Walleye vs. Bass -- Chess vs. Checkers

Over the years, I've been asked several times by various friends, acquaintances and family members why I prefer walleye fishing to bass fishing. I inevitably respond with a brief story told to me by a professional walleye fisherman.

Several summers ago, I fished in a Professional Walleye Trail tournament as a co-angler in a pro's boat. During our time on the water together, the walleye pro told me that fishing for walleye is like chess, whereas fishing for bass is more akin to checkers.

What he meant by that is both chess and checkers are played on the same game board, just as walleye and bass often live in the same bodies of water. But where checkers is a fairly simplistic game, with pieces that can move in only one direction until kinged, chess has six different types of game pieces, each of which can move in different directions throughout the game. In short, chess is just more complex to play that checkers.

Likewise, walleye angling is more complex than bass fishing. As I posted here on this blog a few years back, I once had an afternoon on Leech Lake where I caught 21 largemouth bass on 21 consecutive casts. An unbelievable stretch of fishing! That, however, would never happen while fishing for walleye.

Typically, when a bass hits your bait, the fish hammers it hard, letting you know it's on the line, and it doesn't let go. Therefore, I tend to land 95% of all the bass that hit my lure.

Walleye on the other hand are much more finicky. By nature, walleyes tend to be light-biters. When fishing for walleye -- be it with a jig, spinner rig or trolling a crankbait -- you're likely to lose more than 70% of the fish that hit your bait. In fact, many times a walleye will take your bait into its mouth, only to spit it out without you ever knowing it was there.

Many times the only way you'll even know that a walleye is on your line is you might feel a tiny weight on the end of your line, a "mushy" feeling, or maybe a slight tick through your line, and sometimes you won't feel anything at all until you begin to lift your lure through the water and suddenly realize a walleye has decided to call your bait lunch.

Obviously, both bass and walleye are affected by many of the same factors, such as time of the season, weather conditions, temperature of the water, oxygen content in the water, available forage, structure and cover and a myriad of other external conditions. If the bass are in a neutral or negative mood, getting them to bite is challenging. If walleye are in a neutral to negative mood, getting them to bite is nearly impossible.

I enjoy playing both checkers and chess. On a hot summer afternoon, it's often fun to relax with a cold glass of lemonade and a simple game of checkers. But on other occasions, it's more fun to play a game of chess, where you have to employ complex strategies to beat your opponent.

Likewise, I love fishing for bass. They hit hard, they put up tremendous fight once hooked and bass are relatively easy to locate and catch. Walleyes, however, require a bit more finesse. They're harder to locate and harder to get to bite.

Of course once hooked, walleyes are notorious for "giving up" and letting an angler reel them directly to the boat. Yes, there are those 'eyes that will give you a head shake or two and some walleyes will make a dive to the bottom as they approach the boat. But pound for pound, walleyes just don't fight as hard as bass. Walleyes are, however, much harder to catch. They test your skills as a fisherman more so than bass.

So in my opinion, it's more of a challenge to fish for walleye than bass, thus making me a better angler in general. That's why more often than not, when I'm out on Leech Lake, my targeted species of fish is the sander vitreus.