I ought to add that I'm a Lake Trout fisherman mostly... I LOOVE them Reds'. May-be a post needs to be made 'bout Red Lakers... Be they a little more common???
Keep fishing the lakes you hear they are at, but most of all keep fishing walleyes wherever you are at. They are a Blue Bueaty when you catch them. In no way a myth. I feel the clearest lakes are the ones that give the blue strain the best chance. Always there is shades of blue, the Walleye scale does shade. It is not in their slime...
Posted by: Jim J Solo Posted on: Jun 7th, 2010 at 3:42pm
DD, Fish them the same as all walleye. The ones in the pic we caught on the Steel River. The first thing I noticed was how dark these were. But later I noticed a blue stain on my hands from handling & cleaning them.
Posted by: RedOwl Posted on: Jun 1st, 2010 at 3:53am
One of the links on the wikipedia page: (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) gives some good info on the blue coloration and how it is formed. Basically, it is walleye "sunscreen".
This article references the first link I posted but gives a bit more background: (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)
Posted by: Preacher Posted on: May 31st, 2010 at 4:33pm
dd I would not expect blue walleyes to behave any differently than your standard walleye. They do inter breed. The description you gave above sounds almost like someone might have been confusing saugers with blue walleyes. Saugers are also present in some Canada lakes and do run smaller and skinnier than walleyes and do generally occupy deeper waters. They also have a slightly different color pattern that may go unnoticed at first glance.
Posted by: Kingfisher Posted on: May 29th, 2010 at 10:02pm
Back in 2002 I gained notoriety among Milwaukee fishing circles after catching 2 blue walleyes from a local 700 acre lake. After doing a little research I found out that blue walleyes or blue pike as they were called then were once the predominant walleye in Lake Michigan and other great lakes. They were fished to near extinction and then later replaced by the usual golden colored walleye. As happened with smallmouth bass, "amateur" fish stockers had spread a few around Wisconsin, Canadian and probably Minnesota lakes. At one time they were rather common in many popular Canadian lakes. Here is a pre digital photo of one of my blue walleyes held alongside a normal golden walleye. The blue measured 16".
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Posted by: marlin55388 Posted on: May 29th, 2010 at 6:31pm
From my understanding which is limited there are "blues" in Lake Erie too. The "blues" are just a sub-species of the eye tribe. Take photos to share the next time you all catch them, to share with us DD your probably right with the notion that they are more of a silver than the typical black and gold and the bluish cast coming from the refraction of light through the their covering of slime Sounds like a good photo op to me
Posted by: PhantomJug Posted on: May 29th, 2010 at 5:30pm
The walleye in Cirrus are blue too - all of them; shallow, deep - they all seem to have the same color and we don't fish them any different. Move down to Quetico, Kasa or Soho and they are the gold color again. We've caught blueish walleye in Jean but not the brilliant color of Cirrus. I've never received a solid answer as to why either. If you find out let us know.