. Those fish have seen it all."

On a lake that gets a lot of daytime pressure like Osakis, Courts may consider going out after the skies get dark, but he doesn't consider this a good option on this lake.

"There's sure to be some walleyes biting at night on Osakis," said Courts, "but you can count on a great night bite on those clearwater lakes, and that doesn't fit the profile of this lake. The water clarity is just not that great. On Osakis I will troll spinner rigs and count on finding the more aggressive fish there during the daylight hours."

Courts likes to stick to the community spots on Osakis, which are the midlake humps and bars, but while everyone else is dragging live-bait rigs slowly on this structure, he is tying on a heavy bottom-bouncer with a fluorocarbon leader and a shiny silver spinner blade.

"On any lake where you find walleyes, there are always some biting somewhere," said Courts. "It's just a matter of covering ground and finding them."

Should Courts find a school of aggressive walleyes on the edge of a hump while trolling spinner rigs, he marks that spot and switches to a live-bait rig, which allows him a more precise presentation to target that concentrated school of fish.

"You never want to pass up a school of hungry walleyes that are concentrated on a piece of structure," Courts said.

OTTER TAIL LAKE
"Everyone loves Otter Tail Lake because it has that classic textbook walleye structure and there are a lot of fish there," said Courts, "but not too many fishermen even think about those suspended walleyes there."

Courts considers the suspended walleyes in lakes such as Otter Tail as being a solid option because these fish get so little pressure.

"Guys just don't know how to deal with suspended fish," he said, "so when you do get good at it, they're pretty easy to catch. In Otter Tail you have tullibees, and the water clarity is good and that means you're going to have walleyes suspending."