Walleye fishermen look to rivers for consistent walleye action year-round. Current makes walleye location predictable. Current moves baitfish, which in turn moves walleyes. It seems so easy at times.

You spent the evening preparing the boat, charging batteries, rigging rods with favorite baits, and your anticipation is high. You drive to the access, start backing down the ramp, and realize the dock is four feet out of the water.

Your options: Pack up and go home or launch the boat and try your hand at a river that has become a lake overnight.

Most rivers have some current. That's what walleyes anglers prefer to see. They look for wing dams, points, rockpiles, and other classic walleye structures. It's what we know and have been taught to look for.

I grew up on the Missouri River in Pierre, South Dakota. I love that river and its current. But two years ago, the river ran low for almost three months during the prime springtime bite. I played with the subtle currents, but with limited success. It wasn't the same slamming bite that I usually experienced at this time of the year. I was devastated. My options were gone. I was a lost fisherman.

Then I called a fishing buddy in northern Minnesota. We talk weekly about fishing tidbits. I told him the conditions and how many fish I had been catching compared to normal water levels. Then he said, "What about the weeds? Have you fished the weeds?"

"What?" I replied. "What weeds?"

"All rivers have weeds. Find them. Fish them!"

I spent the next two days searching for weeds. I fished every weedpatch I could find. I started catching a few walleyes on Lindy Veg-E-Jigs tipped with minnows.

After two days, I had the pattern down. It was just like fishing any Minnesota lake. Find weeds adjacent to deep water. Vertically jig the weed pockets and cast to the edges of weeds.

The first day a friend and I landed 42 walleyes in three hours. This bite continued till the water began to rise again a couple months later. It was the best spring walleye fishing I'd ever experienced on the Missouri River. The fish were stacked in the weedbeds. They key was locating weeds in four to eight feet of water adjacent to deeper river channels.

Through this whole process, I figured out something else. I had guided for walleyes for many years in northern Minnesota. I knew about weed walleyes. I also grew up fishing a river. But I never put the two together as one system. When rivers drop and slow, they're transformed into a lake. This seems simple, but it's easily overlooked. What you learn on rivers can help you catch fish on lakes, and vice versa. The more versatile you become, the better your success on both systems.