Are walleyes really afraid of boat motors?

[RiverDewey]

We've always heard that walleyes are afraid of boat motors and in fact will "move out of the way" as you are trolling by. I had an experience a few weeks ago that makes me question all this.

I was investigating a sand bar in a lake I fish frequently and was sitting in 4-5 fow with my 50 hp merc running (but not in gear). I had my headlamp on as it was about 11 PM. I was trying to scan the bottom to see if there was anything else there but sand. Off about 10' I saw what appeared to be a piece of glass reflecting my headlamp. But then it seemed to move closer. Pretty soon the little glare of light turned into 2 beady little eyes! It was a walleye but he was moving closer and closer to the motor. At one point I thought he was going to run into the prop! I wasn't fishing but that walleye just hung around for a while almost right under the running motor. It was a pretty cool sight. I am sure he was attracted to the light as well, but my motor is not exactly quiet either!

What do you all think?

[Rick G]

It depends, some fish will be spooky while others won't. If it's a lake with a relitivly high amount of boat and recreation traffic the fish will be used to all the noise. I know of a couple guys that swear the fishing gets better the more boat traffic they have buzzing by them

[slammer]

I have seen fish react different ways from boats or other disturbance while scuba diving. Most that I encountered head for deeper water. They didnt vanish real fast , just swam away .

[RiverDewey]

I have always wanted to learn how to scuba dive. Or, buy a submarine to study fish like that. I've heard from two people who were swimming or snorkeling in that same lake. Muskies came up next to them and in one case, just hung out with the guy for close to 15 minutes. He indicated that he didn't make any fast moves and the fish just sat there too!

[WalleyeChaser]

Very interesting! Its fun to watch how fish react to stuff the way they do. It may have just been using the boat as "cover" if it was casting a shadow from the moon.

I would take a big light out and search more of the sandbar similar to shining deer. Cast some shallow running cranks at those fish and watch them go nuts. They are there for 1 reason. FOOD!

[Northlander]

I have seen it both ways. On my home waters its not unusual for us to catch walleyes in 2-6' of water with bottom bouncers and spinners just a few feet from the running kicker motor.

[fishinfey8]

I have experienced great fishing running my plugs close to the boat in the kicker motor's prop-wash. I have also had off-shore boards out produce the long-line countless times. I too believe it depends on the body of water.

[Igor Drackenwolf]

My buddy and I watched walleyes on the underwater camera while ice fishing. The fish weren't biting or even nibbling, but they were there looking at our bait. We noted that without the camera, we never would have known there was a single fish present.

Anyway, since the fish weren't triggered by jigging, we started goofing around trying to bump into the fish with the jigs. They'd dart a few inches out of the way and return right away. They just looked at the bait. They'd swim up to it, look at it, sit there, turn slowly away, circle back...

Anyway, after a while of that, we wondered what it would take to jolt them into action. I stomped on the fish house floor - nothing.

Then we both started jumping up and down. Nothing. We hit the floor with the metal ice scoop. Nothing. Pounded on the floor with a snow shovel. Nothing.

Point is, we made as much noise as we could on the fish house floor, and a small school of walleyes 15'-18' below us didn't appear to react in any way.

I think in shallow water a motor overhead might scatter any fish. But when they're down their in their environment - at least based on my little non-scientific experiment - they seemed completely oblivious to unnatural noise.

[Comit 2]

Quote:

It depends, some fish will be spooky while others won't. If it's a lake with a relitivly high amount of boat and recreation traffic the fish will be used to all the noise. I know of a couple guys that swear the fishing gets better the more boat traffic they have buzzing by them crazy

+1 early spring (first ice out) they may be spooky buy it could just be the movement over there head.

With how well sound travels in water it is not easy to judge distance by sound. Under water is a noisy place.

Maybe they liked the warm water coming from your motor.

Fish have a brain the size of a pea. They don't reason.

[PerchJerker]

I have never worried about the boat spooking fish that were on the bottom, no matter how shallow it is. The only time I've really noticed fish moving away from the boat was trolling for open water suspended walleyes on Erie in early spring ..... there we definately had better luck on boards than we did on long flatlines and we eventually switched our flatlines over to boards.

[solbes]

Its hard to tell sometimes, but on a clear lake I think it makes a difference. I will usually catch walleyes at a 5:1 ratio with electric over outboard. But its hard to say whether this is purely due to noise effects, or if it has more to do with speed. I troll my electric at 1.7 and my gas outboard gets to 2.2 at its slowest.

Generally though on our lake, the more stealthy you can be, the better chance you have. If I quietly sneak up to a reef and cast small cranks or throw slip bobbers, I invariably have more success than if I motor up and anchor.

[CANOPY SAM]

I've had walleyes aggressively taking baits in 9 ft. of water directly below a running auger drilling holes!

That being said, I've also seen, while ice-fishing in 32 ft. of water, fish completely shut off when my kids were on the ice near the holes. When I asked them to run off a ways and play the fish went right back to feeding aggressively. There was absolutely no doubt they could hear the commotion on top of the ice, and were spooking off.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe sound travels better in cold water vs. warm water, or maybe it's the other way around? Fish behavior can be hard to predict, but I think, for the most part, it's better to be stealthy, and quiet.

Igor, I wonder what your ice-fishing neighbors thought was going on in your fish house?