Blue Walleye

[TJQ]

I have a client thats publishing a book on species at risk on and arround Lake Nipissing. The only thing she doesnt have is a decent picture of a Blue Pickeral. Does anyone here have one that can be published??

[JGirard]

There was an article in Out of doors magazine on the blue walleye.I'll try to dig it up and see which issue it was.You might be able to go to the Out of doors site and search it.I will look for it and let you know if I find it.Hope this helps a little!

[Roy]

Does she want a blue pickerel or a blue walleye?

[Roy]

This is the best shot that I've found so far...

 

http://zipcodezoo.com/Animals/S/Sander_vitreus.asp

[lunkerbasshunter]

Here a couple pics i found surfing. Not sure if you could use them or not but the second one is a huge fish.

 

http://www.fishontario.com/images/articles...lue-walleye.jpg

 

http://www.freewebs.com/knappys/img043-medium.jpg

 

Cheers!

[Wes Bender]

I have a couple. I will scan and post later tonight. They are not from Nipissing though. They were caught up here in the TBay region. I am sure it doesn't matter where the fish were caught as long as they are blue.

Edited December 13, 2007 by Wes Bender

[Guidofisherman]

Here is a shot I took a few years ago north of Nipigon. Note the colouration difference, even though they were all caught in the same area. Why?

Alan

[ChrisK]

TJ,

How many would you like ????

As far as I know thats a blue in my avitar. I can dig up the rest for ya !!!!

 

[Roy]

Alan, the fish in your picture are walleye (stizostedion vitreum) except for the bottom one which is a blue walleye (stizostedion vitreum glaucum), a sub-species.

[TJQ]

Those are great... the best would be someones personal pictures that I can give to the author that havce permission to reproduce and if there were no people in the picture it would be better...

[walleyemen]

Maybe these can help, caught this spring in the tb area.

[Muskieman]

Sorry to burst yer Bubbles but there are no more Blue Walleye..

 

If you see a pic of a " Blue Walleye" and there's a white spot on it's tail it's a plain walleye

the color comes from the environment it lives in.... ie : The color difference between an Eerie Walleye and a Nipissing Walleye.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_walleye

 

I still hold hope that there some left.

Edited December 14, 2007 by Randy from Sturgeon

[danc]

Sorry to burst yer Bubbles but there are no more Blue Walleye..

 

From my understanding, Randy is right. They are extinct. The heavy slime on some fish can cast a blue hue. I've caught several myself. But the true "Blue Walleye" is gone forever. That's what I've read on the internet anyways, so it must be true.

[walleyemen]

Well Randy if you closer at my photo's you'll see the white spot on the tails of both fish and tell me why the 2 other fish i caught that day were bronze, same body of water all within 200 yards of each other,and all the rest of the walleye that trip where bronze.look at the markings on the tail and dorsel fins.the pictures do them no justice, they are very vibrant in color . who knows maybe not a true blue but a hybrid of one for sure.

Sorry to burst yer Bubbles but there are no more Blue Walleye..

 

If you see a pic of a " Blue Walleye" and there's a white spot on it's tail it's a plain walleye

the color comes from the environment it lives in.... ie : The color difference between an Eerie Walleye and a Nipissing Walleye.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_walleye

 

I still hold hope that there some left.

[danc]

Well Randy if you closer at my photo's you'll see the white spot on the tails of both fish and tell me why the 2 other fish i caught that day were bronze, same body of water all within 200 yards of each other,and all the rest of the walleye that trip where bronze.look at the markings on the tail and dorsel fins.the pictures do them no justice, they are very vibrant in color . who knows maybe not a true blue but a hybrid of one for sure.

 

 

We are talking about a distinct species here. Walleye with a blue hue to them are a dime a dozen in Northwestern Ontario. I've caught them ice fishing when they have left a blue color in the snow. It has something to do with the environment that they live in and the amount of slime on their bodies. Those are not true "Blue Walleyes". From what I've read anyways. The true Blues only existed in Lake Erie. And they don't exist anymore.

[Muskieman]

I had read that info from an old fishin mag that was in a cottage ...Hey TJ can rabbits swim ?

Yhea that cottage...anyway it was an old Field & Stream from 1972 that had an article on how to

tell the difference from a Blue Walleye a Sauger and a Yellow Walleye...like the Sauger the Blue had no spot on the tail.. I guess they were still fishable back then.

 

I've caught both color Walleye from the same spot as well...most lakes and rivers have a variation

apparently the Walleye who live in clay bottoms are of a different color than their buddies who

live in the rockpile 20 yards away..

 

And then you can go to the other end of the spectrum and say a White Walleye... off the same spots Walleye that have barely any color at all.

 

I don't want to discredit anybody..... I want to believe..

 

Randy

[walleyemen]

Ya i understand what yer saying.LOL Iguess everyone just wants the myth of the blue walleye, iknow what ya mean about color, a feew years back in the lower niagara river i caught a 8 pnd walleye that was sorta black and grey, really weird, those 2 from tb were sure pretty in color though, i guess the only true way would be to have a biologist check one out to really be sure, like you said i myself read that article about erie and they also stated they considered them a nusince fish years ago and tried to kill them off, i guess one will really not know.Makes for a good topic for sure.

