Reading the week
Fish respond to trend more than to any single day. A three-day warm-up after a cold front turns spring walleye and crappie on; a falling barometer before a storm often gives the best hour of the week; a bluebird high-pressure day after a front is the hardest. Water temperature lags air by days to weeks — the soil temperature in your guide is a decent proxy for shallow water in spring.
Low light is the constant. Dawn and dusk beat midday almost everywhere, and the days around the new and full moon add stronger feeding periods; your guide flags these.