When it comes to finding and catching walleyes, the mantra “Seek ye forage first” is one of the In-Fisherman staff’s guiding principles. For good reason. Except for the peak of the spawn, an angler’s ability to identify the forage in a particular fishery plays a major role in mastering the walleye location puzzle.
In the late spring and early summer, for example, shiners moving into shallow shoreline areas to spawn draw hungry walleyes. And in fall, baitfish migrations, often into shallow current-washed areas, draw schools of hungry and aggressive ’eyes to feast on autumn’s bounty. Species such as gizzard shad, alewives, ciscoes, yellow perch, and rainbow smelt, along with various minnows, are often the main course in classic systems, and their location frequently dictates where the walleyes are. Savvy walleye seekers are aware of many such predator-prey interactions, yet few understand baitfish ways enough to fully capitalize on these connections. Worse, other walleye-forage relationships exist largely off the angler’s radar, including those involving bluegills and bullheads.
With that in mind, we’re offering a field-guide-type look at some of the most important forage species, to help you identify each and better understand how their life histories can help you catch more walleyes.
Alewife
Alosa pseudoharengus
Other Names: Big-eyed or river herring, golden shad, grey herring, mulhaden, sawbelly, seth, skipjack
Description: A small herring with a metallic, dark bluish-green back, silvery sides with faint horizontal stripes, and a white belly. Identifying characteristics include large eyes and large mouth, the lower jaw protruding beyond snout, and a purplish spot behind the upper edge of the gill.
Size: Freshwater—4 to 9 inches; marine—up to 15 inches
Food: Zooplankton, a variety of juvenile fish (including walleyes), algae
Spawning: Migrates into shallow areas as water temperatures reach upper 50ºF range, with peak spawning at 64ºF. Adhesive eggs are broadcast over a variety of substrates including gravel, sand, and submerged vegetation. Eggs hatch in 6 days with no parental attention.
Range: Native to the Atlantic Coast from South Carolina north to Red Bay, Labrador; introduced in many inland fisheries in the eastern U.S. Well established in three of the Great Lakes—Huron, Michigan, and Ontario—but less common in Erie and Superior.
Habits and Habitat: With the exception of the spawning period, alewives typically inhabit open water. In inland lakes they commonly suspend offshore from 20 to 80 feet deep from late August through March, after which they move closer to sharp shoreline breaks leading to harbors, beaches, and other spawning sites. Postspawn alewives retreat to deeper water.
Walleye Connection: Dense schools of alewives are a major food source for large predators such as walleyes, trout, and salmon, and an abundance of alewives can make it tough for anglers to compete. During early summer, structure-oriented walleyes often move offshore to greet incoming alewives. The action moves onto shoreline-connected points shortly thereafter. In both scenarios, crankbait-trolling programs can be successful. So can vertical-jigging for suspended walleyes with small jigs tipped with chunks of nightcrawler. As alewives move even shallower, night-fishing can be intense for anglers trolling minnowbaits along weededges. During the day, cast jig-and-minnow combos, crankbaits, and spinnerbaits along the edges of weedbeds for resident walleyes; or, fish jigging spoons along the bottoms of points where alewives move out to deeper water to hold during the day.
Gizzard shad
Dorosoma cepedianum
Other Names: Hickory shad, mud shad, skipjack
Description: Back is silvery blue fading to white sides and belly. Identifying characteristics include a small mouth, deep body, and threadlike last ray of dorsal fin. The lower jaw does not extend beyond the tip of the snout (as it does on very similar threadfin shad). Also, there is no yellow coloring on the tail of a gizzard shad, as there is on threadfin shad.
Size: 9 to 12 inches
Food: Plankton, also algae and insects
Spawning: Massive schools of gizzard shad spawn primarily at night, roiling at the surface in tributary streams, sheltered bays, and along shorelines in less than 10 feet of water. Fertilized eggs sink to bottom, where they hatch within 7 days without parental care.
