Is Pickeral a different fish then a Walleye?

[yamaha 1]

I was brought up in Saskatchewan for the better part of my life and we allways called Walleye, Pickeral. Now a co worker told me this morrning that a pickeral is a different fish then a Walleye. He said there was no Pickeral in Alberta, just Walleye. Pickeral was only found in Saskatchewan, it looks like a Walleye but it was a different fish. I said you must be thinking of a Sauger and I called bull *****. He said he knew what a Sauger was and that was different. Does any one know if he is telling the truth?

[FishingMOM]

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?t=14644

[fitzy]

Yep sorry to say but a pickeral is a totally different fish than a Walleye, I thinks it actually called a chain pickeral and its close to a Northern pike.

[gatorhunter]

Walleye is the correct name. You should get used to it and use it. That other word has been used incorrectly by Saskatchewanians, Manitobans and Ontarians for years.

Sauger is a different specie than walleye.

REPEAT AFTER ME - WALLEYE, WALLEYE, WALLEYE....

[gunner72]

Everyone that fishes knows that a chain pickeral is pickeral and a walleye is a walleye but i'm sure that it's no more than a pet peeve when some one corrects you. Whats the big deal, all the old boys that still call walleye "pickeral" have likely forgotten more about fishing than the guys that worry about it will ever know.

[yamaha 1]

Originally Posted by gatorhunter

Walleye is the correct name. You should get used to it and use it. That other word has been used incorrectly by Saskatchewanians, Manitobans and Ontarians for years.

Sauger is a different specie than walleye.

REPEAT AFTER ME - WALLEYE, WALLEYE, WALLEYE....

WOW!!! I just asked a question and got the answer, sorry for asking I guess your more perfect than me...no need to be a tolal @**.

[Okotokian]

Originally Posted by yamaha 1

WOW!!! I just asked a question and got the answer, sorry for asking I guess your more perfect than me...no need to be a tolal @**.

hmmmmm I didn't take his response as rude. I don't think it was meant to be Yam.

[doetracks]

I didn't see it as rude, either.

[Big Red 250]

In Manitoba, I often heard them called "yellows". Mostly by first nation's.

[yamaha 1]

Originally Posted by doetracks

I didn't see it as rude, either.

Well maybe I'm having a bad day.....sorry....I have never caught a,so called, Pickeral before...never even seen one and I have done alot of fishing in my day. I guess you learn some thing new every day ( even us old dogs )

[Donkey Oatey]

Originally Posted by yamaha 1

Well maybe I'm having a bad day.....sorry....I have never caught a,so called, Pickeral before...never even seen one and I have done alot of fishing in my day. I guess you learn some thing new every day ( even us old dogs )

Pickerel.


Walleye.

[TheClash]

so what distinguishes a pickerel from a pike from a musky??

[Skybuster]

Maybe it's something about the Peace Country, but I didn't know that they were different. I came from BC and had not caught either, but I have caught some Walleye since coming to Alberta, and I was told by someone that it was also called a pickeral. However, having looked up pictures of the two fish - Chain Pickeral and Walleye - I would have called the Chain Pickeral a Pike, which, as pointed out, it is a member of. The two fish definately are different - thanks guys for setting me straight. Here are pics I found of the two. They are obviously different.
oops - Donkey Oatey beat me to it.

[Donkey Oatey]

Originally Posted by TheClash

so what distinguishes a pickerel from a pike from a musky??

Different species of the pike family.
Esox Lusius = Pike
Esox Masquinongy = Muskie
Esox Niger = chain pickerel.

[TheClash]

so as far as field identification....how hard is it to tell those 3 apart??

[Donkey Oatey]

Here is a little bit on the Esox family.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esox

As for telling them apart I would have no experience with that. Only fish for pike in Alberta and all we have are Northern Pike.

[TheClash]

huh, well then no worries then, I have been identifying them correctly lol

[uglyelk]

Jack Fish



Pike

[SushiUnagi]

I had the same question last year when I started to fish.

Yeah for some reason there's a crowd that keeps on referring to walleyes as pickerels, and the worst part is, they will say you're wrong if you try to correct them. So no point arguing. Thanks to my friends on AOF as well as google, it helped steered me in the right direction about it. Just like everyone mentioned above.

Pickerels are much similar looking to Pikes than they are to Walleyes. So why they refer walleyes as pickerels instead of pikes is beyond me. They are smaller in size than pikes as well....so I'm going to assume they are quite bony too.

[Mr.twister]

Some people also call them EYES, hmm i like that.

[calgarygringo]

I grew up in Manitoba and only knew them as Pickerel. We then moved to Montreal and went through the same thing except they were called a Dore'. Until we caught them we didn't know what the heck one was. When summer came and finally got out there we laughed at this great new fish. When I moved to AB no one other than us from east of here knew of a Pickerel. Same fish it is just what everyone refers them to.

[pickrel pat]

what????!!!!!! now i gotta change my name......

[Lefty-Canuck]

Originally Posted by pickrel pat

what????!!!!!! now i gotta change my name......

.....and learn how to spell

Lefty

[densa44]

Those old enough to remember Lake Erie before the scourge of the Lamprey eel will remember the Blue Pickeral, a very important commercial fish.

Before hamburgers took over our world there were shacks at every port on the Canadian side of the lake selling fish and chips and the fish was the blue Pickeral. It looked just like the Walleye except that it was blue.

I think that they are all gone, too bad.

[horsetrader]

Originally Posted by densa44

Those old enough to remember Lake Erie before the scourge of the Lamprey eel will remember the Blue Pickeral, a very important commercial fish.

Before hamburgers took over our world there were shacks at every port on the Canadian side of the lake selling fish and chips and the fish was the blue Pickeral. It looked just like the Walleye except that it was blue.

I think that they are all gone, too bad.

They have said that the Blue Walleye was extinct in the 80's but there has been many anglers that have claimed to have caught them over the years. And if you look in the recent issue of a western fishing and hunting mag won't mention the name there is a good article on the catching of blue walleye in lakes in western Qu.,Ont. and Manitoba
.

[tacklerunner]

Originally Posted by TheClash

so what distinguishes a pickerel from a pike from a musky??

The easiest way to tell a Muskie from a Northern Pike is Muskie has dark patterns on lighter skin and a Pike has spots or patterns are lighter than the darker background skin.

[tyee33]

Call them what you want, people call a pike a jack and to me a jack is a mechanical device to lift a car. When i lived in BC and fished the rivers, an immature chinook that came up the river was called a jack by the locals.I still call them pickerel and also call pike pike, not a jack.To confuse things more, why do some call a can of tuna, tuna fish and a can of salmon,salmon
... shouldnt it be a can of salmon fish

[TyreeUM]

there are also blue walleye in Wollaston lake in Saskatchewan.

[tacklerunner]

Originally Posted by tyee33

Call them what you want, people call a pike a jack and to me a jack is a mechanical device to lift a car. When i lived in BC and fished the rivers, an immature chinook that came up the river was called a jack by the locals.I still call them pickerel and also call pike pike, not a jack.To confuse things more, why do some call a can of tuna, tuna fish and a can of salmon,salmon
... shouldnt it be a can of salmon fish

Yep, I also used to call them Jack Springs aka shakers aka piszcutters. But they're "chinooks" aka springs and kings in the US.

What about the dolphin fish aka dorado aka mahi mahi???

Just catch them, enjoy fishing and call them what you want.

[chubbdarter]

makes a difference if your fishing waters with both picks and eyes in it, other than that when a guy say pickeral to me here in Alberta i know what he is talking about.