[7] It is also sometimes called a dory in British English (and its common name in French is the similar doré—meaning golden or gilded), although this name is also used for various other species.

The rate depends partly on where in their range they occur, with southern populations often growing faster and larger.

Adults migrate to tributary streams in late winter or early spring to lay eggs over gravel and rock, although open-water reef or shoal-spawning strains are seen, as well.

After hatching, the free-swimming embryos spend about a week absorbing a relatively small amount of yolk.

Once the yolk has been fully absorbed, the young walleyes begin to feed on invertebrates, such as fly larvæ and zooplankton.

Thenceforth, both juvenile and adult walleyes eat fish almost exclusively, frequently yellow perch or ciscoes, moving onto bars and shoals at night to feed.

The walleye is part of the North American clade within the genus Sander, alongside the sauger (S. canadensis).

[14] The walleye was first formally described by the American naturalist Samuel Latham Mitchill (1764–1831) with the type locality given as Cayuga Lake near Ithaca, New York.

[17] Because of its nocturnal feeding habits, it is most easily caught at night using live minnows or lures that mimic small fish.

Since walleyes have excellent visual acuity under low illumination levels, they tend to feed more extensively at dawn and dusk, on cloudy or overcast days, and under choppy conditions when light penetration into the water column is disrupted.

Although anglers interpret this as light avoidance, it is merely an expression of the walleyes' competitive advantage over their prey under those conditions.

In the spring and fall, walleyes are located near the shallower areas due to the spawning grounds, and they are most often located in shallower areas during higher winds due to the murkier, higher oxygenated water at around six feet deep.

[22] On calm spring days, walleyes are more often located at the deep side of the shoreline drop-off and around shore slopes around or deeper than 10 feet.

[23] As a result of their widespread presence in Canada and the northern United States, walleyes are frequently caught while ice fishing, a popular winter pastime throughout those regions.

[24] LeRoy Chiovitte holds the Minnesota state-record walleye he caught on May 13, 1979 on the Seagull River near Saganaga Lake.

[27] Walleye pike was declared the official "state warm water fish" of Vermont in 2012.

(Vermont's official "state cold water fish" is the brook trout, Salvelinus fontinalis.