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Can anyone explain this ongoing debate to me? I had an argument with a few people this weekend who say they are the same. One guy said that people in Canada call them Pickerel and in the United States they call them walleye and that they are the same fish. I argued that they are not the same. I know that growing up I always called them Pickerel too, but as I got older I did more research and to me they are not the same. Now I always call them Walleye.

Well I think you have answered your own question it's terminology.... While your at it might as well at a Zander to that list as walleye/pickerel are called that in europe

People have been calling them pickerel around here for years for some reason, but yes they are Walleye.
I believe there is a Chain Pickerel that is part of the Pike family.

That is the general concensus for me as well.

Canadians call them Pickerel and everywhere else calls them walleye. Chain pickerel is a different fish altogether so maybe that is where you are finding the difference.

Ah, the age old debate rears it's ugly head once again, EH??

My Old Man would kick my butt for calling them Walleye, he always said "that's what the Yanks call 'em!!",
but that is in fact the correct terminology. I'm assuming Canadians started calling them "Yellow Pickerel"
for no other reason than seperating themselves from the Americans.

We don't have "Chain Pickerel" in our area, I believe they are down east and in some southern U.S. states.
Look far more like a Pike than a Walleye.

lape0019 wrote:That is the general concensus for me as well.

Canadians call them Pickerel and everywhere else calls them walleye. Chain pickerel is a different fish altogether so maybe that is where you are finding the difference.

Not all Canadians call them pickerel - in Quebec they are Dore. A Zander is a member of the same family but is not a walleye either more like a Sauger.

Walleye (stizostedium vitreum) is the proper name for our ogle-eyed glassy eyed friends and pickerel is often used as a slang for the same fish! The true pickerel looks very much like a pike and has chain type markings on it's side they are the most common in the north eastern states of the U.S.

Zander (Sander lucioperca, syn. Stizostedion lucioperca) is a species of fish from freshwater and brackish habitats in western Eurasia. It is closely related to perch.

sauger (Sander canadensis) is a freshwater perciform fish of the family Percidae which resembles its close relative the walleye

Funny thing is I have never heard of a professional Pickerel trail but there has been professional WALLEYE trails

walleye



pickerel



If can't see difference consult Optometrist.

I'll stick with pickerel.

Eli,

I think the point of this is that Canadians (for the most part) call walleye, pickerel. No one here is stating that pickerel do not exist, (the pike looking thing) but that walleye are called pickerel up here for some reason.

And CN,

Type in Doré is the translation of walleye.

lape0019 wrote:Eli,

I think the point of this is that Canadians (for the most part) call walleye, pickerel. No one here is stating that pickerel do not exist, (the pike looking thing) but that walleye are called pickerel up here for some reason.

And CN,

Type in Doré is the translation of walleye.

Adam I am aware that Dore is walleye which is what my point is. Walleye is Walleye and pickerel is a different fish.

Thank you Eli....plain and simple.

The other one that drives me nuts is when people call gar, "gar pike". lol

I'm not sure what the big deal is. Plenty of 'partridge' in Ontario too.....
If you someone actually cares what people call them then they must live a pretty stressful life haha.

Enough about names and look up images of the Zander on Google. Could you imagine ice fishing and trying to pull that up?
BTW if you wan't to talk confusing most saltwater fish have a ton of common names and many of them are the same for different species in different places... Real pain when you are trying to get info.

Ah. the old walleye/pickerel debate.

Around here, they mean the same thing.

It seems that somewhere around the 1930s there was an international committee that decided the common name for Stizostedium vitrium is walleye.

Not too popular a decision in Canada since we've been calling them pickerel for eons. the Yanks however call them walleye, walleyed pike, pike perch, yellow perch and yellow walleye. They too should call them walleye if it's to apply to all countries.

Here, walleye, dore, pickerel seems to fit the bill for that fish.

The problem with that, is there are members of the pike family called chain pickerel, and grass pickerel that really look like pike, as was illustrated in above posts. But they are present mostly south of here, like the St. Laurence River. Not common in the Ottawa area.

Thus the confusion. If I'm talkin' to a local, I call them pickerel. If I'm talkin' to some on from the Bay of Quinte, I call them walleye, which is what they are referred to down there.

So, it seems walleye is more correct than pickerel, from a common consensus.