Lake St Clair Walleye

Lake St Clair offers the best in walleye fishing. NorthBay Charters offers the best walleye experience on Lake St Clair. Our walleye charter is geared to be the best possible experience around. 31' Luhrs with plenty of room. Lake St Clair walleye fishing is close to the metro Detroit region for easy access.

The walleye, the highly esteemed member of the perch family, gets its name from the large eye with its light-reflecting retina, which gives the fish its walleyed appearance. The perch family is a large one, with about 140 species in North America alone. The walleye (Stizostedion vitreum) is a close relative of the yellow perch, sauger and the darters. Walleye are known by many common names such as pickerel, yellow pickerel, yellow walleye, pike perch, wall-eyed pike, walleye pike and core.

Walleye Description:
Walleye has a dark green back, golden yellow sides and a white belly. The lower tip of the caudal fin is white, and there is a large black blotch at the rear base of the first dorsal fin. Young walleye usually have dark blotches across their backs and down their sides, patterns that usually are absent in the adults. The color of the walleye is highly variable, depending on habitat, with golden color characteristics in many populations. Usually Walleye are paler with less obvious black markings in turbid waters and more strikingly marked in clear waters. Adult Walleye average about 2 pounds but the record is in the vicinity of 28 pounds.

Walleye Reproduction:
Walleye spawning occurs in the spring or early summer, depending on latitude and water temperature. Northern populations do not spawn in some years when the water temperature is not favorable. Normally, spawning begins shortly after ice breaks up in a lake, at temperatures of 7° to 9°C but has been known to occur over a range of from 6° to 11 °C.

Courtship may commence much earlier when water temperature is at 1°C. The males move to the spawning grounds first. These are usually rocky areas in flowing water below impassible falls and dams in rivers and streams, coarse-gravel shoals, or along rubble shores of lakes at depths of less than 5 feet. The walleye may move into tributary rivers immediately after they are free of ice and while the lakes are still ice covered. Walleye spawning takes place at night, in groups of one large female and one or two smaller males or two females and numerous males.

The male walleye is not territorial, and does not build a nest. Prior to spawning, there is a lot of pursuit, pushing, circular swimming, and fin erection. Finally, the spawning group rushes upward into shallow water, stops, the females roll on their sides, release their eggs and simultaneously milt is released by the males. Apparently females deposit most of their eggs in one night of spawning. The fertilized eggs are heavier than the water and fall into crevices in the stream or lake bottom where they stick to stones and debris. The maximum number of eggs released by one female has been estimated at 612,000.

The eggs hatch in 12 to 18 days on the spawning grounds and by 10 to 15 days after hatching the young have dispersed into the upper levels of open water. By the latter part of the summer, young-of-the-year Walleye move toward the bottom. Growth is fairly rapid in the south, but slower in more northerly latitudes. Females grow more quickly than males.

Walleye Diet:
The diet of walleye shifts very rapidly, from invertebrates to fishes, as the walleye increase in size. This is partly a reflection of their change in habitat from surface to bottom waters. During the first six weeks of life their diet consists mostly of copepods, crustaceans, and very small fish. Walleye can be cannibalistic, especially if small yellow perch or other forage fish are not readily available. Some populations, even as adults, feed almost exclusively on emerging larval or adult mayflies for part of the year. The relative amounts of the various species of fish that walleye feed on apparently are determined by their availability. Yellow perch and cyprinids are particularly favored when these species are present. Other food such as crayfish, snails, frogs, mudpuppies, and rarely small mammals may be taken, but usually only when forage fish and insects are scarce.

Walleye Habits:
Walleye caught by anglers are usually 0.5 to 4 pounds in weight and more than three years of age. No where in North America do walleyes grow any faster then here in the Southeast Michigan area thanks to the nutrient rich waters of Lake Erie and St. Clair. The present angling record is a walleye taken in Old Hickory Lake, Tennessee, in 1960, which was 40 inches long and weighed 28 pounds. Male walleye generally mature at two to four years of age and females at three to six years of age. Maximum age varies from 10 to 12 years in the south to possibly more than 20 years in the north.

The special layer in the retina of the eye tapetum ucidum, being extremely sensitive to bright daylight intensities, restricts feeding to twilight or dark periods. Walleye are tolerant of a great range of environmental situations, but appear to reach greatest abundance in large, shallow, turbid lakes. Large streams or rivers, provided they are deep or turbid enough to provide shelter in daylight, are also preferred habitat of the walleye. Walleye use sunken trees, boulder shoals, weed beds, or thicker layers of ice and snow as a shield from the sun.

In clear lakes the walleye often lay in contact with the bottom, seemingly resting. In these lakes, Walleye usually feed from top to bottom at night. In more turbid water they are more active during the day, swimming slowly in schools close to the bottom. Walleye frequently are associated with other species such as yellow perch, northern pike, white suckers and smallmouth bass. White suckers, for example, orient themselves in walleye schools and behave as part of them. During the winter the walleye do not change their habitat except to avoid strong currents.

In the spring, Walleye have a spawning run to shallow shoals, inshore areas, or tributary rivers, while at other times they move up and down in response to light intensity. Walleye also move daily or seasonally in response to temperature or food availability. For the most part, walleye seem to remain in loose but discrete schools with separate spawning grounds and summer territories. There is evidence, as well, to suggest that populations of walleye home to the same spawning area each year.

Walleye Enemies:
Northern pike is probably the dominant predator of the walleye over much of its range. The muskellunge also preys on the walleye in more restricted areas, but the northern pike may also be an important competitor because it is the only other major, shallow-water predator in the north. Adult perch, other walleye, and the sauger prey on young walleye. Many fish-eating birds and mammals also take young walleye from time to time.

Yellow perch, sauger and smallmouth bass are the walleye's main competitors for food. But more important in controlling populations are water temperature, stream flow and wind at spawning time, and interference from other species, which spawn over the walleye eggs. The major controlling factor of walleye populations appears to be mortality during the egg and fry stage.

Walleye Relation to Man:
Most walleye are caught by still fishing with live minnows and earthworms as bait or with artificial lures such as spinners, spoons, plugs and jigs. Drifting and trolling are usually the most effective methods used to seek out schools of moving walleye and the twilight periods of sunset and sunrise are the best times for catching the species.