Crawfish and walleye.

[Walt Sobchak]

Borch,

I'm with you on the clowns, that would be fun to see. I don't know about the bait shops, I've used mimes before but never clowns.

That's interesting about the walleyes full of crayfish, I guess In-Fishermen doesn't know everything after all. They do agree with you about the bullheads though, and no I won't be using bullheads for bait anytime soon either.

Speaking of which, I've got a question I've wondered about for awhile. If a person was so inclined could they catch a bunch of small perch and use them for bait? Someone told me a long time ago that you couldn't use anything considered a game fish for bait, only rough fish.

Walt

[Tonka Boy]

Walt,

Unfortunately you cannot use Perch for bait in MN.

[Borch]

Those walleyes will eat anything they can catch. Someone on this site was catching them with sticky mud still in their nose and mouth in the winter. When he cleaned them he found frogs in them. The buggers were digging for frogs in the mud. How's that for weird.

Come late fall the frogs will definitely be on the menu. I've actually got them on live frogs without any weight swim on or near the surface(also rapalas twitched on the surface too). My brother got one on a hula popper.

I do think that crayfish make up a small percentage of the walleyes diet for the most part. But there are some resident shallow fish that target them(or anything else they can catch).

Like someone else said , a big "no" on the perch for bait. However the bullheads are legal as long as they are under 6" in length I believe.

Borch

[rmh2o]

The walleyes definitly like those crayfish and so do the perch.The ones Ive been catching have been full of them

[Muskie-searcher]

If you are ever bobber fishing on a school of eyes and are having good luck, have someone in the boat put on a bigger bobber with a bullhead under it. If there are big eyes in the school they are going to ignore the leeches and head straight for the bullhead, especially during warm water periods of the year.

You have a good chance of picking up a large pike or even a muskie doing this if the body of water you are fishing contains them.

[Kab Dreamin]

I've caught walleyes on crawdads on Lake Kabetogama after they have molted in July. We caught a bunch in a trap and used them on top of some rock humps and the fish loved them. I've also caught fish up there in July that have been gorged on crawdads and puke them up all over the boat. I think there are certain times of the year, like after they have molted their shells, that the walleyes key on them. Other times, they just aren't a primary forage source.

[Billjr]

Walleyes may not love them but smallies will definitely crush them especially if you have the softshells (molting). we also used to catch lots of channel cats on them back in Ohio