How far do Walleye commute nightly??

[Dan_I]

Was wondering about how far do Walleyes travel to from the depths to the shallows to feed at night also in between structure how far is movement pr. day?

[K Gonefishin]

I know in the central basin of Lake Erie I read and heard they will come in from 7-10 miles out, Read this in walleye insider and in-fisherman.

[Sunshine]

Doubt it

I really find it hard to believe that walleye would travel 7-10 miles one way to find food on a daily basis. They would be awfully skinny because they'd burn off more protein than they'd be absorbing through the baitfish they eat. Why wouldn’t they stay closer to the food source? If they are eating heavily I find it hard to believe that they are pigging out at two distinct locations so far apart.

I’m also interested in knowing about vertical distances that they could travel. Could a fish in 50 feet move up to a shallow 5 foot bar on a daily basis? How long does it take for them to make this kind of vertical movement without getting damage to their bodies?

[BojiHawk]

As far as vertical distance and speed, you'd be surprised how fast the can come up. Last fall I was on the dam face at Gavins Point up top near the neck down to the turbines. Gets very deep very fast and I had struck out at 8, 10, 12, 14 feet...tried about everything. So I was moving to turn around and drove off the dizzying drop off from 12 to 65' in about 20 feet of travel. I saw boomerangs all over at about 32'. So I stop trolling and start jigging and they were walleyes. Nice ones too. But as the sun dropped, I follow my graph and in 2 hours I was back into about 10 feet following the same group of fish. Never witnessed again and I'm sure it is more of a fall pattern. So for what it is worth, I thought a 20'+ move in that amount of time was pretty substantial. Maybe they are more or less dramatic than that in other waters.

[Sunshine]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I like hearing those kinds of stories. I wonder if all walleyes throughout the season can do that when thermoclines are setup and there are drastic temperature and oxygen differences from those depths.

[BojiHawk]

The water at L&C doesn't stratify too much. Certainly seems to be more even near neck down / high movement areas. There is a little inside turn near that bottle neck and it's soooo hard to hold a boat on it but it is always LOADED with fish. Now I know what a 2 pound walleye marks on my graph. But these things are monsters...I think they must be paddles or flatheads...there are rumors of catfish seen by divers that are 100lb plus near the turbines. So either it's a crock of doo doo...or these guys are the bravest divers I know...it takes a 1oz jig to even get a 45 degree angle on your line at 35 feet. But I would LOVE to spend a day with a high quality fish cam there. The area is roped off and pretty treacherous so no one can get to close to the turbines...but I think people would flip out if they new what monsters most likey chill out in what I call...the bathtub drain. Where all the good stuff ends up.

[Chubby Guy]

Personally, I doubt they have specific destinations, just tendencies. When they're hungry they head off in what has been a successful direction for food before, probably snack along, and don't go any further than they have to get their belly filled.
I do the same. :)

[reo]

Exellent question! I was just wondering same thing:

Last Monday we got on the water about six in the afternoon between Beaver and Lorain in about 40 FOW. Fished until about half hour before sunset with some sucess and a lot of marks when the marks seemed to dissapear along with the bite. We were prepared to fish into the night so we ran in to about 22 FOW where we found scattered marks. We proceeded to get set up for the night thing and within an hour after dark the screen filled with fish from 22 to 16 FOW and we put quite a few in the boat. Did they move in from their daytime holds?? It sure seems like to me, while not 7 or 10 miles it was a couple.

Just some observations from a guy who like to fish.

reo

[Harve]

First they go to the bar for a drink. How far they go after that depends on the gal walleyes they meet at the bar.

[perchjerker]

also depends if they are city dwellers or live in the stix

;)

[Texeye]

I think that a walleye can go from thirty or forty foot of water to five or ten foot fairly fast if they want. I would say within fifteen minutes or less.We can dive to 30 ft. and come up fast without any ill effects and I would say a fish is much more adept than we are.

We catch a fish in 50 foot of water and reel it up within a minute and have a tendency to think that a fish can't handle coming from those depths unless he does it over a long period of time. I have brought them up really slow (a few minutes at most):) and their stomach doesn't come out their mouth.I still think that may be too fast, but it leads me to believe a fish could rise two or three foot a minute without any harm. If a fish started in 60 foot of water and rose 3ft. per minute it could be in 10 foot of water in a little over 15 minutes. I personally believe it is even faster.

It may be that in depths greater than 50 or 60 ft. the time would be longer.

I think the distance a fish moves laterally is dependent on forage and comfort levels. All of us know about community holes. That is because this is where the walleye hang out. If the lake levels remain constant the holes are the same from year to year dependent on water temps and forage. I don't think a walleye likes to move if it doesn't have to, and I doubt a walleye would travel any farther than the bait. If the wind howls for two days and the bait moves a few miles away I don't think a walleye has any problem moving a few miles in a day at all. A fish can catch a lure at 1 to 3mph.That's catch ,so that means it is probably capable of swimming 1.5 mph without much effort. A walleye could poke along for a few hours and cover 3 or four miles. If a lake has shad and they go shallow the water could be upwards of 75 to 80 degrees(surface temps) This is why a walleye will move into the shallows to feed but seek deeper water to hold in during the heat of the day.If this happens to be a mile or two difference that's not too big a deal.

I don't know if this makes any sense but suffice it to say I believe a walleye will have a tendency to move deeper rather than farther given a choice.I don't think thirty feet is too deep and I don't think a mile or two is too much of a stretch. This of course could be much greater on a lake like Erie.

O.K., I'm done...
Have a good one.
Texeye