Blue Walleye

[Surface Tension]

I have many times. Even the slime onthe cutting board is blue.

[fishtank]

I've read many articles stating that these blue's or "blue-pikes" are an extinc species of fish, yet i've heard of them being caught. Any idea as to what the DNR says?

[Crawlerman]

I remeber reading an Editorial awhile back on these in the In-Fisherman; they stated that the popular belief is that they are a sub-species of Walleye, or a rare gentic mutation (like yellow walleyes).

[Dr. Bob]

I caught one once. It was a dink so I put it back. Strange.

[REA]

Caught a bunch of them on a Canada fly-in trip.
I would say 40 to 50% of the walleyes we caught were blue as the sky. The blue is mainly in the fins and where the dark colors are on our MN walleyes (the back, top of the head etc.)

[fishtank]

What lakes have you caught them on or heard they exist in?

[Guest]

Last weekend I pulled a 4lb male out of Big Birch that had the phantom blue sheen! I really should have taken a picture, but I thought it was just some freakish quirk that noone would know about. The fish was actually very pretty and strong as hell. He fell for the pimple-shiner tail combo

As mentioned earlier, the bluish color rubbed off when handled. It must be part of their protective slime coat.

[blufloyd]

Wasn't there a legendary blue pike [walleye] that our brothers to the north commercial fished till it was extinct? Erie I think. Eh? somebody fished one out of a freezer a couple years ago. Catch and release. Especially if its been a long while
since you caught one.

[Guest]

I caught one once, hence the name Blue Pike. They were declared extinct in September of 1983. They were very abundent in the great lakes but were eventually fished out by the commercial fisherman. After not being caught for so many years they were thought to no longer exist. There started to be reports of some catches here and there in the early 90's. That is when I caught mine. They seem to be making a comeback. Let's practice CPR on these guys until they are well on thier way back.

Blue Pike

[Lowe]

I believe they're actually just a different color phase of the regular walleye. According to what I've read they're more common in certain lakes, mainly because of the water quality (hardness, pH, etc.) I have a friend who caught a beauty in a lake just north of Duluth about 6-7 years ago. He had it mounted and stressed to the taxidermist that it was blue - it came back golden brown

Anyway when it was painted in the "original" walleye color you couldn't tell it was any different than another walleye.

[Chad711]

Cool info fellas!...
Now we just need a picture!

[This message has been edited by Chad711 (edited 12-26-2002).]

[Chad711]

http://www.fishontario.com/articles/blue-walleye/
Wow awesome fish!

[fishtank]

Has anybody ever heard or caught a Blue Walleye? They have the markings like a normal walley, except every brown marking is blue as the sky?

[fishtank]

Wow- Great picture....
I've also read that when they are out of the water and die, they will get darker, and turn to a gold brown like any other walleye...
I sure hope to catch myself one some day.

[Pig_sticka]

that looks like someone just put food coloring on the poor fish
almost as weird as the perch with no stripes my dad caught couple days ago

[Guest]

There is a fish en Europe that is exactly like a walleye but with a blue-purple hue to it. It's called a Zander. I wonder if it could be related to this fish or if it is a Zander. Reports in Europe have them being caught in excess of 20 lbs!!!!
I'm sure it's possible that they could have been introduced here somehow, god knows plenty of other things have, this one would be good for once.

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[Poutmaster]

I too have caught a phantom blue walleye. We've caught quite a few up on Lac Seul in Canada.

[Guest]

I read an article once that discribed the blue walleye (a subspecies) that was abundant in Lake Erie, New York. The commercial fishery in that area litterly eradicated the species in I think the late 1800's. Some research has been going on now to find out if the Lake Erie blue walleye is extinct.

[Chad711]

[This message has been edited by Chad711 (edited 03-16-2004).]

[Chad711]

The hot sun beat down on the clear water of Lake Ni[PoorWordUsage]ing's West Arm as Gary Martin, owner of Welcome Lodge, and I drifted along a weed edge last summer for the umpteenth time. Walleye fishing had been tough after passage of a cold front, so when an aggressive fish belted my worm and spinner, it caught me dozing and I fought it half-heartedly. When the mediocre-sized fish slid into Gary's outstretched net, though, and he said "Hey, it's a blue," I snapped to attention. We had landed one of the lake's rare blue walleye, which are really grey-blue. In nearly four decades of walleye fishing, I'd seen only one other from Ni[PoorWordUsage]ing, off the Sturgeon River, so I expected this scrawny 1 1/2-pounder (.7 kg) to be the only one I'd ever catch in my lifetime. Not so.

A month later, while I jigged a bucktail along a dropoff in Ivanhoe Lake, near Foleyet, a dark-coloured walleye rushed to the surface and snarfed the jig just as I was about to pull it out of the water. I could see a distinct dark-blue tinge on the fish. In the boat, the 2-pounder (.9 kg) appeared almost navy blue on top. With a heavy rain pouring down, though, taking a photo immediately was out of the question, and hours later, when I could, the fish's blue tint had faded to almost black.

