I spent HOURS on the lake yesterday, watching walleyes on my graph and not getting one turn of the head. (you'ld have thought we should have at least snagged one or two, we were marking so many fish.)
Then........... at 8:47 pm, it was like somebody threw the switch and we got an hour of CATCHING.
Depending on the sky, whether it's overcast or not, the bite has been going crazy within the last hour or so before we have to be off the lake.
It's like they've got a starbrite night vision toggle that makes them aggressive. An instinct causes them to behave more predatorial because they know they have the advantage over their prey at night with their genetically advanced retinas.
A tapetum lucidum is often present in the eye of species whose habitat is ordinarily poorly illuminated. The design of a tapetum is basically quite simple, consisting of a reflecting layer located scleral to the photoreceptor cells. This reflecting layer is most usually located in the choroid immediately externa1 to the retinal epithelium (choroidal tapetum). The retinal epithelium overlying such a tapetum is unpigmented to allow light to reach to and be reflected back from the tapetal area (Walls, 1967; Rodieck, 1973;Braekevelt, 1982a, 1983). In comparatively fewer species the tapetal material is located within the retinal epithelial cells themselves (retinal tapetum).
Amongst the vertebrates reported with retinal tapeta lucida are the opossum, the fruitbat and the nighthawk
So, basically, since the walleye can sense if it has the advantage, it's predatorial instincts kick in and they become more aggresive. It's like an alarm clock going off in their little pea-sized brains and they'll feed instinctively.
They can't help it, that's what their evolutional place in the food chain IS.
The trick is to find darker low-light areas like reefs with plenty of structure for their sensitive eyes to hide from the sunlight and be on fish when they bite at dark.
Fishnpole I had the same experience this weekend(fri,sat) only off the dock. The wife and I two lines and couldn't keep them in the water after 9:00 PM. Bad news no keepers but tons of 10" - 13" fish so the future looks BRIGHT! Also about 9:45 sat. hooked a HUGE walleye got it to the dock 3 times where my wife promptly wacked it with the net each time finally tried to net it myself and it spit the hook thank god there were no cameras but what a blast.
No doubt the bite turns on at 8:30 or so. It's a crazy phenomenon. The kids start getting restless at about 8:00 but all that changes once the alarm goes off.
it is very obvious to me that it is because of the Dnr night band the Fisheries Department swim under the water and told the fish not to bite untell sunset
it is very obvious to me that it is because of the DNR night band the Fisheries Department swim under the water and told the fish not to bite until sunset
In this crazy world that is as good of answer as I have heard anywhere.
WTG 7outof10!
Maybe these fish like Leinenkugel'sif I troll by overhead?
Last two nights we have experienced the exact same thing. Out of the 40 plus fish it has been equal, too big or too small. And only two keepers. Sure is fun to see the bobber go down!