Range: Native to the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence, Mississippi, Gulf Slope, and Atlantic drainages across much of North America, and widely introduced in other waters.
Habits and Habitat: A schooling fish of fertile rivers, oxbows, swamps, lakes, and manmade reservoirs, the gizzard shad sometimes moves into large streams but is more commonly found at or near the surface in open water offshore, where it filters plankton, algae, and other food items through its gill rakers. May also graze on bottom. It tolerates brackish and saline waters in coastal areas, and water temperatures to 95°F. Also withstands cooler water than related threadfin shad. Still, it is vulnerable to sudden and dramatic changes in temperature and dissolved oxygen levels, which can produce massive die-offs.
Walleye Connection: Gizzard shad are prolific preyfish that make up a large part of walleye diets in systems where the two species coexist. Because shad follow clouds of plankton, they tend to gather on downwind areas after several days of consistent wind—a situation benefiting walleyes and savvy anglers alike. Another key shad pattern hinges on the nocturnal spawning orgies that attract walleyes of monstrous proportions.
Throughout the year when walleyes are keying on nomadic shad, finding baitfish clouds with sonar is a critical first step to setting up trolling passes for walleye wolfpacks shadowing the schools. Longline-, downrigger-, and leadcore-based trolling systems all have potential for targeting two hot zones—one just beneath the mass of shad, the other 10 to 15 feet beneath it (resting walleyes).
Bluegill
Lepomis macrochirus
Other Names: Bream, copperbelly, pond perch, sunfish, sun perch
Description: A round, flat-bodied member of the sunfish family, the bluegill has a dark olive back; dark, silver-blue or bluish-olive upper sides; and yellow belly. Distinguishing characteristics include a dark earflap (lacking light or red margins), dark vertical bars on the sides, small mouth, long, pointed pectoral fin, and a dark blotch on the dorsal fin.
Size: 6 to 10 inches
Food: Insects, crustaceans, algae, leeches, snails, zooplankton, small fish
Spawning: Bluegills may spawn from April to October at water temperatures from 67ºF to 80ºF, but peak reproductive activity occurs when water temperatures reach the upper 70ºF range. Parental males excavate nests or beds on coarse sand or gravel in large colonies. Females deposit eggs in the nests and are then chased off by the males, each of which guards its bed until fry disperse.
Range: Native to the St. Lawrence, Great Lakes, and Mississippi River basins from Quebec south to the Gulf of Mexico and northern Mexico. Widely introduced elsewhere.
Habits and Habitat: Bluegills are fond of quiet, weedy waters offering food and cover. They are common in many lakes, ponds, slow-flowing streams and rivers with gravel, mud, or sandy bottoms. Bluegills of all sizes are found shallow early in the season; large adults typically move deeper following the spawn. Although bluegills possess acute daytime vision, helpful for feeding on small aquatic creatures, they see poorly in low light, making them vulnerable to predation by walleyes.
Walleye Connection: Though few anglers realize or capitalize on it, bluegills and other panfish such as black and white crappies are important walleye forage in many waters. Young panfish called “flats” are readily available to walleyes in early summer, when large schools suspend in open water near the most fertile areas of the lake. Through summer, walleyes prowling weededges or pockets in weedflats prey on young panfish.
One of the classic bluegill connections occurs in fall, as weedbeds die and cover becomes scarce. Hungry walleyes move in for the feast and are vulnerable to crankbaits, such as lures in the Rapala DT Series and the Cotton Cordell Big O, along with livebait presentations such as 4-inch sucker minnows fished under slipfloats. In northern areas, walleyes continue to feed on bluegills under the ice—often making twilight forays into weedbeds lying in 6 to 12 feet of water to dine on visually challenged ’gills. Drill holes well in advance of evening, and deploy tip-ups with livebait and aggressive tactics with swimming lures and jigging spoons as needed.
