Quinte Fishing

How do you tell the differance between a male and female pickerel?
It was unfortunate when I cleaned one the past weekend she was full of eggs.
If I would have known, I may have been more selective of which ones I release.

You dont, not without cutting a fish open. I talked to some biologists.

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females are generally bigger as well. Found this on a site about early spring walleye and how to tell the difference. not sure if it would be the same for last ice? "This time of year all males produce a bright white liquid (sperm) when stroked from the belly to the anus. If females are ripe they produce a large stream of very small cream colored eggs, noticeably different from the males bright white liquid that sort of dribbles out. If the females eggs have not ripened, their belly is hard."

If you keep fish less than 20" you are usually safe. Most of the time the smaller ones in that range are males. Even if you did happen to keep a female she would be small and have far less eggs than a more mature larger fish. The bigger the fish the more eggs she will carry so its important to release them. Cheers.

I guess that's how the slot limit discussion comes into play especially for a species of fish where it is hard to distnguish. Beside the smaller ones are nicer eating.

all those big fish were small fish once , just keep that in mind

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i find that the females are a lot fatter even the small ones seem too look to short and to wide sort of like a football but for eyes there hard to tell if there male or female just like ONbuckhunter said a lot of the males are under 20 inches

This is just an observation that I've concluded from watching Sheldon Yuke....most males want to beat him up and the females laugh at him and walk away....oh wait...were we talking about fish or people....hahaha Gary

Wait why does Grizz beat sheldon up, laugh and walk away Male or Female?

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Males have a faint line running down the center of their belly from pectoral fins to anus.

I'll take a pic next time I'm out to show this. Regardless of size, this time of year females will have a noticable buldge in the belly.

folks you cant tell unless its spawning time, or close to it. You can guess all day and just keep smaller fish but you cant tell. Thats the simple answer, walleye have NO characteristics externally that seprate the sexes

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I respectfully disagree.....the guys I fish with will back me as well....sorry just my 2 cents for what its worth.

I'm just going by every biologist I have ever talked to . They all say the same thing, sure you can look for a dip in the belly and assume its a female full of eggs. Here in NY we have a hatchery that produces mass amounts of walleye http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/21666.html These guys handle 1000 upon 1000 of walleye a year. I myself have been to the hatchery a few times when it is in full swing and its neat to see. When the fish come into the hatchery it is squeezed and seperated. I asked them personally and they told me no way unless you get milk or eggs out of them. It might not be a bad idea to send an email over to the MNR in Piucton and post what response you get.

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Take a read here http://www.walleyes.org/womanlake/dnrmilking.htm some interesting stuff here, you will see that it is possible near spawn to tell but other than that it's disection

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Really good read....I wish that went on a bit more in Canada.

I'm not so much talking about post spawn or mid summer, although post spawn females are easily identified when the season opens IMO, I'm talking about right now during the winter when females are carrying.

For certain, males have a noticeable or faint line running down their belly. It seems as though if all walleye look like this in the summer, once a female is carrying eggs this line is bulged out and no longer noticeable.

I don't have a degree in fish biology or an credentials, nor have I talk to the MNR etc, but I haven't been wrong about a walleye I've cleaned during the hard water season once I figured this out.