The two fish renewed my curiosity. The real blue walleye is thought to be extinct, so I started checking with Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) staff on the fish's history. Apparently it's a much-alive topic. The blue walleye, or blue pike as it was also called, was native only to Lake Erie, the Niagara River, and Lake Ontario. The story of its passing is a sharp lesson on the impact we can have on natural resources. Like the miner's canary in a cage, the blue pike was telling us something was wrong, but we didn't heed the warning.

Before being commercially fished, the blue, Stizostedion vitreum glaucum, probably out-numbered yellow walleye, Stizostedion vitreum vitreum, in the Erie-Ontario waterway. By 1885, 7.9 million pounds (3.6 million kg) of blues, about 9 million fish, were being taken yearly from an estimated population of 50 million. That dropped to 11,025 pounds (500 kg) in 1962, and the last confirmed catch was a blue taken in 1965, according to R.R. Campbell in his 1987 report Status of the Blue Walleye in The Canadian Field-Naturalist.

Unlike the grey-blue mutant I caught and the darker Ivanhoe fish, the Great Lakes' blue was genetically distinguishable from common yellow walleye. It was smaller, grew more slowly, and lived and spawned in deeper water. Erie blues seldom exceeded 13.4 inches/1.54 pounds (34 cm/.7 kg), while walleye there averaged 18.9 inches/1.76 to 5.7 pounds (48 cm/.8 to 2.6 kg). The blue's eyes were also larger and higher on its head than yellow walleye. Some interbreeding might have occurred, with grey-blue mutants also caught, although scientists question whether these were the result of hybridization. After all, grey-blues are still taken occasionally from Erie and inland lakes. There was no doubt about the true blue, though. It was steel to slate-blue on top, ice blue to silvery along the sides, and silvery to white on the belly, wrote Campbell.

Commercial fishing alone might not have done in the blue, although it was a major factor. Habitat changes caused by human settlement also played a part. By the 1950s and '60s, eutrophication of Lake Erie had caused it to be more cloudy and oxygen levels to drop in deeper water. In fact, at one time it was incorrectly called a "dead" lake. Campbell speculated that this caused blues to move toward Erie's shallower western basin and mingle with yellow walleye, causing interbreeding and eventual genetic swamping (blues produce fewer eggs than yellows); and to move to the deeper eastern basin, where they became more vulnerable to commercial nets. The introduction of rainbow smelt might also be a factor, since smelt would prey on young blues. Curiously, the Lake Ontario blue population also collapsed at the same time as Erie, causing speculation among biologists that it was created from young migrant Lake Erie fish.

Is the blue pike/walleye old history, dead and forgotten? No. Interest in it is being renewed, now that Lake Erie is again undergoing change, with zebra mussels causing it to be much clearer. The niche blues filled in cool, medium depths of the lake's central basin is empty, says the MNR's lake manager Rob MacGregor, and fisheries managers cling to a hope that somewhere the genetic strain of blue walleye really does still exist and could be used to re-populate Erie. The blues that pop up elsewhere just might be the key. After all, MacGregor points out that blue and yellow walleye eggs and fry were used for stocking other lakes in the past. He adds that the MNR and the University of Guelph are comparing scales from old blue and Erie yellows and "greys" to clear up questions about genetics. Meanwhile, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is doing the same with blue mutants from other lakes, says MacGregor. It might be like grasping at straws in the wind, but the prospect of bringing back the blue is enticing.

For now, though, dealing with the impact of zebra mussels Erie has priority. Ironically, the lake is now too clear, and the yellow walleye population might be on a downward trend. Things have come full circle.

Taken from the site posted earlier..

[yendor]

I had heard that some one had caught one in TRF down by the dam , that weighted 4or5 lbs dont rember for sure. Just what I had heard.

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catch them all big fat an small

[PRO-V]

In the early 80's my buddy and I got back to back 3 pounders that were blue as could be. Got them out of a very small lake north of Grand Rapids. Didn't tell anyone but someone did. The DNR and Univ. of Minn. shut it down for 3 years to study them. They claimed to come upon old records that said they were a Colorado strain or something and the stock truck areator broke down in that area many years before. So they just stuck 'em in the lakes that were handy. After I bugged them they reopened the lake. All the other walleyes in the lake are a deep gold.

[This message has been edited by PRO-V (edited 03-16-2004).]

[Matt Johnson]

There is this one island up on LOW into Canada where you can catch blue walleyes off of it. I've seen them a couple years in a row. Kind of cool.

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

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[2dalake]

Why would commercial fishermen wipe out the blues but not the "normal" walleyes? Are the blue walleyes dumber than the others around nets?

[2dalake]

Of course we all like to think that our walleyes are the smartest fish swimming....