Facts

   Walleyes rank among the nation's most popular game fish. A lot of people fish for them just for the challenge, while others enjoy eating walleye fillets. Anyone who has spent much time fishing walleyes knows that they can bite like mad one day, then disappear for the next week for no apparent reason. When they do decided to quit biting, nothing can change their minds.

   Originally, walleyes were found only in a triangular area extending across Canada and south to Alabama. But as a result of widespread stocking, they are now found in almost every province and state.

Walleyes can be found almost
everywhere in North America 
East of the Rocky Mountains 
and in the Columbia River.

If you want to catch a lot of walleyes, you should know what a walleye is... so let's begin with that. Many fishermen sometimes mistake the walleye for a close relative of his, the Sauger, but saugers are different in that they have a distinctly different coloration and they don't grow quite as big. These two species sometimes hybridize and the outcome of that is another fish which is called the Saugeye. The saugeye grows up with characteristics intermediate between those of the parents. The walleye has no other North American relatives except the Perch and Darters. However, they are closely related to the European Zander. They look very much alike but the walleye distributes it's eggs at random while the zanders are nest buiders.

    Yellow walleyes usually have an olive-green back, golden sides and a white belly. Distinctive markings include a milky-white tip on the lower lobe of the tail and a black blotch at the rear base or the spiny dorsal fin. Blue walleyes, which are now thought to be extinct, had a steel-blue back, silvery sides and larger eyes. They were only found in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

   Walleyes are strong but not spectacular fighters. They do not jump like bass or make sizzling runs like northern pike. Instead, they wage a dogged, head-shaking battle, stubornly refusing to be pulled from deep water.