Warted Walleye

[Eyellaw2]

I was on one of my favorite Walleye lakes over the weekend and cought some nice fish. One of the eyes I brought into the boat was a 18"er. I was shocked when I seen it!! It was covered in warts, even the warts had warts. I have caught alot of walleyes in my life. Never had I seen one like this!!! Does anyone know how this is tranfered to other walleyes? What is it? I seen it before but they only had a couple. This was one fish that will never make it to my dinner table.

[only-eyes]

eyelaw2, John A. Vance, author of Walleye Biology and Behavior, those wart are viral growths that do not affect the meat. he states they can simply be cut off and the fish can be consumed as usual. personally i feel there are plenty of walleyes out there find virus free fish, toss em back if they're to bad. hope this helps! GOOD LUCK

[ccarlson]

our local fisheries biologist called them a "cold water virus", a non technical term for what the above post mentioned. They occur mainly in the spring during the spawning run (temps correlate to the proper temp needed to activate the virus in the walleye population), so i assume they would be the same in the fall when the water is cooling but not too cold to again kill or stifle the virus again. No dangers, just ugly.

ccarlson

[EBass]

My friend caught one on MilleLacs in January last year. So so nasty.

[glfisher]

Only-eyes is correct. The walleye you caught was infected with a viral disease called lymphocystis. The warts or tumors are formed by cell infected with the virus. The tumors will grow and eventually rupture. Once the tumor ruptures, virus particles are released back into the fish population.

There are no cures. Rather than releasing diseased fish, they should be removed from the lake to control the spread on the infection.

If you can get past the looks and cancer-like appearance, there are okay to eat. No health problems for you.

[Mn Walleye 1976]

We have caught a few of them on Winni while on our fall trip. They are ugly looking to say the least. But heard the same thing, that they were just a cold water virus.

[ghotierman]

glfisher....thanks for the info, and welcome to the forum!

your expertise is greatly appreciated, and we welcome your inputs. FM is a great place to get great information.

thanks again, and welcome...

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