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One of the walleye I caught recently had a pronounced bluish tinge to it, particularly its cheeks and back. Its eyes seemed to be a little higher up on the head, too. I caught blue walleye in Northwestern Ontario back in the mid 70's and this fish looked similar although not quite as dark. I understand the species went extinct decades ago. Anyone else seeing them?
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I caught a blue walleye in Lake Nipissing, Ontario just a couple years ago, September, 2009. It was deep blue, no gold at all, and in the slot limit - had to release it.
Yes, the blue walleye I caught years ago had no yellow in their colouring at all. I was a logger at the time and we had just pushed a new road within a quarter mile of a previously inaccessible small lake. After work another fellow and I portaged in with a canoe and you couldn't keep them off the line. We hauled in a bucket of dead minnows but we needed no bait at all. Just bare hooks. They were voracious, and very blue.
This one looked like a hybrid. Blue and yellow. It is otherwise just an unrelated genetic quirk.
I have a book on lake erie comercial fishing that has a whole chapter about these fish. They believe this strain of walleye to be a hybrid with a blue pike. The blue pike went extinct in lake erie a long time ago. 30's-40's if im remembering correctly. In that article it was said that a scientist actually caught a couple of hundred of these blue pike and transported them to a small lake somewhere in the western us. I believe this to be an undisclosed location. They said that these blue pike spawned with the native walleye and now this lake has blue tinged walleye. Heres a link to that book. Its a very intresting read and i enjoyed it. http://www.sonsoflakeerie.org/Fishing%20Book.htm