Here's my FYI again (every season about now) for the topic of water clarity and "where the fish are" at any particular place.

I'm a scuba diver and have dove the Lake in various places in May and June. The Western Basin has a thermocline up until around early-mid to late June, depending on the season and location. It moves down the water column as the surface waters warm and winds / currents mix the waters. Just because the water clarity is X at the surface doesn't mean it's like that all the way through the water column down to the bottom. The transition from the warmer water near the surface and the colder water near the bottom can be drastic, from 55-65 degrees at the surface to 45 degrees on the bottom. I've personally seen / felt this while diving. Once in mid June I was at a spot where the bottom 8-12 inches were much colder than above, way colder. I was hanging there 3-4 feet off the bottom in 60 degree water, and would reach my hand down to the bottom. As soon as my fingers / hand hit that colder water it was like sticking your hand in a cooler full of cold water to get a beverage. Really striking.

The point here is right now through sometime in June the water column is going to have significant temperature and clarity differences. I've seen three or four different water clarities in one column of water, top to bottom. I've seen both clear on the surface and murky near the bottom and murky at the surface and clear near the bottom. You can't truly judge the water clarity down the water column by looking at the surface 5-6 feet.

What you are really looking for is the combination of clarity and temperature. The big E-NE-N-NW blow we had last week probably played havoc with the thermoclines / water temperatures and clarities throughout the Western Basin, surface and below. The surface wave push forced a lot of warmer water to the bottom along the southern shoreline and pushed the responding opposite currents to move a lot of the lower water column around out in the Lake. A lot of mixing. I have little doubt over the next 4-5 days there are some places out there where you have 2-3-4 significantly different water temperatures in one column of water. The thermocline is probably about half way up in most places deeper than say 18-20 feet, no doubt in 25+ deep areas. You could see vertical lines of clarity difference in the satellite images the last few days - razor thin vertical lines between muddy and clear water zones.

I’ve seen this underwater horizontally, crisp definitive lines between clarities. Running a lure just one or two feet higher or lower can put you above or below that line.

This week and coming weekend I'd be looking for those transitions, but always keep in mind the water depth you are running lures at may not be the same clarity and/or temperature as the surface. Just because the surface is still murky or in the more murky area of the "stained" category doesn't mean there won't be walleye there, down in a clearer horizontal layer of water. This is especially possible in areas of significant currents and current transitions, which may not be visible or detectible at the surface.