Author: Daniel Eggertsen
If you want to be able to catch Walleye trophy fish on Lake Erie, you have to know what to do and what not to do. First, you get from fishing, especially with the Walleye, what you put into it. Effort is proportional to reward, but even so there's a lot left to chance. Walleye fish are well-known for being stubborn when you find them and they decide not to feed nothing is changing their minds.
Obviously, you are trying to catch Walleye fish, and for this, you are going to need the kind of bait that Walleyes will go for, as you would with any fish. These fish are also quite aggressive and intelligent, so it is much harder to catch them.
However, before you decide to likely feed a Walleye, you have to understand a little about the fish itself. Their growing cycle goes from a fertilized egg to a small fish about 1 1/2 to 2 inches in the latter spring and by autumn it grows to 4 to 6 inches. Walleyes start out by eating plankton and then shift to small insects underwater, finally graduating to eat minnows as a main diet.
After they grow to about six or eight inches, in order to keep their size the diet of a Walleye will mostly be minnows. This is a disadvantage as well. See, the Walleye has to eat almost constantly, because it never actually stops growing. Walleyes can usually be found in water that has a moderate temperature somewhere in the 60-70 degrees Fahrenheit range, because this is their feeding temperature. The Walleye fish can be found in Lake Erie in different parts of the lake during different seasons. Their ranging and feeding habits differ by season as well because of the prey that is available to them.
In the spring, it is pretty well known that Walleyes will gather in bays that are gravelly or sandy so that the winds will create waves. Although this isn't really to do with feeding, the Walleyes have to lay their eggs in stirred-up ground and keep the eggs from getting buried under silt. So you will likely also find them off sandbars and near gravel.
Reservoir Walleyes spawn over a period of about three weeks, usually after dark in water that is 3 to 12 feet deep, but they have been known to be sturdy enough to take depths of 36 feet. Water temperature is important as well. Also, the female fish won't really bite as often as the male fish during and immediately after the feeding period. Afterward though, they have a marathon feeding that lasts about a month.
During this period Walleyes will usually be in water about 15 feet deep, where minnows usually swim. Also, the sun's angle allows them to keep to shadowy spots and keep themselves from being seen by prey. However, the weather can be inconsistent in the spring, and therefore Walleyes may not be where you expect, having gone of to seek other feeding ground.
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