210 NORTHERN FISHES 



Figure 39. Walleye, Stizostedion viireum vitreum, 16 inches long. 



considerably in color. It ranges from a dark silver to a dark olive brown 

 mottled with brassy specks. Those of the brown waters of the northern 

 lakes are the darkest in color. A large black spot is always present at 

 the base of the last dorsal spine, though it may fade in dead walleyes. 

 The lower lobe of the tail, or caudal, fin has a wide white margin. The 

 jaws contain large canine, or tearing, teeth. 



The walleye is found from southern Canada to southern Alabama 

 and Georgia. It ranges south on the Atlantic Coast to North Carolina 

 (Hubbs and Lagler, 1941) . It has been widely introduced elsewhere. It 

 is primarily a fish that thrives best where it has a wide range, and con- 

 sequently seems most at home in lakes several miles or more in length. 

 It is a fish of clean, cold lakes and clear rivers, and retires to deep water 

 during the hotter months of the year. The walleye is a great traveler. 

 Tagged individuals have been caught within a few months from 70 to 

 100 miles away from where they were tagged. A subspecies, the blue 

 pikeperch, Stizostedion vitreum glauciivi Hubbs, is found in Lake Erie. 



The walleye is widely distributed over Wisconsin (Greene, 1935) and 

 the larger streams of the Dakotas. In Minnesota this abundant and 

 valuable food and game fish has never occurred anywhere in the Lake 

 Superior drainage except in the St. Louis River system and in Lake 

 Superior itself. However, it has pushed up through the chain of lakes 

 drained by tributaries of Rainy River, which is in the Hudson Bay 

 drainage, and through such chains as the Kawishiwi to within a hundred 

 yards of the watershed separating the Hudson Bay basin from that of 

 Lake Superior. For instance, it has occurred in numbers in Harriet 

 Lake at the extreme head of Island River, which is in the Hudson Bay 

 drainage, whereas a stone's throw away in Sister Lake of the Lake 

 Superior drainage it was unknown until introduced. It originally oc- 

 curred in streams and lakes in every part of Minnesota with the excep- 

 tion of a limited area in the southern part of Lake County and the 

 southern and eastern parts of Cook County. In the larger lakes it is still 



