Stomach Contents

[Kdog]

Just finished reading a rather length and detailed study of what Walleye eat and when. I just wish the Author of the article had more time and money to really move forward with the study. http://pubstorage.sdstate.edu/wfs/147-F.pdf

Anyhow, it has me thinking about a lot of things I've seen, experienced etc.
Two of the most revealing items were seasonal changes and size of fish consuming certain baits.

Long story short, Fish eat certain foods at specific times of the year. Larger fish consume items that smaller fish do not.

Has anyone noticed anything similar. Especially the items from larger fish that you do not see in smaller fish. One of the items I picked up on was Black Bullheads as a bait fish. I've seen several in stomach contents of 20+ inch fish yet do not recall seeing them in the 17"-18" fish. Same with 1"-3" bluegill its rare to find one in smaller fish yet frequently find in larger fish.

Food for thought.

 

[Bucko]

The small bullheads, what we call "willow cats", are actually sold as bait a little south of me. They are phenomenal bait for large walleye. They are always in high demand and short supply. Once in a while if I'm lucky I get one mixed in with the fatheads or suckers.

 

[BucktailJiger]

Good read .

 

[AtticaFish]

Just jumped over to the PDF document and too much for me to read right now. Maybe tomorrow while i am eating lunch at my desk.

I honestly do not catch many 'big' walleye. Majority of the 'eyes i catch are luck if they make it past 20". The bigger crappie i catch always seem to have either baby gills or baby crappie in their bellies. Gets hard to tell the difference after a little digestions takes place. This only goes for the bigger crappie. Mid sized crappie and pretty much ALL the gills i catch are insect feeders. Many times (even saw it this past weekend ice fishing) the bluegill will be crapping out weeds when i catch them. My assumption is that they are eating insects or snails off the weeds and just ingesting the weeds as xtra fiber in their diet. One specific reservoir i fish, the gills and catfish are always filled with green/brown guck during the summer months. The rip-rap rocks get coated with green slime through the summer so assume again that there must be a good supply of bugs living inside the algae.

 

[Kdog]

AF,
Years ago some of my Buddies got me involved in re-habbing some gravel pits they had leased. We had a lot of participation from ODNR and lots of advice. The Bass and Crappie were stunted, the bluegill were above average in growth, According to the DNR Biologist, there was an overabundance of bass and Crappie and the baitfish numbers were inadequate for the population. Bluegill on the other hand prefer meaty food but also eat vegetation when the other foods are not available. The Bass and Crappie will not eat it as they are strict carnivores, Most of the pits had massive thick weed beds which provided too much cover for fry and was not penetrable by larger fish.

 

[Teamasgrow]

It really depends on the forage fish available as well. A lake with a high bullhead pop will have a high percentage of predatory fish with bullheads in their systems. In other lakes with other forage bases it will vary greatly. The river system I fish has a lot of Madtoms(similar to willow cats and bullheads) in the fall I have caught smallish walleyes (15-17") gorged on 3-5" madtoms. I have also caught them in the spring, larger fish 23"+, full of them as well.