Walleye Fish - That Elusive Foe

Walleye fish are downright mysterious if not downright spooky. One day the Walleye are fishing and fighting like no tomorrow, and then tomorrow comes and it’s deader than a doornail. What gives? Is this the Walleye’s means of payback to avid, if not sometimes successful anglers and fisherman?

It can be said that much of the seemingly mysterious behavior of walleyes can be explained by their acute even exotic high powered “night vision”. Walleyes can almost see in the dark. As well, and in addition Walleye fish have finely tuned “lateral “sense and ultra sharp hearing. Lastly Walleye fish have a good sense of smell, even though this does not seem to play the most dominant role in their lives and activities. Thus all in all, avid fishermen were not imaging it in any way. The Walleye fish is one ultra sharp competitor to outsmart and land successfully on the line.

How is that Walleye fish having this unbelievable power of finely tuned sight and vision? What is called the “tapetum lucidum”, a layer of reflective pigment in the retinas of this species of fish, give the Walleye fish a built in advantage: they can see well in dim light. However the Walleye fish’s prey cannot. Thus, this highly developed night vision explains why Walleyes do most of their feeding in dim light – be it at dusk, early morning or on dismal grey overcast days or even during heavy rainstorms.

On the other hand, because of their light sensitive eyes, walleyes can not tolerate sunlight or bright light levels well. If the water is clear , and there is no shade in the shallows, Walleye fish may go as deep as forty feet down in the water to escape the penetrating , even harmful , rays of light from the sun. However in dark or choppy waters, Walleye fish can remain in the shallows all day.

Walleyes can see color, but they cannot see as many hues as fish like largemouth bass or northern pike. Any animal with good color vision has two general types of color discriminating cells: red-green cells and blue-yellow cells. But a Walleye fish lacks the blue-yellow cells, so that its color vision is similar to that of the rare human beings with blue-yellow color blindness. In other words, Walleye fish to see all colors as some shade of red or green.

Aggressive and successful fisherman familiar with Walleye fish and fishing will tell you that it’s an art to guess which lure colors work best with these fish. It must be remembered and noted that water color itself and depth can change the way a lure actually appears to the same fish or group of Walleyes. In addition, what may well be considered the “best” lure colors and personal choices for lures may differ from one body of water to the next, because the Walleye fish themselves are feasting on different foods – even in the same season and weather conditions. You might have heard if electronic color selectors being developed and tests conducted on largemouth bass. However this data and experience are all of naught when it comes to your chances of application of this information to your Walleye fishing results. Walleyes see color and colorations extremely differently than those largemouth bass. What works for bass in terms of lure color choices – seems not to carry over to success with Walleye fishing and anglers.

In the end it’s no accident that the Walleye fish is such an avid competitor when it comes to landing them on hook and line. You may have caught scores of Walleye one fishing weekend up in Canada , and then go back the very next day and get spooked. Just remember always even if you come back empty handed after a day of Walleye fishing , its always better than the best day back at the office in the city.