“The best places to find them are along the deeper sides of channels and drops where there’s a little green on the weeds,” Gentry said.

This is not sophisticated fishing. All you need is a minnow, small sinker, line and a rod and reel. Put enough weight on your rig to hold the minnow down and to restrict its movements but not enough to push it into the mud or keep it from swimming at all.

Drop the minnow in a likely looking spot and let it swim around for five minutes or so. If nothing happens, reel it in and try another spot. Allow your minnow to swim around for five minutes or so in one spot. If you don’t get a bite, move along. This is springtime fishing -- if they’re biting, they’ll eat the minnow right away.

Below the dam on Cordell Hull, there’s a solid sauger and saugeye bite early in the year and again late in the fall. Jigs tipped with minnows or a piece of night crawler will do the trick here. This area is snag infested. Use heavy line and take along plenty of extra lures.

On the west side of Nashville, there is any number of good places to walleye fish. The cuts and inflows in the area of Montgomery, Cheatham and Dickson counties are especially productive. Small jerkbaits and in-line spinners work well here. Make sure you fish any laydown you encounter in a tributary, especially if there’s grass around it. Most of them hold walleyes as well as bass and crappie.

As you approach Dover, near the upper end of Lake Barkley, weeds are more sporadic. At one time, the area was choked with them, but several years ago, the government sprayed and killed them. Since then, they have been returning with varying success.

Nevertheless, if you find weeds here, you’ll find walleyes, saugers and saugeyes. The usual suspects will all catch fish in this area -- jigs, in-line spinners, jerkbaits and crankbaits.

With that said, however, drop-shot rigs are becoming increasingly popular. The idea is to suspend your minnow, or other bait, just above the tops of the weeds. Bounce the sinker along, through the grass. The ruckus will stir up the walleyes and cause them to move. When they do, they’ll see the minnow and bite it.

Don’t fish the Cumberland River near Dover and below unless you try this. It’s really effective. And there’s no good reason why it won’t work on any of the lakes mentioned here, or on your favorite home lake for that matter. Give it a try.

Why keep Tennessee walleye fishing a secret?