Do walleye eat crayfish and gobies?
Yes, opportunistically — and in the Great Lakes, more than opportunistically. Crayfish show up in walleye stomachs mostly in summer, mostly from fish grinding rocky structure, but they are a side dish; the walleye lacks the smallmouth's crayfish obsession. Round gobies are a different story: since their invasion, gobies have become a major forage item for Great Lakes walleye, thick on the same rock where walleye hunt, and local tactics have followed — dragging goby-colored plastics and blade baits tight to bottom now catches fish that classic minnow profiles miss. The general lesson travels: walleye diets track whatever the lake actually stocks the bottom with, so a quick look at local forage beats any universal bait list.
The full story
This answer is one piece of a longer lesson — setups, diagrams and the reasoning behind it.
More questions about Diet
- What do walleye mainly eat?
- Why do cisco and smelt lakes grow the biggest walleye?
- Why does the fishing die during the mayfly hatch?
- What size bait should I use for walleye?
- Does the walleye's menu change between day and night?
- Do walleye eat bluegills, frogs — or their own young?
- Will walleye eat a dead minnow — and do they eat fish eggs or scuds?
Same topic, other species
- What do crappie eat at night versus during the day? — Crappie
- How does largemouth forage shift through the seasons? — Largemouth Bass
- Do muskie really eat ducks and muskrats? — Muskellunge (Muskie)
- What do the big jumbos eat that the small fish do not? — Yellow Perch
- What is the gorge-and-fast cycle, and how do I fish around it? — Northern Pike
- Why do smaller baits often outfish big ones for smallmouth? — Smallmouth Bass
- How do I pick bait or lure size for trout? — Trout (Rainbow · Brook · Lake)