It is illegal to spear walleye here because the anglers are a bunch of hysterics and the DNR is their bitch.
I avoided it by not bringing my speargun.
Jon - vis at the point of entry was crap until I got about 50 feet from shore - then it was awesome - approaching 100 feet. I could easily spot Walleye from the surface out to maybe 45-60 (from vertical) degrees in 45 feet of water. Bottom was a bit less but still a good 50 or 60 - more at mid-depth. The bottom there is very silty - a bad push off creates an expanding plume of silt that soon engulfs a huge area. I try to be careful when I take pictures - If I have the reserve I'll back away from the fish - then gently surface so as not to spook them. In the video I'm creeping in on my knees - typically I try to lower my profile as i approach and sink down behind the camera. It freaks them out when you rise up. Also bringing up the camera has to be part of a larger movement - they don't like parts moving by themselves. the canted lenses on my Cressi Matrix seem to help too - I think they reflect the bottom which helps avoiding eye contact. You can see the one above on the right looking at me with one eye - and off to it's right with the other - you can also see by the pectoral fin posture it is getting ready to swim off that way. they sit with their pecs flat - and when you see them start to move you know to stop and move very slowly. the silt was the limiting factor in getting close - I had to keep outrunning it.
The shot below gives an idea of the vis - with the sun behind a cloud. the closest fish is probably 15 - 20 feet away (HUGE!) and the camera maybe 3 feet off the bottom. All the Walleye were about 24inches or larger - the big one in the video was probably in the 30 inch range. Stuff allways looks smaller to me underwater.
