Caught my first Ohio River Walleye

[JD7.62]

Well Walleye period!

Fished a little down past the inerpretive center with thunder and lightning all around me from about 6-730. Fish was small at about 12" and released, so thats three walleye Ive seen in three trips in the last two weeks. Ive fished the falls for a few years now and had only seen one personally before these three. Do yall think their numbers are growing?

Anyone else seeing more walleye then usual?

[Fisherjoe]

Was it a walleye or a sauger? Have not heard of many walleye being caught around here. Just curious...

[kc]

Their numbers have grown modestly the last decade or more. When I was a boy fishing out there 30 years ago it was rare to catch a walleye. In fact I don't recall ever catching a walleye even though we fished there more that we do these days. But over the last decade or so it seems that we would catch a walleye or two most trips out. I would encourage everyone to release the walleye to try to continue to boost their numbers. If I want fish to eat I can catch all of the sauger I would need...

kc

[JD7.62]

Was it a walleye or a sauger? Have not heard of many walleye being caught around here. Just curious...

I like to say Im an amateur fisherman and semi-pro fish geek...it was 100% walleye.

Check out the 7lb walleye caught at the falls in the photo board, that was one of the three Ive seen recently. It was a beauty!

[kc]

There are walleye in the river just in small numbers. They look like a sauger except in the river they are greener, don't have the dark blotches that many of the sauger have, and they have a yellow tip on the bottom ray of their tail. If you look them up in a fisheries book they also have a different number of rays in their dorsal fin and such.

Now to really blow your mind there are also "saugeyes" where sauger and walleye have cross-bred. I can't tell you how to spot a saugeye but I have heard from the fisheries people that it does happen. Years ago a friend of mine caught what we thought was a walleye while striper fishing below the dam that went around 6 pounds. But it looked more like a sauger and thats when I learned about saugeye and it was probably one of them (we released it so it wasn't confirmed)...

kc

[Tyme2fish]

Yes,there are definitely Walleye in the Ohio. I caught several last year.

[EsoxMtK]

There are walleye in the river, but only a few. I caught a few, a couple of years ago.

[monarc]

Looked at your picture. Could be a Walleye. Every walleye I have caught from the Ohio has been very green in color. I see hints of saddles. Hold the dorsal fin up and if there dark splotches on it along with the light tip on the lower tail fin it's a saugeye. Spots on sauger dorsal fin are well defined along with pronounced saddles but no white tip on tail.Saugeye are fairly common and walleye less so but they are there. Largest I know of was 9.8 lbs and caught in the Markland pool near the Little Miami River.

[BASSKING]

The one I caught was a walleye it weighed 7.1 on a set of digitals. It has some discoloration tthat could be confused with a saugeye but when my scales weren't working good I went next door and my neighboor is a former biologist from michigan and he said walleye too. But, ya never know most. Eveyone I know says it was a walleye but I have a hard time as well. She had son spots at the base of the fins which some walleye have and the picture does show some signs of blotches but she had a mostly greenish gold tint to her. The pic doesn't do much justice.