Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Fly Fishing & Other Fish Species fish id help

someone (on another message board i frequent) posted for an id request, and i'm stumped.. any idea what this is (out of lake erie)

[img]http://www.ohiogamefishing.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=83824&d=1380049546[/img]

Zander?

Looks like a blue walleye to me. Most likely not the actual subspecies though, but just a color morph of the common walleye species.

Would the white fin tip be on a blue walleye? I know in this case, the fish appears too light overall to see it if it is there.

the underbite on it had me looking at lots of pics but i couldn't come up with anything definitive

could be a very light walleye or zander with a deformed lower jaw.

Also looks kinda like a really light colored snook..
no way it would survive a winter in that lake but if somehow got there during the summer it might survive awhile.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=juve...selectedIndex=0

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=juve...selectedIndex=1

odds are very , very slim though...

The coloration on it is definitely washed out for some reason...

did you realease it or keep it?

My first question would be where was it caught? To me, that looks like a saltwater boat, but it's an Ohio fishing forum.

it was caught on lake erie..and it was released
i didn't catch it.. just saw it on the fishing forum and started looking for info..
the blue pike or blue walleye is considered extinct in lake erie since the 70's i think..

I would wonder of the acuracy of the post on the forum....

it does sorta look like a flats boat

Yes, blue walleye have been consider extinct for a few decades now. However, even the common walleye subspecies sometimes produces blue individuals, which is what that fish most likely is.

i'm leaning towards a smelt.. "rainbow smelt" to be more specific..
http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Default.aspx?tabid=22738

I've caught walleyes in Lake Erie that were that light when the water is muddy in early spring.

The kype has me puzzled though. The lower lip of a walleye is meaty but I've never seen a kype on one like that.

Rainbow smelt have an adipose fin, the pictured fish does not.

A smelt will never be that large nor have teeth like those on that fish. It is very likely a color morph of a walleye. There can be a fair amount of color differences and morphology variation due to genetic variety.

Not saying that is a zander but I do have to wonder if it's possible for zander fry to hitch a ride in ship ballast from Eastern Europe where they are native and common. We've had so many other hitch hikers from eastern Europe's large inland seas already such as gobies.

Zander don't have a pronounced extended lower jaw like the pictured fish, then again walleye don't either. I guess there can always be strange individuals in any large enough group of fish that show dissimilar characteristics because of genetic variation or damage and deformities. When looking at the photo, the upper jaw of that fish is red indicating possible injury. My believe is it is an usually colored blue walleye with an upper jaw deformity.

I'm interested too but I can't take a look at that pic - it says only "Sorry. The administrator has banned your IP address. To contact the administrator click here".

Can anyone post it here, please?

Guys I will check but FWIW the properties/ name of file says "roach fish". Its not a common roach.

This "zander" has no stripes at all. Zander should have them...
And it's jaw looks kinda strange.

Anyway, it's not even similar to common roach at all.