Quote Originally Posted by hageman View Post
I spent over 30 years professionally engaged in multiple fisheries studies and running ice charters on Lake Erie and have opened and checked thousands of walleye stomachs. I never saw mussels in any of the walleyes that I checked for stomach contents on the clock or while filleting them for myself or customer's catches. However, I have seen Zebra (or Quagga) mussels in the stomachs of thousands of other Lake Erie fish species including: Freshwater drum (Sheepshead), Lake whitefish, Yellow perch, Pumpkinseed sunfish, Bluegill, Smallmouth bass, Round goby, Channel catfish- but never Walleye. When Freshwater drum eat mussels, their skin often takes on a shade of gold, compared to the usual silver/gray hue. If there were indeed mussel shells in the walleye stomachs, my theory is that they are inadvertently eating mussels as they inhale Round gobies from the rocks, but not deliberately seeking them, like the other species mentioned are known to do. Take pictures next time!
Hageman, Last weekend was the first time fishing East of the islands in months and I just thought it was interesting that there was a large number of walleye on the east side of the islands that didn't seem to be hungry. Normally when I mark a lot of walleye and they don't bite, it's because they're full of something( with the exception of a storm front coming). In the spring they'll have a half dozen shad in their bellies and latter in the summer I've seen what looks like perch as big as 10" in their stomachs. This weekend no half digested fish, just a kinda gritty almost small shell like stuff. And the a totally different shade of fish than the ones west of the islands. I always thought of walleye as predator, and wouldn't expect them to eat Zebra Mussels.