I picked a good day to give Potholes Reservoir a try for walleye—maybe. My friend Brian Nielson, of BJs Guide Service, and our fishing buddy James Lebow, got on the water about 8:30 and it was flat calm. We started at the north-east end of the reservoir, and just weren’t seeing much on the depth sounder. We moved over to the other side, where there was a fleet of boats, and the number of fish on the screen picked up considerably. That didn’t mean they were going to bite. We were all trying different rigs, trying to figure out what they wanted. I stuck with a Dutch Fork Butterfly Blade in front of a Slow Death Hook and it produced fish all day. James tried a hammered brass blade on a hook harness and was disappointed. He soon switched to a Slow Death Hook with a sparkle-green Smile Blade. That was the best one for James and Brian. We landed a total of eight walleye, so the fall bite hasn’t started yet. I caught a whopper largemouth, and we got a couple of perch and some catfish, too. The promised wind never developed. It stayed calm all day long, which had us all thinking that a stiff breeze might have helped.