A book about walleyes? It’s about time!

Anglers treasure walleyes as tasty table fare, and as those mysterious fish that bite best at dusk or at night, and take a minnow-dressed jig with the deftness of a pickpocket.Now this fascinating species is immortalized in a book by Paul Radomski: Walleye: A Beautiful Fish of the Dark, published by University of Minnesota Press.

If you were to choose someone to write a book about walleyes, it would be someone like  Radomski, a fisheries biologist, a walleye angler, and an environmental advocate who cares deeply about lake ecosystems (in fact, all ecosystems) and their protection. Radomski looks at walleyes from all three perspectives. In his book you can learn about their basic anatomy, including the superior vision that gives them advantages as predators. You’ll follow their lifecycle from springtime spawning on gravel and rubble shorelines to their growth and development – eggs, to larval fish, to fry and fingerling, to adult. You’ll learn a few tips on how to catch walleyes and discover a recipe for a classic Friday fish fry.

Most of all, you’ll come to appreciate the fisheries scientists, from state natural resource agencies and Native American tribes, who work tirelessly to nurture and where necessary and restore walleye populations in our lakes and river systems. Radomski describes in detail the enormous complexity of fostering healthy walleye fisheries in the face of multiple variables like weather, water temperature, habitat, predator-prey interactions, water quality, and the structure of the walleye population itself. Based on his own experience and consultation with other biologists, he explodes forever the idea that stocking is the simple solution to providing the abundance of walleyes that anglers desire.

Arguably the most interesting chapters of Radomski’s book are those that describe long-term projects in three major walleye fisheries: Red Lake and Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota and the Winnebago System in Wisconsin. There he shows how essential it is for biologists, angling groups, native tribes and other interested parties to work together on science-based ways to build healthy and sustainable walleye populations. You can find out more about Radomski’s book at https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/walleye.