The bay holds one of the densest walleye populations in the Great Lakes, and the fish are not in the same place twice. The year has a shape, and knowing it saves more time than any lure choice.
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Walleye move out of the bay and up the rivers to spawn, and the Saginaw system is the big one. Fish push up the Saginaw and into the Tittabawassee, with the run generally building through late March and into April depending on how the ice and the water temperature go. This is the most concentrated the population ever gets and the most crowded the fishery ever gets.
While that is happening in the rivers, the bay itself is not empty. Pre spawn fish are still staging near the river mouth, and post spawn fish are already dropping back down. The rip rap edges around the Dredge Island near the mouth hold baitfish and transient walleye, and pitching jigs there is a reliable way to intercept fish moving in both directions at once.
After the spawn the fish need to feed hard, and early spring is exactly when the bay has the least bait in it. So they go looking. The classic pattern is a movement north along the west shoreline toward the smelt, which stage in the outer bay and run the shoreline streams. The Au Gres to Tawas stretch has a long reputation for that reason, and April into May is when the average size is at its best.
This is also when the fishing is closest to shore and shallowest, which makes it the friendliest part of the year for a smaller boat, as long as you pick your day. A moderate south wind putting a walleye chop on the water is close to ideal, and it is worth planning around.
As the bay warms, the fish spread and move toward the cooler and slightly deeper water of the outer bay. The inner bay does not stratify, so there is no thermocline to work with; you are reading structure, bait, and water color instead. Trolling comes into its own here, covering water at speed with crankbaits and spoons behind boards and divers until a depth and a color pattern emerge, then committing everything to that pattern.
Summer is also when the wind lesson matters most. The fish are scattered enough that finding the concentration is the whole job, and the wind driven stacking described on the wind page is the most reliable way to narrow it down.
As water temperatures drop the fish feed hard again and the average size climbs. Fall trolling on this bay has a reputation for producing the largest walleye of the year, and the crowds are gone. The tradeoff is weather: this is when a nice morning turns into a bad afternoon quickly, and when the north and northeast winds that make the inner bay miserable start showing up regularly.
Late in the fall the fish begin drifting back toward the river mouth and the deeper holes, which sets up the winter fishery. Once the bay locks up, conditions move over to the Michigan Ice Report, which tracks accumulated cold rather than wind.
One habit separates people who do well here from people who do not, and it has nothing to do with tackle. Watch the water color and be willing to move because of it. Gin clear and cold is usually the wrong place on this bay. A stained edge, slightly warmer, with some chop on it, is usually the right one. That preference is why wind is such a strong driver and why a bay that just went flat after a long blow can fish poorly for a day.