If you have a fairly decent boat, a decent bow mount trolling motor and a graph that will give you an accurate reading of depth, you can fish the Detroit River. Mid April will put you right in the middle of the spawn and there should be plenty of 18"-20" males along with some big hens. Later than that and you'll start running into the white bass but that can be fun, too. Last spring me and Steve limited on walleye in about 90 minutes then pulled into a canal and caught probably 75-100 white bass in just over an hour, most around 14" and full of fight. Plus if you ice them down and clean them right they eat real good.
I use a 6' Berkley Bionics medium action rod, Abu Garcia reel and 6lb Fireline tied direct to a 3/4 oz jig and tip it with a 4" rubber worm, usually in green pumpkin, watermelon or different shades of dark red. That's just me, ask 100 guys and you'll get 100 different answers. Sometimes I use stinger hooks, sometimes I don't. Some tie to a swivel and use a flouro leader, I never saw a difference in the bite. Again, that's just me.
As far as location, Elizabeth Park area is popular. Launch there, head downstream under the bridge and start jigging as soon as you hit the deeper water. It's a snaggy son of a gun so you WILL lose jigs. If you can fish it mid week you'll save yourself some aggravation. The weekend brings out the crowds and also more knuckleheads.
Let us know when you're coming and I'm sure we can meet up and you can fish with one of us or follow us out and we'll show you the ropes.
