walleye flesh looks wrong

[dremarquis]

Hi all,

i caught this walleye wed night on conesus. Fish looked really healthy but as you can see, the flesh is not the white/translucent color it should be. The flesh smelled perfectly fine. Do any of you know what this is and if it is safe to eat?

thanks,

andre

[fishmandan]

Never seen anything like it. Maybe it ate too many greasy alewives


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[lyk2fish]

Outside of the fillet you have to trim, many of the finger lakes walleye consume primarily alewife, which are an oil rich bait fish. Walleye eating them will form an oil line which must be trimmed off in order to get your white fillet and make them taste like they should.........also if you catch one that has orange colored flesh this time of year, usually on males.....it tends to be from the spawning process up in the creeks, the rolling and battling with other males causes internal bruising. Your pic looks like out side of fillet......just trim and eat.....if you don't, it will taste fishy. Hope it helps.

[justtracytrolling]

Ditto!  Almost all heavy, thick walleye have fat like that.  Here on Otisco any keeper will be 3 pounds+ with most nearly 5lbs minimum and look just like that.  

[Jhettenbaugh]

Conesus walleye taste like hell due to almost exclusively praying on alewives. The smaller ones are not as bad but they are hard enough to catch and if you do get one they are seldom under 20 inches.


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[dremarquis]

thanks very much, everyone.

over the years i have caught quite a few walleye out of conesus and this is the first one that had flesh that looked that way.

andre

[Sk8man]

Yes Dre. I've eaten ones we've caught on Honeoye like that and they were fine.

[wallaholic]

https://huntfish.mdc.mo.gov/fishing/fish-diseases/sandy-flesh

 

There was a discussion on the sandy flesh topic last year.  We have found walleyes with it in lake Ontario and Kevin has had some encounters with it on the St. Lawrence river.  We don't eat those fish but those fillets that were posted look pretty close to what is considered sandy flesh disease. 

[Kevin J Legg]

Looks much like the ones I reported on in the river last summer.


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[Kevin J Legg]

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[Sk8man]

Those are a whole lot different than just the slight tinge of brownish golden flesh I was referring to.

Edited May 15, 2018 by Sk8man

[birdcrzy]

I have gotten a few like that from Erie. I was told by dnr that not all females spawn and this is the way it looks as the body consume the eggs. 

Edited May 16, 2018 by birdcrzy

[guffins fisherman]

On 5/16/2018 at 5:31 PM, birdcrzy said:

I have gotten a few like that from Erie. I was told by dnr that not all females spawn and this is the way it looks as the body consume the eggs. 

Two meals for the price of one.  Fresh caviar and fresh fish all in one neat little package.  

[birdcrzy]

We know that now but at the time. I think the coon got it.

[dremarquis]

mine was a male

[Ronald Allen Sellers]

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I would eat it!


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[Kevin J Legg]

The ones I posted on last summer had very little meat on them. Checking with fisheries biologist they thought it was sandy flesh disease. I didn't eat them. A few others were also caught in the river but none in DEC netting samples.


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[jk1]

Never saw such a thing.  What a sham they are nice sized fish you have there....jk