Silver Jumbo, Anyone Else?

Hey Friends, I've never caught a Silver Jumbo before. Anyone else? What a beautiful perch!

yep, every so often, just a pigment thing.
same with the walleye, some will be more silver then greenbacks

Caught one a few years ago. Think it was called a blue perch

Ok.. Thanks. 1st one for me out of 100s here on Nip.. Makes me think of the nice blue pickerel I catch back at home.

Wow I have never seen that before....thx for sharing.

Arnie

Did a bunch of research on this a few years ago and it is a recessive gene mutation that occurs in about 1 in 500 walleye, perch and northern pike. Mutation is harmless and causes a change in color pigmentation. Some lakes the chances are higher and in some lakes the chances are lower but as stated above average about 1 in 500.

For a fish to carry the mutation both parents must carry it as well. I caught a large pike ice fishing on Abitibi with the mutation and had it mounted. The research that i reviewed was mostly from a chain of lakes in Minnesota where they recorded the mutation for about 50 consecutive years. In that time there were about 600,000 pike caught and or surveyed and out of that about 1,200 had the mutation. Additionally the vast majority of the pike were under 5 lbs and the largest ever recorded in the 50 year study was 12 lbs. My pike from Abitibi was 16lbs and based on that study i figure it was a once in a lifetime catch and lucky at that so decided to have a mount made:

that a nice looking perch and pike. never caught one before.

this happens in most animals I think. My lab (Sam) has this same condition of missing a gene. From my research people call these labs Dudlies and are about 1 in 1000 and have to come from pure yellow labs. So she doesn't have any black which they are supposed to have, lips, eye rims, paw pads and nose.

The original population of Nip walleye were all blues. They were overfished and the lake got re-stocked with yellows.
You still get the odd blue walleye in Nip. They aren't uncommon (more than 1 in 500!), but any reading I've done has said they don't know if what exists is the natural recessive gene in the yellows or a remnant of the original blues (or a combination of both).

The fisheries dudes told me there are lakes along Superior that are still 100% blues.


Can't speak to the perch or pike. Fished the lake my whole life and yet to see either.

Cool! Caught one myself a few seasons back on Simcoe. Couldn't see the blue hue in a pic until I included the yellow scoop for contrast.

Where’s Waldo….

Very interesting fish biology, thanks to everyone for sharing.