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Member
Posts: 2680
Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | O.K.
This was going to be a long story/post of my trip tonight on the Saginaw River. How this guy who I met 3 years ago, while he was casting from the bank and I was trolling. And I invited him in my boat to troll with me, and we did pretty good. He calls me this afternoon out of the blue and tells me that he's catching 2 to 3 nice eye's the last few nights in Bay City, yata yata yata....we go, catch 2, loose one nice one, it rains we get wet and come in early. End of story. Posting picture of the 15 incher before it started to rain REAL GOOD.
http://www.walleye-express.com/albums/Miscellaneouos/IM000996.sized...
Now the important stuff. Heres my E-mail to my DNR biologist bud and this years trawl results for Saginaw Bay.
O.K. Dave, lay it on me. I'm ancioous to here about all those Trawl Sample naturals again this year. Dan.
The trawl catch-per-unit-of-effort (CPUE) of age-0 walleyes (young-of-the-year or YOY) was the second highest on record at an average of 31.3 per 10 minute tow. This is less than the record 2003 year class but isn't too far behind. Its better than last year (2004) which was another strong year. This on-going high level of walleye production reinforces to us that it is largely being fuled by the continued scaracity of alewives. Remember that in 2003 we knew that the large level of walleye (and perch) production also happened in other places around the Great Lakes so we were unsure how much of the record 2003 walleye and perch production was a result of the ideal climate conditions and how much was due to the scarcity of alewives. We hypothesized that the absence of alewives was a very big part of it for Saginaw Bay. The results of 2004 and now 2005 reinforce that. Saginaw Bay's produciton of walleye YOY's has now exceeded that of the Michigan water's of Lake Erie for the third stright year, based on the CPUE of the same gear and collection methods.
The bad news (if there is any) is that the 2005 YOY walleye were again smaller in length on average than they had been in years up through and including 2003. The same thing happend in 2004. The potential consequence is that they may not survive as well when small like that. They are more vulnerable to predation and have a tougher time surving that first winter. The CPUE of yearling walleye in our gillnet collection samples this year (2005) representing the 2004 year class was not outstanding and only "good" compared to past years. This is not unlike the outcome of the 2003 walleye year class where those abundant YOY also only ended up resulting in a yearling CPUE that only tied the old 1998 record instead of far exceeding as it had at the YOY stage. So it appears that although walleye YOY production is way up, survival of those YOY to the yearling stage is lower, maybe much lower. This is maybe to be expected given the shere numbers of YOY walleye out there. Clearly there is a lot more competition amongst them for food and habitat. Fortuantely, there are so many YOY, that even at the lower survivial rate, we are still ending up with good numbers of yearlings and overall strong year classes.
We don't have the annual analysis of the wild to hatchery ratios yet (OTC analysis) because that lab work is still pending, but we feel sure that this yearclass is again dominated by wild fish because the rearing ponds had a poor produciton year and lower numbers were stocked than in other recent years. We'll know more about this later this winter.
Our early analysis has focused on walleye and what's going on there. We still have a lot more analysis to do on yellow perch and the other species caught in the annual survey. That analysis will be taking place in the months to come but initial observations is that the yellow perch population is not realizing improved recruitment as a result of the increased YOY production. Obviously those young perch are also experienceing poor survivial but unlike the walleye which can still realize a good year class, very limited numbers seem to be making it to the age-1 stage for yellow perch. Again, we're still analyzing this years data and will know more later.
Overall, the news is far more positive than negative. The fact that Saginaw Bay can still produce these large numbers of YOY walleye and yellow perch is a very positive sign. It also raises a lot of questions as to what the new limiting factors are, to yearling recruitment, how sustainable is this new increased level of production, etc. Because of these gains since 2003 we are making very significant progress towards our walleye recovery goals. We're not there yet, but we're a lot farther along than we ever thought we'd be by just 2005. A lot of the 2003 year class was reaching legal size by the end of this past summer. Most all of them should be 15" or larger by next year so we expect to see the fishery now begin to reflect some of these changes as well.
Let me know if you have any questions.
-Dave | |
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| One question I have Dave.
Did the trawl results show any positive baitfish signs whatsoever. Did you catch any kind of baitfish (gobies/whatever) in any quantites. Or does the trawl miss the water layer they live in? Any more results seeing more white fish and herring like you mentioned last year?
Despite the increase in walleye, the overall abundance of prey fish seems to be holding up. In fact, quite abundant still, but more analysis to be done. Lots of gobies as expected. No lake herring. | |
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Member
Posts: 340
Location: McFarland, WI | Damned if you keep them when their "too big" now damned if you keep them if thier "too small". It must be a great Goldylocks world they live in.
The big bad wolf | |
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Location: Rhinelander | Dan,
Thanks for the report. Sounds like walleye angling there is looking pretty solid for the next few years. | |
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Member
Posts: 2680
Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | sworrall - 11/8/2005 9:04 AM
Dan,
Thanks for the report. Sounds like walleye angling there is looking pretty solid for the next few years.
And thanks for what you do Steve. I know you can't be babysitting all the time, its just a real shame you have to at all.   | |
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| someone has to protect and cover for this person. gits kicked off most web forums. full time job dusting post against him. wonder how many fisherman don't come here because of him. this is one of the only places he can brag in tell lies. | |
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Member
Posts: 2680
Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | Guest.
You are getting so much better at what you do. That 8th grade education is really starting to payoff for you. I'm sure your real close to having your IP ID banned from this last remaining site you haunt. Keep posting my friend. | |
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Saginaw River Poop, and great Bay walleye news.