Large walleyes like this one often can be found by fishing in submerged weeds.

Proficiency when fishing in and around weeds is often fundamental to early season walleye success.

On lakes and reservoirs that feature submerged weedgrowth, you can be sure walleyes will be using this developing cover.

Thinking outside the box will allow you to address early season walleyes during a host of conditions.

Courtesy of one of walleye fishing's finest, here are a couple off-beat tactics for weed-oriented walleyes.

"I'll rig a jig, especially when fishing new weeds, with a Texas-style setup," said long-time walleye pro angler Daryl Christensen of Montello, Wis. "I'll still use livebait. I take a one-inch piece of plastic worm, inserting the hook in the end of the piece and threading it up to the head of the jig. I'll then put my livebait on, whether it's a leech or a crawler, and then insert the other end of the piece of plastic to the point of the jig.

"This not only secures the bait, but it keeps the jig from getting hooked up in the weeds," he added. "You can cast it or drag it through those weeds really easily without getting weeds on it."

There are commercially available leadheads that feature wire or fiber weed guards. Christensen's method, however, does not allow an open end. The hook gap is totally covered, providing a sleek presentation that slithers through the sparser cover often found early on. Also, the soft plastic "guard" can add additional scent, flavor and color.

Christensen uses Bait Rigs' Odd'ball jig in either eighth- or sixteenth-ounce weights.

"They have the little keeper barb by the head," said Christensen. "That helps keep the plastic on."

Then, Christensen either drags the jig softly through the weeds, or swims it slowly over them.

"When I swim it, I use short hops, allowing it to drop down into the weeds, because I honestly don't have to be concerned with getting weeds on it," he says.

I first became aware of the effectiveness of safety-pin spinnerbaits on walleyes nearly 20 years ago on a remote lake in Manitoba. The tool of the day was one-ounce Lindy Big-Fin spinnerbait, a highly effective bait for pulling 20-pound northern pikes from lily pad-covered shallows.

Toward twilight, the pike bite died, replaced by hard-hitting Canadian walleyes that jumped on the big spinnerbaits.

While unconditioned walleyes from a seldom-fished lake might not provide an accurate measurement of how walleyes in our pressured lakes will respond to a bait, the fact is smaller versions of safety pin spinnerbaits make excellent, albeit lightly used, walleye presentations.

"I will take a small safety-pin spinnerbait body and put a round-head jig on it," said Christensen. "I tip it with either a half a crawler or a leech. I'll make fairly long casts, just slowly retrieving it. Just fast enough to make the spinner move.

I'll reel it five or six feet, then stop, letting it flutter and free-fall to the bottom. It's very weedless with that spinner arm in front. I've caught a ton of walleyes on it," he added.

Christensen usually uses sixteenth ounce roundhead jigs on the safety pin spinnerbait body. While crawlers and leeches are his typical dressing, he said you can use soft plastic too, or a feathered or bucktail jig.

Spinnerbaits that don't employ livebait also can be fished a bit more aggressively when contact is made with weedgrowth.

"I'll often use a fake leech, like a Power Bait leech," said Christensen. "The bait is moving. The walleyes don't stop and size it up. They just jump on it."