[Muskieman]

I agree... people catch oddball fish every year ... some might still catch a real BLUE and not even know the difference.

 

I'm still holding faith that someone will come up with a fresh specimen.

[ccmtcanada]

Here's an interesting fairly recent article (July 2006). Some American scientists came up to Northern Ontario to investigate Blue Walleye that were reported caught. They caught lots of them, but when they analyzed their DNA and compared it to stored samples from the 1960's they didn't match. It mentions what Dan was saying about the colour being in the slime. Here's the text....

 

By Lee Kernen

Contributing Writer

Seventy-five years ago, Lake Erie was home to a species of fish known as the blue pike, which was actually a subspecies of walleye. They were slightly smaller in size than the walleye, and had larger eyes, perhaps to help them thrive in the deeper water they preferred. Their color was a grayishblue, with none of the brassy

yellow markings of the walleyes we know. Like walleyes, they were delicious table fare. The blue pike disappeared from Lake Erie in the 1950s, probably through the combination of pollution and overfishing.

 

Over the years, there have been sightings of blue-colored walleyes in several areas of Canada, but no one had ever collected these fish to see if they were related to the extinct species from Lake Erie. If they were, it might be possible to re-establish this unique critter to the Great Lake.

 

At a recent meeting of fisheries biologists who belong to the American Fisheries Society, held in Dubuque, Iowa, I was surprised to listen to a presentation about the discovery of blue walleyes in Ontario. The researcher doing this work, Dr. Wayne Schaefer, is a professor of biology at the University of Wisconsin.

 

During the past few summers, Schaefer and his students have traveled to Canada, following up on reports of

blue walleyes in an attempt to collect some and study them to determine the genetic integrity of the fish, the cause and evolutionary significance of the blue color, and the distribution of the blue-colored fish. Schaefer’s investigations centered in the area east of Ear Falls in Ontario. Most of the reports of blue walleyes were associated with the upper end of large river systems. Blue-colored walleyes were collected from several

locations by hook and line.

 

With the genetic testing capabilities that scientists have today, it didn’t take Schaefer long to compare the

DNA in the blue Ontario walleyes to archived samples of Lake Erie blue pike that had been preserved in the

laboratory before they disappeared. They didn’t match.

 

The DNA analysis showed the blue walleyes from Ontario were genetically similar to the normal-colored

walleyes, and not the extinct blue pike. But many questions remain as to why the different color. Schaefer took a knife and lightly scraped the side of the one of the blue fish and he could see clearly that the blue pigment was actually in the mucous of the fish. Moreover, he and his students sampled normal walleyes that had small areas of blue pigment in their mucous, too. Could it be spreading?

 

Next he analyzed the chemical make-up of the blue pigment itself and found that it is a protein, and the closest match he could find was an amino acid in a relatively obscure marine fish, the spotted puffer.

 

The next objective will be to determine whether the blue protein is being produced by the fish themselves, or

whether it is an caused by an external environmental influence.

 

You can go to www.bluewalleye.com to learn how to collect a fish mucous sample and send it to Dr. Schaefer to participate in the study, should you chance upon such an unusually colored fish.

 

Source: http://www.pfo.net/pfo_files/File/blue-walleye-article.pdf

[jediangler]

Here's a blue from my Grandfather's hunt camp near Parry Sound.

 

[Gerritt]

 

from photobucket... therefor it falls under the creative commons License.. meaning it is free to use.

 

G

Edited December 14, 2007 by Gerritt

[Gerritt]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiffibunny/88162508/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tommyairstream/388665144/

[cisco]

A book on species at risk should include MNR fisheries branch input on the issue. Years ago I recall the MNR experts opinion that the blue walleye of the kind folks are showing pics of are simply a colour phase of the yellow walleye. The Erie blue pickerel/walleye critter was more slender and had some other things that set it apart I think. I recall reading where a guy/gov't may have a specimen on ice somewhere. Maybe the hope is to get DNA to rekindle the animal somehow someday...?... but maybe the DNA thing has been done now so any suspected blue ones can be ruled out. Some bio told me he had hopes there was still a tiny remnant school in Erie.... but that was years ago and if gov't actually found some it'd be alllll over the news and in fisheries science journals and in masters and PHD thesis papers methinks.

 

I hope the author does a good job on the book. I'd enjoy reading an accurate referenced present-day account of what scientists and gov't experts have to say on various critters which fall into the category of species at risk and such.

[Muskieman]

Blue Flame Trout ,, very very rare, the only known specimen is on my basement wall.

[solopaddler]

From my understanding, Randy is right. They are extinct. The heavy slime on some fish can cast a blue hue. I've caught several myself. But the true "Blue Walleye" is gone forever. That's what I've read on the internet anyways, so it must be true.

 

Gonna have to agree with Dan and Randy on this one.

And the blue colour is definitely in the slime coating... Caught one

on Nippissing through the ice a couple years back, dropped it

on the snow, it thrashed around and literally turned the snow

blue where it lay.