River or Lake - pickerel colour

[Jen]

It has been a while since I have posted, although I have been fishing quite regularly and see many of you often while out on the water.

 

Sonny's boat is now mine! Dad had a quadruple bypass and valve replacement this year. It changes things for a fisherman... so things pass hands and the memories get handed down to be watched over by another generation of fish lovers. Not that Sonny wasn't remembered in many other ways, on the water fishermen are often recognized by the vessels that transport them to the fish. So if you think you see him out there in the waves it's me. Raise a hand and say hello! I'd love to catch up.

 

Now to my question.

 

I had a shore debate as I was about to clean our fish on the weekend that were caught on the lower Grand River . I said one of these fish is a resident walleye and the more coloured one is a lake fish. What are your opinions to this statement?

 

Cheers

 

Jen

Edited July 16, 2017 by Jen

[manitoubass2]

I would agree

 

I fish lakes but I mostly fish my home river. Come summer, most walleye trek back to LOTWs

 

Any walleye caught mid summer in the river has waaaày less distinct markings. Almost just a light green

 

I'll see if I can dig up some pics

[manitoubass2]

Also I'll add, this is not the case with sauger. They keep their colour/distinct markings, for watever reason is beyond me???

[manitoubass2]

River walleye

 

 

River walleye

 

 

Lake walleye (nw bay rainy lake)

 

 

Buuuuuuutttttt.... Certain bodies of water differ in lake Winnipeg, the walleye are almost silver/green and have no markings at all

 

So it def. Varies from water body to waterbody

[pics]

A fish will change colours depending on the habitat they are in. You can catch one in the river that looks pale but put it into a dark live well for a bit and it will look totally different..

[manitoubass2]

That's stress and yes that plays a part too

[pics]

The fish from the Grand are especially pale when the water is murky.. Same thing with the fish from Binbrook.. Lots of fine suspended clay in those bodies of water.

[dave524]

I've always found walleye from murky muddy water like the lower Grand very light in colour, Erie fish are a bit darker and the ones from cold shield lakes the darkest, while Kawarthas/Rice are somewhere between Erie and Oligotrophic Lakes.

Edited July 16, 2017 by dave524

[manitoubass2]

Oh, im subject to the pb crap now too lol

[Old Ironmaker]

I agree. Now that I said that I have caught big Walleye in the lake deep and they are very pale like a lower Grand fish. Fish have a tendency to swim and without proper ID it could be from the river out in the lake and vise versa. Now I am totally confused. I need to sleep. I saw a few guys at the old Riverside Marina by the bridge that netted and zapped fish in April for the ministry in the lower stretch of the Grand to take them upstream of the dam and they were all 8 to 10 pounds. I couldn't believe they weren't the migrating fish from the lake. Those migrating fish are in the Detroit River in April.

[Jen]

Thank you for all the input...

[Joeytier]

Colour of the fish alone isn't much of an indicator of its origins. In many instances, in various systems, I've caught walleyes one after each that were polar opposites in terms of colouration (pale beige colured to dark yellow and blue) in areas where they couldn't have came from anywhere else. Walleye have different colour phases in the same system just like many other animals.