What do walleye mainly eat?
Fish — and across a huge share of the range, one fish above all: yellow perch. Perch are abundant, they school predictably along structure, and they see poorly in low light exactly when the walleye sees best, so the walleye's whole crepuscular lifestyle functions as a perch-hunting machine. Around that core the menu flexes with the water: spottail and emerald shiners and other slim soft-rayed minnows nearly everywhere, cisco and smelt in deep cold lakes, shad in reservoirs, gobies in the Great Lakes, plus leeches, crayfish, and insect larvae in season. For lure and bait choice the perch-first rule quietly explains a century of walleye tackle: perch patterns, gold, and olive-and-orange earn their keep because they are, most places, what dinner looks like.
The full story
This answer is one piece of a longer lesson — setups, diagrams and the reasoning behind it.
More questions about Diet
- 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 crayfish and gobies?
- 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
- Do crappie ever stop eating zooplankton? — Crappie
- What do largemouth actually eat? — Largemouth Bass
- What do muskie actually eat? — Muskellunge (Muskie)
- What do yellow perch actually eat? — Yellow Perch
- What do pike actually eat most? — Northern Pike
- How important are crayfish to smallmouth, really? — Smallmouth Bass
- How does a trout's diet change as it grows? — Trout (Rainbow · Brook · Lake)