Grey Walleye ?

Caught this grey walleye out on Nipissing the other night. Anyone ever seen anything like it before?

Was the picture taken fresh when it came out of the lake ?


Usually when you put the fish on ice or straight in a cooler the come out looking a bit lighter looking .... I have even seen them go pale white after a while .

Yeah, I believe it is a sauger. We have caught them in the Ottawa River as well. They look just like walleye except for the color.

Fish On
FatRap

I've caught those grey ones also. I was told by someone it is a blue walleye. Its not a sauger. Saugers don't have the white spot at the base of the tail fin. A Saugeye (sauger / walleye hybrid) does, but it has a spotted dorsal fin. Hard to tell from the pic. Maybe someone else will chime in.

I agree. You can make out the white spot on the tail......wish we could see the dorsal. That would make it clear. Not sauger .........just a off colour wally.

if it didnt put up much of a fight then Dan might be onto something
I have heard of blue walleye being mentioned before. Looks like you have one there. Thanks for the interesting pic SKRAMO, I am hoping someone can confirm. Below is a copy from webpage I found.


Blue Walleye

Scientific: Sander vitreus glaucum Mitchill
French: Doré bleu
Nipissing Ojibway: zhaw shk gahns
Status: Extinct- Local Inconclusive
Other Name: blue pickerel

Description: Most evidence, including genetic tests, suggests that the Lake Nipissing blue walleye is a color morph of the yellow walleye (Sander vitreus). However, even W.B.Scott and E.J. Crossman, two of the foremost authorities on freshwater fishes in North America, state that the grey-blue walleyes seen regularly in Lake Nipissing cannot be denied nor proven to be blue walleyes based on their observations.

Grey-colored walleyes, which are the result of bluish color mucus, occur with varying frequency in most yellow walleye populations. Individuals of a slightly bluer color occur in Lake Nipissing. The known blue walleyes of Lake Erie & Ontario were distinguishable from most grey-blue forms, in that they were more slate-blue or steel-blue on the dorsal surface, ice-blue to silvery on the sides and silvery to white on the ventral surface. The pelvic fins were white. In the mid 1900s, the blue walleyes of Lake Nipissing were distinctive enough from yellows in the lake to have different fishing catch limits (An angler could catch 35 blue walleye in one day, but only 6 yellow walleye per day).

At the turn of the century (1900), the walleye of Lake Nipissing were almost all blue in color. However, this stock was fished until depleted by a commercial gill net fishery started after World War I to provide food and employment after the war. Once this fishery was closed, efforts turned to replenishing the stock, and a faster-growing yellow strain of walleye from southern Ontario was introduced into the lake. This new yellow strain apparently naturalized in the lake, becoming a self-sustaining population. The yellow walleye and the blue walleye can and did interbreed, likely rendering whatever pure blue stock existed in Lake Nipissing very rare and possibly extinct. To date, all genetic tests of Lake Nipissing blue walleyes have resulted in identical genes to yellow walleye. However, every year a few very distinct blue-colored walleye are caught in Lake Nipissing, which keeps alive the mystery of whether or not true blue walleye still exist.

If you see a walleye with very blue eyes, it should be returned to the water.

Compiled by: Richard Rowe Nipissing First Nation

Thanks for all the info guys, much appreciated.

Here is a pic of the dorsal fin...and I did this because I also think that the dorsal fin is the way to tell if it is a sauger (I am told it has spots on it if it's a sauger). I have fished this lake for many years and never ran into anything like this before. What puzzled me is that the back fin had the white spot on the bottom, so I wasn't sure what was going on. I will post a few more pics for you guys to look at.

thanks again,

SKRAMO
}-)))?>

A pic of the grey walleye compared to a common walleye from Nip.

...and just so no one thinks I am a fish killer, I had to keep this grey one as my daughter hooked it pretty bad and it was lights out for this guy from the minute it was in my boat.....hated to keep it as obviously it was rare (I think).

another pic for all to see....

Hello everyone i have fished nipissing for 40 = years and have caught several walleyes ranging in colour from yellow to blue to grey. not as plentiful as yellow walleye but there definitly is a large population of these blue to grey coloured walleye. there are several lakes it the area that have these blue to grey coloured walleye as in the previous post i am unsure if this is just a colour phase or a separate species. good luck fishing

This is a blue walleye a very rare fish!
A cottage up north has a 8lb one mounted on the wall. Everyone talks about this monster blue walleye.

I thought it was a shiner with cataracts.

I think it's a blue. I got one at my cottage a few years ago and put it in my live well to take it back to the cottage. I forgot the camera. When I put it in the white live well it lit the whole well up a light blue! Very cool. Didn't want to risk injury running it back, so I let it go. Never got another one.
Cheers!

That does have a blueish tint to it. However I have caught a lot of eyes that look completely pale of color due to water clarity and or depth where it was taken. The pigmentation of this fish displayed seems that it is more of a blue grey than a yellow but it does have the destinctive markings or blotches that show as a walleye rather than that of a saugeye or sauger. Long cold cloudy days the fish go deep and at times come up for a short period to feed until the front or front passes. so it is hard to determine exactly. I'm heading up to the nip next week and I'm solo excited because it is my vacation for the year. I am a Ohio resident and got a week to see what the beautiful north woods has to offer. And I am never let down. Best of luck to all and maybe I'll see you out there.

Very interesting read Craig, thanks for posting. I never heard of blue walleye before but after reading your post I am a beleiver that they are out there. I have been ice fishing on Nipissing for the last 20 years and I have never heard about anyone catching these ice fishing, you would think sometime over the years we would have saw or heard of these blue walleye. I would agree if anyone were to catch one it should be released as they seem to be a rare fish.

Longshank, you ice fish Nipissing have you ever seen one of these come up through the ice over the years?

Your never too old to learn something new.
FatRap