Blue Walleyes

[Jim Almquist]

We were up to Woody's on Rainy lake this weekend and with the weather turning sour to include high winds along with rain Woody recommended a spot that was out of the wind. The cool part was that we caught 8 or 9 Blue Walleyes along with regular gold colored walleyes. The pictures really don't do them justice but it was a cheap point and shoot.The colors show up in the tail but when they were in the water you could see it on there backs as well.

[DTro]

You think they were actually "Blue Pike" Jim or just Walleyes with a bluish hue?

I've read that they are VERY rare, almost to the point of extinction.

[Jim Almquist]

I would guess that they are walleyes with a blue hue. My best guess would be the water that they are in would have something to do with the color but we did get gold colored walleyes right in the same area.

[jcpmn82]

Man dtro I hope you were joking. Look at the pictures, them ain't no pike!! I know a wally when I see one, don't know 'bout you. You might need to get your eyes checked...

[chaffmj]

Jim,

My guess is that they are not the rare blue walleye. I have caught the same thing as you in a small lake by Ely where they had a bluish tint but if you look at a picture of a blue walleye they are all blue. I will see if I can find one and post it.

Mike

Here you go. I can't remember where I got this picture from. I know Casaloma has caught one in the BWCA or Quetico.

[MN Greenheads]

There used to be a true blue walleye sub spieces in Lake Erie. Those are gone and a few lakes in N. MN have blue phase walleyes. Search MN DNR for info.

[ec30_06]

Man dtro I hope you were joking. Look at the pictures, them ain't no pike!! I know a wally when I see one, don't know 'bout you. You might need to get your eyes checked...

Maybe you should brush up on your your fish biology before pointing fingers. Blue pike are a species of fish that are almost extinct. There are a few left in some canadian lakes. They look like walleyes , but are blue.

[DTro]

Man dtro I hope you were joking. Look at the pictures, them ain't no pike!! I know a wally when I see one, don't know 'bout you. You might need to get your eyes checked...

LOL

Jokes on you

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/volunteer/julaug08/blue_pike.html

[Jim Almquist]

Thanks for the link dtro. That is a pretty interesting read and now I really wonder what makes these walleyes have a blue hue.

[McGurk]

Pretty cool catch, but sounds like a "blue walleye" to me. This guy at UW is trying to figure the blue out.

"Blue walleye of Canada are genetically different than the extinct "blue pike" of Lake Erie. They are albino for yellow color and have blue color in the mucous of their skin. The blue color forms on the dorsal (upper) part of the body and is particulary noticable in the two dorsal fins and the upper part of the tail."

from here

[Jim Almquist]

McGurk the description from your link sounds exactly like the way the walleyes we caught. Its to bad that they were too big to keep so we could have clean a couple up and seen what the inside of them looks like.

[The Woods Man]

So are there still some really blue pike left? or are there just blue hued walleyes? I know they have dna from the blue pike has anyone confirmed blues recently?

[jcpmn82]

I thought blue pike were the blue northern pike. I've seen the blue northerns before. They should call them blue walleyes.

[JBMasterAngler]

I think the "blue northern pike" your refering to are the silver phase pike?

[jcpmn82]

Yeah I don't know about these crazy colored mutant fish you people catch, all mine are normal natural colored..... Like they should be.....

[CRAZYEYES]

I caught a blue walleye on Rainy this summer and my cousin that works at Kettle Falls said that he has seen a few others come out of Rainy. The Minnesota conservation volunteer ran an article about it a while back. The true blue pike were a strain that was found in the great lakes esspecially in erie and went extinct after extreme overfishing. The blue walleyes that are are being caught now have the blue in their pigment due to something in the enviroment and are not actually blue pike.

[Carpenter]

WOW! Never saw that before. So now I not only have to hunt for a 10lb eye, i have to find a blue one too! Come on, this is difficult enough for me!

[jwmiller33]

join the club carpenter

[MNTwinsFan]

Nice thread. Started catching "Blue" walleyes in Lac Suel in the early 90's.

Good info McGurk.

Wayne Schaefer from the U of WI blogged the following regarding the cause of the coloration.

" Two factors contribute to the blue color in walleye:

a. lack of yellow pigment in the skin of the fish.

b. presence of blue pigment in the skin mucous of the fish.

2. We have identified the blue pigment in the mucous as a new protein never before described in the literature. We have named the pigment "Sandercyanin". Sander is the genus name for walleye and cyanin means blue in Greek.

3. Sandercyanin consists of a large lipocalin protein which carries "biliverdin". Biliverdin is a normal excretory product secreted in urine of all vertebrate animals. It forms from the breakdown of "heme", a blood protein.

4. Sandercyanin occurs in the mucous of walleye in many lake and river systems in Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba. It is equally present in both blue and yellow walleye in any given lake or river system.

5. Sandercyanin appears to be moving south across the Canadian-U.S. boarder into upper Minnesota and upper Michigan.

6. Sandercyanin does not harm the health or taste of the fish.

7. Sandercyanin is produced seasonally, with more in summer than winter. It is produced only on the dorsal (upper) part of the fish, above the lateral line.

8. One factor that causes the breakdown of heme to biliverdin is exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun. The earth is normally protected from UV radiation by ozone in the upper atmosphere. In recent years ozone "holes" have been noted over both the north and south poles as a result of CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) entering the atmosphere. In some species of animals, biliverdin is known to act as a photo-protectant.

9. It is possible that walleye in Canada use, as a sun screen, the very chemical which forms in their blood from exposure to too much sun. This conclusion is still only speculation but it is our best hypothesis.

Posted by Wayne Schaefer at 3/04/2008 08:31:00 PM"

[Borch]

Intersting. Pretty much describes all the bluish hued eyes we can that week. All on the back and upper tailfin.

[Jim Almquist]

That pretty much described to a T what we were catching and now I wonder if it was just the resident fish in the river that get the hue because there were golden walleyes in the mix. They spent so much time in the shallow river and were preventing a bad sunburn ? Interesting

[Farley]

Ha ha. Last time I visited one of the local establishments up at my cabin a few of the locals were trying to convince me there were blue walleyes in the lake. I just figured they were trying to mess with me since I was a "612er" as they say up there.