Like I said we never caught a fish that looked anything like this the color was a deep blue, even on the fins. During the 1900s, several non-native species of fish were introduced to the Great Lakes, including the sea lamprey, alewife, and rainbow smelt. Once abundant in Lake Erie, blue pike supported important commercial and recreational fisheries.
We fish a lake in Northern Ontario every year (for the past 25+ years). Spotted Lake was a tiny little lake (4 acres) with no streams running in. These fish were caught 70 km NE of Dryden ON, I've been fishing this particular lake for 30 years and have never seen one like this before. The pictures are not the best but you can definitely see what I am talking about. The pictures never seem to do the fish justice but to the naked eye the blue coloration was very intense. Although similar to walleye, blue pike could be distinguished by the lack of yellow skin pigment and larger eyes. Erie restaurants made a killing on blue pike entrees.
Blue pike were endemic to Lakes Erie and Ontario, as well as to the Niagara River.
MNR is an acronym for Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. We did the portage and guess what, we caught about 75 Walleyes and 6 or 7 of them were blue. The blue pike was an endemic fish of the Great Lakes region in the United States and Canada. Is it possible that some blue Walleye are just regular Walleye with this prehistoric bacteria on their skin and others are the actual species of Blue Walleye? I have never pulled out a Blue Walleye until last year. The Campbell Status Report of 1985 officially declared the Blue Walleye extinct. Maybe they just need to look at the Walleye population in these other lakes. If anyone found any photos of them on the web that would really help too. The last known specimen was sighted in the early 1980s. At times, the blue pike made up more than 50 percent of the commercial catch in Lake Erie.At the same time the fishing industry was growing in the Great Lakes, the number of Euroamerican settlers in the region was increasing as well.
The “blue pike’s” identity has been confusing since it did not belong to the pike family (Esocidae) and some walleye in northern waters (along the Canadian Shield) are colored bright turquoise-blue … My friend Greg has caught Blue Walleyes in other lakes north of Nakina back when his parents owned Twin Lakes Outfitters. Harelip sucker (Lagochila lacera) Many Erie residents who are over 50 can recall a time when the blue pike was a large part of the city's economy. We caught all our Walleyes in the same spot, which was a deep hole at the north end of the lake. Blue pike lived in Lake Erie and the Niagara River until 1964 and is now extinct. With the increasing human population came increased habitat degradation. Eric Lund, the owner of Esnagami Lodge, told my friend Greg and myself to go over to Spotted Lake for some Blue Walleyes.
My Response: I could see in a large lake that there would be different areas with different acid levels. It spawned in tributaries but otherwise lived in nearshore and offshore areas.