Icingeyes,

Previous posts all good advice. It comes down to this:

1. There will always be some walleye in the Western Basin, just not nearly as many once the water temperature gets to summer temps, over 72-74 degrees. April / May / first half of June lots of migratory fish are in the Western Basin. Starting mid June or as the water temps get high enough they start moving to a little cooler and less algae waters, either east or north / northwest. This transition takes about a month or so for those fish to leave. Many fisherfolks follow that pattern and move to fishing from Huron east or they head way up to the Canadian line out by West Sister Island closer to the Detroit River's inflow of cooler higher O2 water or east of Kelleys Island to deeper water.

2. There is a "resident" population of walleye in the Western Basin that remain all year. They move around looking for the best water conditions and prey. Wind direction and speed change the currents and move water around. You will find good to decent numbers in a location one day and the next they are gone. After the mayfly hatch is over (going on right now) it's hit or miss. Yes, having good fishing reports makes a big difference then because the number of fish is much less, so finding them and feeding groups isn't as easy, but can still be done and you can have some really good fishing. Late June and July still provide good walleye fishing in the Western Basin, it's just a little harder to find them.

3. The Lake is full of walleye as the population is very high right now and will continue to be for years. So fishing everywhere is better. There will continue to be good populations of "eater" size walleye in the Western Basin all summer. The bigger fish generally move out by mid July. If you want bigger fish then fish Huron east, as the fishing is closer to shore even then (less fuel). Otherwise on any given day you can catch a limit in the Western Basin.

4. Walleye can move a long distance in a short period of time. They can move 8-10 miles in one day to find the water conditions they want. This is one reason a location might have few or no walleye one day and a day or two later have plenty. The experienced charter captains know this as well as years of fishing patterns. Once one location slows down they know where to try next. I know one captain that only drift fishes and he fishes the Western Basin (or maybe will go as far east as Huron) all season. He's always full booked. He knows where to go all season. Right now he's fishing Canadian waters mostly to "get away from all the boats". But he'll be back around the Islands in a week or so.

5. Canadian waters do provide some great to good fishing. But those waters are the same depths as the rest of the Western Basin, so they have the same pattern. But they get a lot less fishing pressure, thus a lot less boat traffic, so the fish are less disturbed. And they get more direct Detroit River flow so the waters up there, in the western portion, tend to have more O2 and less algae from mid-summer on into September.

The Western Basin provides good walleye fishing all the way in to early August. But it generally takes more knowledge, good updated fishing reports, and fishing skill to catch limits after mid June or so. That said, there are days in late June and July that are as good as earlier in the season.