Blue Walleyes

[Clampet]

Came across this response to a thread on Blue Walleye, thought it was rather strange, here is the thread:

hmmmm.......i fished lake st. john this winter.

 

 

we threw an eye on the ice and it had blue on it. we left it there for a half hour and the blue started coming off. it was like a dye. was turning the ice blue. pretty weird.

 

 

i have seen really blue eyes in apsey lake many years ago. and they were still blue when i got them home.

 

 

ratherbe

Edited May 15, 2008 by Clamp-It

[kickingfrog]

I've caught blue coloured walleye on Nipissing. I know I just read something about some studies that were done about blue coloured walleye. I'll have to get back to you while I go into "the thinking room".

[NAC]

I heard of them coming out of Quinte more often than anywhere... and fairly large too!

 

there was a study done not that long ago but I can't remember where I read it?? anyone else?

seems to me they were more common years ago.

[ccmtcanada]

You are right Nomad...they were around years and years ago, but are now extinct. I read a few reports a little while ago (I'll look for them and post links if I can find them again), and there is a team that goes out and investigates lake where they are reported to be found.

 

They have caught blue coloured walleye, but as mentioned before, it's a by-product of their slime that gives them the blue colour....they are not the elusive Blue Walleye. I'll see what I can do about digging those links up...

[kickingfrog]

I think the general scientific opinion is that the blue pickerel that were caught out of Lake Erie many years ago are not genetically related to the blue tinged walleye that some people catch now.

[Gerritt]

Yup, caught more then my share. Both from Lake St.John (grew up on it in the summers) and the West Arm...

 

Never kept one though as I was told they were considered fairly rare from my Grandfather in comparison to Yellow Walleye

 

They look like a regular walleye but are dark in colour.. mainly from their habitat from my understanding..

 

Many lodges encourage their guests to release them as well for the reasons I stated above.

 

G

[timmeh]

I've read the blue color is a response to increased sunlight, and ultra-violet light from the shrinking ozone layer. I forget where I saw this but it was a possible explanation. I've never seen one but I did see a stuffed blue pike once.

[jediangler]

We still catch them north of Parry Sound at my Grandfathers hunt camp. I believe the ratio is 1 in 15 walleyes we catch are blue. The colour doesn't come off, they are generally smaller, and their eyes are larger and higher on the head than the yellows.

My brother Joonmoon sent a pic in to Bob Izumi over 20 yrs ago. He offered to have my brother on Real Fishing with him if he'd guide him to the fish. Joon declined.

[Greencoachdog]

I've caught some on the West Arm that looked a little depressed...

[jediangler]

Haha...good one GCD.

[Gerritt]

I've caught some on the West Arm that looked a little depressed...

 

PROZAC! LOL

 

G

[oxcowboy]

one guy in our group last year caught a little one on a lake in north eastern ontario near kirkland lake, it was only about 10 inches but pretty neat to get to see one in person. i have also heard that they will turn the ice or snow blue colored when layed out .

 

jason

[purekgw]

i have caught 2 on stoney lake but there rare some are alot bluer then others to let them both go they looked cool though

[danc]

I've caught my share of them. And yes, they leave a blue residue on the ice. Lots of lakes have them up here. It's not a big deal to catch one.

[danc]

No.

[Mike01]

I've caught some blue coloured eye's in Nipissing but never a true blue out of there. I did catch one in a small lake near Marten River a few years back, it wasn't very big(maybe 2lbs).

[Greencoachdog]

Have you seen any other fish stain the ice (or anything else) like that b4?

 

 

I think that Carp do that too, because every time I've been ice fishin' I see yellow patches on the ice...

 

[wallyboss]

There is an article on them in the May 08 Ontario Out Of Doors magazine.

 

Blue walleyes do exist. I've caught plenty on Dumoine Lake.

[Nemo]

Interesting read here

 

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

 

and here

 

 

http://wayneschaefer.blogspot.com/

 

Nemo

Edited May 16, 2008 by Nemo

[RangerGuy]

We ussusally see one everytime were up at Nip. I thought they were really rare but for the last 3-4 years we've caught one.

[blaque]

Ripped this off of Wikipedia:

 

The blue walleye (Sander vitreus glaucus), erroneously called the blue pike, was a subspecies of the walleye that went extinct in the 1980s. Until the middle of the 20th century, it was a commercially valuable fish with about a half million tonnes being landed during the period from about 1880 to the late 1950s, when the populations collapsed.

 

The fish was endemic to lakes Erie and Ontario of the Great Lakes region of North America, including the inter-connecting Niagara River, but most especially to Lake Erie where it sometimes represented more than 50% of the commercial catch. The subspecies was apparently extirpated by about 1983 through a combination of anthropogenic eutrophication, overfishing and competition with the introduced rainbow smelt, Osmerus mordax. The subspecies is now considered extinct.

 

There are occasional reports of blue walleye being caught from waters in the Great Lakes Basin. This is because many yellow walleye populations also contain a colour variant with a bluish colour. The actual blue walleye, however, was said to be distinguishable from the yellow walleye by various meristics and morphometrics which the blue colour variant of the yellow walleye seems not to share. Reportedly, though, some of the meristic and morphometric differences may simply have been artifacts of the different growth rates of yellow and blue walleyes. The clearest evidence, however, is that the blue walleye, whatever its taxonomic status, has been lost. Nonetheless, an investigation of genetic material from preserved blue walleye specimens is currently underway in several research facilities in an effort to decipher the true status of the populations.

 

To date, none of the bluish-coloured walleyes recently captured has been shown to be a blue walleye, despite the fact that at least one organization in the US is offering a reward for the successful capture of a blue walleye specimen. A United States Fish and Wildlife Service recovery plan in the mid-1970s was unable to find any certain evidence of the blue walleye's existence at that time. Nine purported blue walleyes captured in 1975, including a number of gravid females, were inconclusive as to their subspecific designation and failed to produce any viable offspring through artificial propagation. The last known blue walleyes, to any degree of certainty, were captured in about 1983 from both lakes Erie and Ontario. Subsequent exhaustive efforts to find a relict population have been entirely unsuccessful. The loss of the blue walleye is, arguably, an extinction event on par with the loss of the passenger pigeon and the near-extirpation of the American bison. Where once the subspecies numbered in the millions, all are now gone.

 

[anders]

We get them around Wawa...there are a few lakes and rivers that the odds of catching one are quite good. Still really cool to see

[ChrisK]

The walleye in my avitar is a blue and the slime from the fish turned my hands blue like a dye. I couldn't beleive it so I took a paper towel and wiped the fish off with it and sure enough the towel turned blue as well..... The fish was mounted and now hangs in the snack counter at Lakair Lodge.....

[scuro]

 

Nipigon area 2007

[Cory]

 

Caught in the same place as Studds....

 

Released the next moring, not sure if it turned anything blue, because I really didn't want to look.