DETROIT — When Nick Homayed was a teenager fishing the Detroit River every chance he got, he figured that stretchy monofilament line was a major reason for missing the hook set when a walleye struck.

"So I spooled a reel with dental floss, and it really worked. I thought I was on to something," said Homayed, who is one of the most knowledgeable walleye guides in Michigan.

"Now we buy braided lines that do the same thing, but they cost about 1,000 times as much as the dental floss did," Homayed said as he reeled a 5-pound walleye to the side of his boat, where fishing buddy John Balogh quickly scooped it out of the water with a net.

A dozen other boats were drifting along near Fighting Island, and every few minutes we would see an angler drop a net over the side and boat a walleye.

"They aren't jumping into the boat, but it's still pretty good," Homayed said as Balogh whipped his rod tip up and connected with a seven-pounder. "We've had a few good days so far, but the really hot fishing is just getting started."

The Detroit River run is legendary among America's walleye anglers, the kind of place they feature on those Saturday morning, don't-you-wish-you-could-fish-there TV shows. It's one of three or four places in North America where an angler who fishes for a week has a realistic chance of catching a 10-pound trophy whose weight would equal a six-fish stringer in most of the country.

"We've mostly been catching males from four to six pounds," Homayed said. "Some of the big females have been in, spawned and left, and there are a lot more still to come in. A lot of fish are still down by the lake."

Anglers expect that this spring and summer the Detroit River and adjacent Lake Erie will enjoy the best walleye fishing in years, largely because the huge numbers of fish that hatched in 2003 have reached the 4- to 5-pound level.

On this outing, there was a half-hour flurry of activity that saw the anglers land six walleyes, three smallmouth bass and three sheepshead. They also missed as many fish.

"A lot of people ask me what kind of (electronic) fish finder I use," Homayed said. "I tell them I have the best fish finder there is -- my cell phone. If fish are biting somewhere, I'll get three or four calls from friends about it."

As he talked, Homayed got a strike and set the hook on something big that stayed down and took line.

"That's got to be a big muskie or a sturgeon," he said. "It's not acting like a walleye."

He played it for 5 minutes, careful not to put too much stress on the eight-pound braided line.

The fish came into view and Homayed yelled, "Get the net! Get the net! It's a real big walleye."

Balogh reached out and slid the net under a 30-incher that weighed a solid 10 pounds. It was admired, photographed and put back in the river.

"I like to let the big ones go," Homayed said. "The smaller ones are better to eat."

He and Balogh were jigging with five-eighths ounce, unpainted jig heads tipped with 4-inch brown, green or chartreuse rubber worms. Each jig was equipped with a small stinger hook hanging from the main hook on a 3-inch piece of monofilament.

Homayed said the most important factors are "keeping the line absolutely vertical, a fairly stiff rod that lets you feel the jig hitting the bottom, nonstretch line and, most important, a sharp stinger hook."

"Days like this, the fish are just nibbling at the lure, so you need to set the hook as soon as you feel anything different through the rod," he said. "And 90 percent of the fish will be caught on the stinger. That's why it's so important to use high-quality hooks.

"I can't understand a lot of these fishermen. They'll spend a lot of money for rods and reels but won't spend a few cents more for good hooks. The hook is the only thing that's connecting you directly to the fish," he said.

In 4 hours, four anglers in Homayed's boat caught 18 walleyes from 4 to 10 pounds, keeping 10 and releasing the rest. They also caught and released a half-dozen smallmouth bass, a half dozen sheepshead and a 36-inch muskellunge.

When the wind began shifting from the northeast to the southeast, the bite came to a stop, and after 45 fruitless minutes Homayed decided to head in.

"We should get good walleye fishing in the river until the end of June," he said. "It slows down then because the silver bass come in such huge numbers. The walleyes are still there, but you can't get a jig down to them without a silver bass grabbing it. And when you're used to catching 40, 50 walleyes a day, you're disappointed when you only get 20."