I did most of the grinding at Emerald to get me to level 30 and onto St Croix, but the other trout lakes before you go to St Croix are really fun also. If you get a Kayak it opens up more possibilities and you may need it to get the zander. The Walleye bite best when it's raining and at night. Sometimes at night you can even get them on the drop as the lure sinks into the deeper water. I used a jig winner with 3.6 kg braid if I remember correctly perhaps with a fluoro trace, use barbless hooks if you have some. I usually just cast out from the dock towards the hole in the trees at the other end of the lake into the deeper water and let it sink right to the bottom and then use a slow one or two speed retrieve bouncing it along the bottom.

During the day the walleye mainly sit on the bottom but at night they tend to move around a bit more and may move into the shallows particularly along the reeds to the right from the dock. Cast straight out from the dock but you need to get out into the deeper water towards the back of the lake.

When I used to fish there I used night/glow shads (at night), blue worms and my goto for walleye was an amber grub - lots of others work as well.

Walleye emerald lake fishing planet