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Message Subject: Sag Bay Walleye/Perch Strategies Chosen.

walleye express

Posted 4/21/2015 3:33 PM (#113079)
Subject: Sag Bay Walleye/Perch Strategies Chosen.

Member

Posts: 2680

Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay.

Yes Dan I shared your boards poll results with the decision makers (the fishery managers). I didn’t actually put the poll up at the meeting because we were basically there to take feedback from the advisors and didn’t want to bias them or anything. You can help us once we have our updated options tomorrow by posting them, inviting a dialog and helping to spread the word about where to send comments. I’d love to see a new discussion thread specific to the overall strategy. There was no caving last week as there was really considerable agreement. Everyone agreed that we need to liberalize the walleye harvest and the discussion centered on opinions on how best to go about that. Basically bag limits, length limits, seasons, and spatial extent (rivers, no rivers included etc). There is also an overall strategy for perch that is part of this, not just regulations but other strategies too. I’m frustrated at how slow our managers are releasing this information, I’m not in control of that. But I’m told that we’ll have it all tomorrow. In fact I don’t even know myself the final form the options will fully take. That is decided by the fishery managers and as a researcher, my job is limited to advising them on the science side of things.

Here are the changes that will be considered:

Whichever walleye regulation option the DNR eventually implements will be applied to Lake Huron (Saginaw Bay) in Management Unit MH-4 (see page 24 of the guide for a map depicting MH-4) and on the mainstem of the Saginaw River from the Center Road Bridge in Saginaw (T12N, R4E, sec. 35; adjacent to the old Malleable Iron plant property) downstream to the mouth in Bay City.

Option 1: Status Quo (i.e. no change from current walleye regulations)

Option 2: Minimum size limit 13 inches and daily bag limit of 8 walleyes

Option 3: Minimum size limit 13 inches and daily bag limit of 10 walleyes

A year-round open harvest season on the Saginaw River is not an option. The year-round open season on walleye in the Great Lakes waters will not be extended into the Saginaw River system. The six week long inland closure will remain in place.

For yellow perch:

Option 1: Status Quo (i.e. no change from current perch regulations)

Option 2: Reduce the daily recreational bag limit from 50 to 25

Other strategies to try and promote better yellow perch survival and recruitment to the fishery include:

· Reduce walleye abundance (perch predator) through liberalized walleye harvest options (above)

· Proposed cormorant management (cormorant control) within the bay

· Reduction of commercial yellow perch fishing effort within the bay (possible relocation of at least one operation outside of the inner bay)

· Experiments with the reintroduction (reintroductory stocking) of cisco (lake herring) to promote the availability of a prey buffer for yellow perch

It’s important to note that the DNR feels the liberalizing of walleye recreation fishery is the right thing to do for walleye regardless of perch needs, but we are fortunate that the two needs align. The proposed walleye harvest liberalization isn’t solely for the benefit of perch.

The proposed walleye harvest regulations would not necessarily remain constant from year to year. Instead they would be regularly tweaked to adjust to changes in walleye abundance as indicted by computer models. This is basically the same as the process used for Lake Erie. Thus the proposed options above for walleye are really just the starting point for implementation in 2016.

These will be discussed in detail at the Bay City Sea Grant meeting. There will be more details of how the public can submit comments on these options forthcoming. There may be an another meeting in addition to the Sea Grant meeting. If so it will be announced soon.

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