Walleye

Walleye are olive-gold with dark saddles across the back, a white belly, a large mouth full of sharp canine teeth and a spiny first dorsal fin with a dark blotch at its rear base. The large, cloudy, reflective eyes contain a light-gathering layer that lets them feed in darkness and murky water, and the lower lobe of the tail has a distinct white tip. Sauger, a close cousin, are smaller, darker and spotted on the dorsal fin, and the two hybridize into saugeye.

Native to the Great Lakes, the upper Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio basins, Hudson Bay drainages and the St. Lawrence, walleye have been stocked into reservoirs across the US from the Dakotas and Nebraska to Colorado, the Columbia River and the Southeast. The greatest populations are in Lake Erie, which has produced record hatches in recent years, Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas and Ontario. Walleye prefer 55 to 68 F (13 to 20 C) and large, windswept lakes and rivers with rock, sand and gravel bottoms and moderate clarity.

Walleye feed mainly at dawn, dusk and night and in low-light conditions such as wind-chopped water ("walleye chop"), cloud cover and turbid rivers, eating perch, shiners, shad, smelt, alewives and insects. They relate to structure in spring and fall (points, reefs, river current breaks) and suspend over open basins chasing baitfish in summer. They spawn right after ice-out on rocky shoals and in river rapids when water hits 42 to 50 F, and big females gather in rivers below dams in March and April.

Walleye are the reason Minnesota and Wisconsin empty onto the lakes on opening weekend in May, the target of a huge charter fleet on Lake Erie and the center of ice-fishing culture across the north. They are not spectacular fighters, but they are challenging to find, satisfying to pattern and unmatched on the plate, and a 30-inch, 10 lb fish is a lifetime trophy.