blue walleye

[eriecaster]

I just recently learned that the lake use to have blue walleye. i didnt believe the gentleman that was telling me about it so i had to look it myself. though they went extinct in the 80's. I was just courious if anyone here has had any experience of seeing, catching, or eating these blue walleye. I wonder if the taste of the blue walleye was that much better or if the commercial fishing just wasnt regulated at those times?

[Bggeary]

Wakina's link to the blue walleye being more north is confirmed by a u-tube video (fishing fun with Johnny somebody) and he was catching blue walleye one after another. You could clearly see the blue tint in the fish. It was somewhere in Canada Lake Pasha or something. Hey it was on the internet, must be true!

[troy1976]

We catcch them all the time up north. They just have tinge of blue mostly around the fins and tail.

[walleye2go]

The blue walleye you guys mention are actually just a color variation. Yes I know the Canadians up north call them blue walleye but they are not the same blue walleye that called Lake Erie home. The blue walleye in Lake Erie were a sub species of the walleye we know today. Apart from being genetically different they also had physical characteristics that we're different from our walleye today. From what I understand, they were more gray in color than blue, but the biggest most distinguishing difference was their eye spacing. If I remember right, they didn't get nearly as big and they preferred a deeper colder habitat also. I'm no expert, but I was intrigued with their demise and a couple years ago I did some reading on them, what little there is available. I believe they also tried to stock some in some lakes in Minnesota, but they didn't take and disappeared from those lakes. I read an article somewhere that said when they were nearly extinct in Erie, they went and searched those lakes hoping they could find some brood stock to repopulate Erie with. According to the scientists, there are no known blue walleye, meaning those that are a genetic match to the blue walleye that existed in Lake Erie. It is hard for me to believe that in all of Lake Erie not one blue walleye exists, but I think it has been 50 years since a known blue walleye was turned into scientists. I believe blue walleye were also only native in Lake Erie.

Greg

[Bggeary]

Interesting

[POPEYE]

I can remember catching Blue Pike in lake Erie when I was a young man . The last one I caught was in 1954 off of Edgewater . We would fish for them at night ,hang a lantern over the side to attract the minnows and fish just under the minnows 5 to 10 feet down, They were smaller than the walleyes a big one was 18" or so . We ate more of them and perch than walleyes and it was long ago so I cant tell you about the taiste . But you could get a Blue Pike Special on Fridays for $2.00 .

[limitlypps]

I indeed caught one of those blues on a jig.

[Dr.Ed]

I don't have the time it would take to tell you about all the blue pike stories but I am 77 years old and upon returning from Texas in 1950, my dad, his brother, his best friend and I would launch at Avon point where my dad kept his boat. We would run out an estimated 2 miles, drop a plumbob(Lead weight 6 oz) to verify rock bottom. drop anchor, light the Coleman lantern as it got dark, fish with crawlers until the minnows came in. We would drop a 3/4 oz bell sinker below 2 baited No.4 hooks and fill 2 wet bushel size burlap sacks with blue pike before 10 PM. Lights on shore would guide us home. The only instrument on the dash was a compass.
The fish were scaled, fileted and tossed in the frig until the weekend when the family and friends would gather for the best fish fry on earth. My mom and aunt would dip the filets in egg, roll them in saltine cracker crumbs and fry them in Crisco. The taste was unbelievable and according to health experts I should have died a long time ago.
I will take full responsibility for my family and friends contributing to the demise of the Lake Erie blue pike.
A note of interest. We killed the fish by breaking their necks before throwing them in the burlap. My dad said it was the humane thing to do and less adrenalin was released so the fish tasted better. To this day, I kill the fish before they even leave the net. Does anyone else do this???

[walleye2go]

Dr. Ed, Popeye, or any else who caught blue pike. From what you remember, how did the physical characteristics of the blue pike compare with the walleye we have in Erie today?

[POPEYE]

To be perfectly honest I couldn't tell you what they looked like .( I was 8 years old at the time, 67 now ) . But I can remember spending many quality evenings with my father and brother out on the lake . I do remember that they didnt get as big as the walleye's . And that they and perch were a very big part of our diet .
Our fishing was done off of Cleveland and Avon (Charlies Boat rental ) and that we didn't have to go out very far to catch them .