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walleye express |
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 Member Posts: 2680 Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | I've been concerned about all the Big Walleyes with fewer and fewer of the smaller ones being caught for a few years now. But please Remember: Don't kill the messenger.  Lake Erie’s thinning walleye population troubling http://www.farmanddairy.com/columns/lake-eries-thinning-walleye-pop... 12/20/12 by Mike Tontimonia The coming summer’s Lake Erie rod and reel fishing forecast may be even less enthusiastic than those of recent years. At least the numbers point in that direction. Ohio’s Division of Wildlife test nettings aren’t encouraging. Let’s start with walleyes, the number one draw for the big lake, which may still be considered the walleye capital of the world, but only by those who focus on what was rather than what is. Recent year hatches have been disappointing at best, hardly the kind of hatches that replenish the walleye population to “capital” standards. The last big hatch was 10 years ago, and the senior citizen fish left from that spawn are still providing some, however limited, thrills for sport anglers. Dwindling But there is no denying the herd is thinning and without another super hatch, Lake Erie’s walleye fishing is less and less of a draw each year. Lake Erie walleye numbers are driven by the hatches spawned in the shallow western basin where reef structures serve as nurseries for walleye fry. However there are proven populations, including natural spawns, in other areas, including rivers from Detroit to Fairport Harbor –but these hatches are insignificant in comparison to the western basin spring hatches. Over the years, some concerned conversation has suggested a dedicated supportive stocking program and a pre-spawn closed walleye season, when trophy-minded anglers focus on huge egg-laden females, fish that are thus removed from the spawn before it happens. Obviously DOW biologists have never supported those suggestions and regulation makers have given them no credibility, feeling apparently that Lake Erie is big enough to take care of itself. Just as obviously, it’s not. Netting results Recent autumn test netting results are not good. Netting numbers are taken by actual count after pulling the nets over a specific area. Biologists take counts in three general areas of Ohio’s piece of the lake and have historically proven quite accurate in predicting the impact each species netted will play in future years. The areas tested include the western basin, the west-central basin and the east-central basin, a progression of depths west to east, shallow to deep. Western basin walleye young of this year amounted to just two fish per netting, well below the average count of nine. Biologist suggest that this year’s hatch is similar to that of 2006 and 2009 and will add about 3-4 million fish to the lake after two years of growth. Low count Yellow perch numbers are also down. Nettings indicate the western basin hatch is seriously low while the counts in the west-central basin and the east-central basin are better than those of 2011 but still below average. According to DOW reports, Ohio sport anglers harvested about one million walleyes last summer and 1.8 million pounds of perch. Notice that the perch count is by the pound. Considering that it takes an average of about four perch to make a pound, well, you do the math. | ||
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| Jim Ordway |
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| Manxfishing |
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| walleye express |
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Member Posts: 2680 Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | |||
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| iceman35 |
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| walleye express |
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Member Posts: 2680 Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | Thank's Iceman. And Merry Christmas to you Jim and everybody else as well. I can't help but wonder what real and overall part the Zebra Mussels have played in all this, having to do with all the Lakes. This one invasive, above all the others, seems to have had the most influential impact on the Lakes. Their water clarifying ability has changed more ecosystem dynamics then any other invasive has IMV. Saginaw Bay over the last 18 years has either dodged the bullet or came out smelling like a rose on a lot of changes that very well might have spelled doom for any place else. Seems that when we lost one thing we gained in another. I.E The alewives disappeared (in-turn Lake Hurons Salmon) in large part because of the Zebras at just about the same time our DNR found the relationship between them and their preditory desimation impact and the overall survival of our river walleye hatchlings. Now the Shad, shiners and perch have suddenly surged with their absence. I've seen 5 times more and 3 times bigger shad in the Saginaw River this year then in any in my recent memory. We caught over 40 walleyes in 1 trip on the river last week, with only 4 being keepers. But the other non-keepers were bulging with full shad belly's. And this is happening all over Saginaw Bay. I recently went Lake Trout fishing from shore in the Thumb of Michigan. We fished the mouth of a small river that dumps into the Saginaw Bay. Look at the picture below. This was a 16 pound Laker that was still feeding hard when caught. All those shad in just one Lake Trout's belly. Edited by walleye express 12/25/2012 9:59 AM
Attachments ----------------  ImageUploadedByOHubCampfire1355593540_472096_1_.jpg (42KB - 128 downloads) | ||
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| bagz |
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| walleye express |
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Member Posts: 2680 Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | That is true. Alewives contained more fat and oil per fish then anything else. So fewer of them eaten went futher as well. Salmon were hit the hardest when alewife disappeared, simply because of that narrow niche they and salmon both lived and foraged in was the exact same places in the water column. Because of their intrenched bio genetics Salmon could not/would not adjust like the Lakers to forage any place else in the water column to take advantage of not only the exploding shad populations but the Bazillions of Goby's we now have around as well. All these resurging baitfish populations eating the now available food and filling in the ecosystem void that alewife left open are helping virtually every baitfish specie we have on the bay. I was also surprised to find a few decent sized perch and even a few small walleyes in the Lake Trout's gut. Given the right temperatures Lake Trout are like Fresh Water Cormorants.   But smoked they are to kill for. Edited by walleye express 12/25/2012 1:06 PM Attachments ---------------- 002_G_003.jpg (112KB - 109 downloads) | ||
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