The Walleye/Crayfish Connection

Where I’m fishing, there are lots of perfectly sized 4″ to 5″ perch on which the walleyes can feed. I’m seeing schools of these perch on my graph in my best walleye spots. Too, they are pecking at my lure, and I’m snagging them constantly while snap jigging. Despite this tremendous forage base, the big walleyes I’m getting are puking up CRAYFISH! And I’m not even fishing around rocks; sand and gravel mostly. These walleyes are loaded with them!

What gives with this crayfish preference? How do you target walleyes that are targeting crayfish?? I’m not a livebait fisherman, so have been thinking about options with artificials that might work, going so far as to try a bass jig/plastic craw combo like fishing for bass on the shallow rocks. That didn’t work in the limited time I had to try this technique.

I gotta believe someone has had success with targeting crayfish eating walleyes with artificial lures. Anyone care to share their secrets or prior successes??

Brian

Brian, how deep is this phenomenon happening??? I have seen crawfish in the mud before on my camera in pretty deep water…

Mark

I pull crank baits in the orange/red color over the rocks and some deeper gravel(10-14′) and have had great success. The walleyes and smallies on Mille Lacs are loaded with them also.

The crawfish are likely molting their shells. There is a short window where the crawfish is soft. Fish will take advantage of this feeding opportunity.

-J.

Mbenson…13′ to 15′ mostly.

Shhh, Jon nailed it. It’s a great mille lacs bite in shallow, in August. Tube jig shallow works well or whitish crank baits. Wife caught her PB in shallow casting tubes a couple year’s ago well over 29″es. We found it by accident fifteen or twenty years ago fishing smallies on mille lacs. It works on boulder strewn lake’s with good walleye populations. Fish are usually scattered though and it’s not necessarily a numbers game but it can be. And it’s a small window of time like Jon eluded to.

don’t over look throwing electric blue during this time period

Hot n’ Tot crankbaits in crayfish color/pattern.

Troll them over the tops or along rocks where there is a crayfish population. I wouldn’t bother with rod holders as many times the baits will get hit while you’re deploying them.