What makes a fish bite?  Is it because he is hungry and along comes the juicy-nightcrawler, or is it some other reason that causes him to engulf our bait.  No one really knows the complete answer to that question, but most fisherman assume a fish will eat when he is hungry and keep his mouth shut when he's not.

Not always so!!  There are a lot of behavioral reasons why fish strike and feed.
1-FEEDING
2-REFLEX ACTION
3-ANGER
4-SPAWNING TERRITORY PROTECTION
5-COMPETITIVE INSTINCT
6-CURIOSITY
7-TERRITORIAL INSTINCT
8-KILLER INSTINCT

Now five of these behavioral traits are extremely important to us walleye fishermen.  Before you read any further find a pencil and write down the five most important traits and put them in their order of preference.  Now I realize this is just a matter of opinion, but it will be interesting to compare thinking.

FEEDING-50%
REFLEX-30%
COMPETITIVE INSTINCT-10%
CURIOSITY-7%
SPAWNING TERRITORY PROTECTION-3%

No doubt about it, feeding is the most important trait of a walleye that lets us catch him.  This fall while fishing out of Swan Creek, I watched my fishing partner Doug Mitchell make six casts and nail six walleyes between 3 and 8 pounds.  He finally missed the hook set on the seventh cast and then preceded to hook fish on the next three presentations.  For some reason or another these fish were on a feeding binge and if we threw out the kitchen stove I am sure one would have tried to eat it.  Sorry to say these fish are not always in such an active feeding mode as this, but 50% of the time you lay a fat crawler in front of a walleye's nose, he is going to suck it up.

Reflex action is the second most important reason fish strike and it accounts for about 30% of the walleyes I catch in a years time.  Walleye's reflex action is like the behavior of any predator--like a cat pouncing on a ball of string that rolls by him.  Usually any reflex strike you get out of a fish has to be triggered by speed.  The idea is to jam a lure by a fish so fast he doesn't have time to think- just strike.  I believe Ken Edel explains it best.  His favorite statement is "that fish either have to hit the bait or get the hell out of the way".  Usually walleyes are much more receptive to reflex action strikes during stable weather conditions and warm water temperatures.

Have you ever caught more then one fish on a lure at a time?  I did on four different occasions, and I have heard Bob Propst tell of catching three fish on one retrieve on the same lure.  Why?  Because of the competitive instinct of fish.  What happens is when one walleye hits the lure it turns the other fish into a frenzy, and they all want that bait.  The fish are so competitive that they try to pull the crank bait out of the other fish's mouth.  This competition among fish allows us to catch a lot more fish then many of us realize.  For a little experiment, drop a piece of food into a fish aquarium and just watch how many of the fish swarm around and try to devour it.

Now I know curiosity doesn't sound like a real he man fish strike but on fish like smallmouth and largemouth it can be a significant factor.  Granted on walleyes this curiosity factor is greatly reduced, but never the less, curiosity helps us fill our stringers.  On one of our fishing trips to Canada we were looking for a few walleye filets for the frying pan.  After heading up stream to a set of rapids we could see small, most likely male walleyes, cruising around in the clear, shallow water.  We threw every jig and lure in the tackle box at those fish and couldn't get a one to eat the bait.  When the jig bounced on the bottom the fish would turn and look and then slowly swim away.  I guess these males were more interested in their spawning ritual then filling their bellies.  We tried slow retrieves, stop and go tactics, fast cranks, let the bait just sit and couldn't tempt one wily walleye to open his mouth.  Finally we hit on a technique that let us get a few for supper.  We threw the 1/16 ounce jig out and let it hit the bottom, when it hit it sent up a small puff of dust and a few fish would turn and stare at the jig.  When the walleye started to turn away I would give the jig a gentle twitch and that little bit of action gets him interested again.  Slowly he moves in just a bit closer.  He'll look at the motionless jig for a few seconds and then begin to slowly turn away.  Every time the fish looks at the jig we let it lay motionless and when the fish turns to leave we would give it a little pop.  Finally the fish is up with his nose right on the jig and then ever so gently sucks the jig up.  That little episode of "curiosity gets the fish" makes me wonder how many times I have jigged through a school of fish and just didn't turn them on.

When it comes to spawning territorial protection most of us think of bass and how he will protect his spawning nest against the hoards of egg eating sunfish.  Now a walleye will not protect his eggs after they are deposited, but he will work hard to keep a specific area as his domain and chase any intruders away.

I would not say the male walleyes act like a herd bull elk, but he does try to maintain a little area as his private spawning grounds.  In the spring of the year I have long lined a split shot and minnow through these fish, and you can feel them pick up the bait and just try and move it off.  These fish are extremely hard to hook because they are not always trying to eat the bait   just attempting to get it out of their spawning ground.

Now the killer instinct and anger are characteristic of the bass and northern pike, and I think we all have experienced times we have made repetition casts to a spot until the bass explodes in anger and just mashes the lure with reckless abandon.  Now I don't believe I can say I have ever caught a walleye because I got his dander up but if you stop and think about it there are not to many animals that won't strike out of anger at some time or other if you provoke them enough.

When it comes to killer instinct I think we all would agree the northern pike is king of the hill.  I have seen them attack a moving lure with the tail of a sucker hanging out of their mouth that they have been trying to swallow for the last half an hour or so.  There are many ways to skin a cat and many behavioral reasons why fish bite.  Think about it a while and I am sure it will help put fish into your boat.