OutdoorMissouri.com

Besides shad, what else do walleyes eat around here--at least enough to maybe build a pattern around? Crayfish? Mayflies? Little walleyes? Thanks!

I've had walleye puke up a small bluegill in the livewell. One that the walleye must have just eaten. A good vet could have pulled the bluegill through.
Also, this is just a theory, southern walleyes think they are bass. They hang in and around brushpiles. I would think that if a baby crappie was available, the walleye would eat them also.
There are lots of small rainbow trout in upper Bull Shoals. It would seem they too would be easy prey. (Although I've thrown a rainbow trout colored rogue till I was blue-in-the-face, and never caught a walleye on it).

I'm not a Walleye fishermen, but I would think they would eat Black Perch, everything else does.

Since most every lure walleyes bite on imitates a minnow or small fish, I'd say that's their primary food.

Also, I've done a lot of bass fishing around here with plastic worms and crawdads, and NEVER caught a walleye that way - so I'd say those aren't the kind of things they eat.

That would make them kind of like white bass, eating smaller fish only. But white bass move fast and work the surface, so they mostly eat shad. Since walleyes are usually bottom dwellers and not so fast, I'd guess they mostly eat minnows, small perch, bass, and crappie as well as maybe crippled shad dropping out of a school.

When white bass are actively feeding on a bunch of shad on the surface, I wonder if walleyes are sometimes down below feeding on the wounded ones? I've caught bass, channel and flathead cats, and even big bluegills doing that.

Had one of the PWT pros tell me that most of the walleyes he caught during prefish last summer were puking up bluegill, that is why he went to a turqoise blue smile blade and a couple yellow & orange floats on his crawler rigs.

Lee Brown and I were talking about walleyes and the balls of shad last week. He says, and I agree, that the walleyes and other predator fish will hang out below the bunched up shad ball and pick off sick, wounded, old, or otherwise unhealthy prey fish that drop out of the pack. White bass, large mouth and white bass seem to do the same thing. Protein is protein, parts is parts.............

In the Black River and Current River during the summer months I've seen several eyes with lamprey eels in them.

Pssssst....PD....remember that time you fished out of the boat with BB? Remember those funny looking little jigs he was throwing with a Finley River shiner stuck on the hook behind a smoke color swimming minnow? Since you're such a nice fellow, I'm going to see to it that you get a couple or three of those jigs and swimming minnow combos, and quite possibly a small supply of the Bull Shoals walleyes favorite forage.....the Finley River shiners. For the next few weeks that pattern is pretty darn good on Bull Shoals. Once upon a time I saw a tee shirt that said that if you give a man a fish he can eat one meal. If you teach a man to fish, he can feed his family. If you teach a man about seining wild shiners, he can go on the PWT and make zillions of dollars and eat wherever the hell he wants to eat. Remember that my son and some day we can all say we knew you when you were just a transplanted cheesehead.
funny looking jig + smoke color swimming minnow + Finley River live shiner = good chance at a great walleye
As we have all discovered, walleye can be very fickle....but the live bait presentation is a very good one.
It has produced for us when everything else did not.

My experience is different from yours Ozark. I catch quite a few walleye while bass fishing at night with a plastic crawdad. I've always thought that they fed fairly heavily on 'dads at night. My .02.

Folks,Steve Brigman, has a real nice article in the News Leader outdoor section on walleye fishing.He also mentioned some cheesehead's name that we know and for whatever reason
speaks highly of him.One has to wonder how much money Mike had to pay Steve to get his name in print.
Good job there P.D.

Lunder...What day was article printed ?

As for "other forage", I've never had a walleye puke up a crawdad in the livewell but one of my pet trolling cranks has a crawdad finish on it and the Bull Shoals and Tablerock Lake walleyes like it alot. Maybe it's just my expert presentation.

Bullitt....walleyes will definitely feed on crawfish, especially when they are in the soft shell stage, according to the Linder brothers. Since the crawfish shed their outer exoskeletons as they grow, and they try to hide in rocks and rubble during the process, walleyes take advantage of the extra forage in areas where they normally feed on prey fish anyway. I caught a small walleye on a plastic crawfish jig on Pomme a year or so ago while fishing for bass. The extra bulk of the plastic craw looks like a full dinner plate, I guess.

T.R. It's in today's newspaper,in that magazine section of the newspaper.Anyone going to Stockton on Saturday,thinking Rick and I are planning a trip up early on Sat. morning and fish the dam area.Heard that they were running alot of water and hoping that a few eyes would still be holding there feeding.
Good plan or do you folks think it's a poor plan?????????????

Ron...you should be OK in your boat on Saturday. The winds are predicted to be from the SE at about 8 or 9 mph. That's enough to put the Express at the upper edge of my comfort zone, but the high side boats should be fine. If the wind prediction drops, I might come over there instead of the long run to BS....just have to wait and see. Hope you guys get into 'em big time.

Hmmm...that was a surprise. Like a pitcher in baseball--one good ride, and they make you a multi-millionaire.

I'll bet my ol' pard was a bit grumpy that day. He doesn't like it when the fish don't cooperate.

By the way, Steve Brigman is "Writer Guy" on this board. He's always looking for outdoor adventures to pursue (and write up). Very likeable guy. If ever you're looking for a partner for a day, shoot him a PM.