Central basin perch

Just saw this.


"ODNR news release:Yellow Perch Daily Limit Reduced to 10 from Huron to Fairport Harbor

Yellow Perch Daily Limit Reduced to 10 from Huron to Fairport Harbor

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A declining population of Lake Erie yellow perch in the central basin has prompted a reduction in the daily limit to 10 from Huron to Fairport Harbor beginning Saturday, May 1, 2021, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife.

Lake Erie walleye and yellow perch fisheries are managed through an interagency quota system. Each jurisdiction regulates its catches to comply with annually determined safe harvest levels that ensure sustainability. The most recent quotas were announced on Friday, March 26, 2021.

“Low yellow perch hatches in recent years have caused the daily limit to be reduced to 10 from Huron to Fairport Harbor,” said Division of Wildlife Chief Kendra Wecker. “Science-based management shows us that we have to act quickly to ensure that the yellow perch population has time to improve in select areas of the central basin.”

Low abundance from Huron to Fairport Harbor led to a very conservative quota for yellow perch fishing from May 1, 2021, to Feb. 28, 2022. Central basin yellow perch hatches have been well below average and strong year classes are needed to rebuild the population to prior abundances. The daily limit is 30 yellow perch until Friday, April 30, 2021.

Yellow perch abundance in the western basin provided limit opportunities seasonally in 2020 and remains strong in 2021. Ohio’s daily limits will remain at 30 in the western basin from Toledo to Huron and farther east from Fairport Harbor to Conneaut."

Western region has been tough too. Plenty of guys say they catch limits but I wasn't one of them. The large walleye population has got to be putting a good dent in the perch as well. We have a beautiful fishery there if the numbers are dropping it needs to be protected.

The ODNR looks really bad on this decision.A 10 perch limit...really.Might as well close down anyone from keeping perch in central basin.What do 10 perch weigh,3 or 4 pounds and like 1.5lbs of filets.Hardly anybody has been targeting perch in central basin for several years now.Reducing limit to 10 is hardly going to change the amount of perch caught by sportsmen from previous few years.The ODNR also said last year that there are plenty of yellow perch in Erie,but the fish have changed their diet to water flees.The sportsman just need to learn new tactics to catch them.Lol...yeah right.Does the ODNR have the authority to limit or close the commercial harvest of perch?I'm not sure,but whoever does, should have closed the commercial perch harvest in central basin the last few years.The commercial netters should also have a closed season in the central basin now since essentially the sportsmen have a closed season to perch.Hope the central basin perch don't end up like the blue pike.

I agree bob. 30 perch limit is nothing compared to the commercial harvest. I hope they keep them regulated. I would like to know the numbers. And yes the fleas are an issue but they are counting the perch population and its shrinking which has nothing to do with what they are eating unless eating fleas are killing them which I don't believe is happening.

As I have posted in the past. The commercial harvest on the US side of the lake is miniscule compared to what the Canadians take. You have to remember The Canadians take EVERY pound of fish they are allotted. They say this is a sustainable fishery. This is a LIE. No commercial fishery is sustainable. Always remember, we are just four or five years of poor recruitment away from a crash in the walleye fishery. It has happened in the past it will happen again.

I have to shake my head when I read some of these comments. I've read here that it's ODNR's fault, it's Canada's fault, and it’s the walleye's fault... How many of you have gone to Lake Erie and caught walleye or perch all day but only took home a fraction of the legal limit? I'm gonna bet that if you got 6 walleye or 30 perch you brought all you were legally allowed to possess home with you. Most people will take everything they can get because they can and the same goes for commercial operations. But there comes a point when one or more factors change in a fishery and they whole dynamic is impacted. Whether it's Canada or the great walleye hatches that do it, we as fisherman have to take the good with the bad. We need to appreciate the great fishing when we have it and know that it won't last forever. Perch populations will come back and eventually the walleye fishing will fall off. At that point the perch guys will have to listen to the walleye guys belly ache about who’s at fault (<--humor).

Take away these three things from this post, 1) appreciate what you have when you have it (take nothing for granted); 2) we are not guaranteed or entitled to catch a limit of fish ever; 3) if Ohio, PA, MI, and NY did not have any conservation laws, Lake Erie would be a dead lake and you’d have to take up golf.

It takes a conversation to help understand what might be happening. White perch are in abundance and can be competing for the food. What ever the reason it's happening and I'm glad there are people willing to talk about it.

I don't know how to post links, or pictures. You can(should) look this up and do your own research.

M2 central basin west (huron-fairport) commercial Yellow Perch total quota for 2020 may-nov 384,778 lbs
Harvested in 2020 may-nov 248,721 lbs

What's a 1 man limit of 30 perch weigh? 6lbs is a good day? Over 40,000 1 man limits taken by netters and me keeping 30 vs 20 has a significant impact on population? Maybe if I caught a limit everyday, been years since I even had 1 limit.

Researchers say yellow perch move north south with seasons/temperatures not east west like walleye. This means m1 perch stay in m1, m2 stay in m2, so on and so forth.

Research in other parts of the country indicate that spiney water fleas get caught in young of the year fishes throats and can be deadly, but older fish can feed on them, and do. Fleas eat other algae eating zoo plankton= more algae=more hypoxic dead zones. Fleas can reproduce asexualy as well as spawn several times a year, and are phenotypically plastic and reproduce with larger spines to protect from predation.

More natural predation (walleye, cormorants)+ more competitive feeders (white perch, gobies) +less natural forage (emerald shiners)+ poor habitat (hypoxic dead zones)= ?
Last few years the ODNR said you need to change tactics, perch are there but are suspended. Now perch are not there.

What's more important a sustainable fishery or the economy driven via recreational fisherman?

Golf? No thanks!

I hope(earnest expectation) populations of yellow perch will rebound with this change in daily limit. I also pray the commercial harvest gets significantly reduced.

My thoughts an opinions might be unpopular but I really want Lake Erie to thrive for many years to come with Yellow Perch and Walleye.

I personally do not have issue with limits on fish . If it preserves the fishery, I feel everyone should be on board. Should commercial quotas be lowered to help? Yes, absolutely. 10 ok sized perch would be dinner for two people easily, if not more.

I just watched a youtube video from 2017 I believe. These guys were fishing in April and doing quite well. But in my mind I questioned keeping a pre-spawn female obviously full of eggs. Personally, I would have thrown the females full of eggs back to in effort hopefully allow them make many more of the tasty little fish. Sure there is no regulation saying not to keep those fish but it just seemed off to me. Thinking a bit more about this as I type, if you only kept males then there would be less males to fertilize the eggs. Maybe a reduced limit during spawning season could be an option or closing the season during spawning.

I suppose the same can be discussed regarding pre-spawn Walleye as well.

The lake's gonna do what the lake's gonna do, no one has much of an impact on it biologically speaking. ODNR has no idea other than limiting the take on how to manage the lakes problems. Just look at their story last year, "Theres plenty of perch, they just changed their eating habits" what a crock. Now there's a hatch problem all of a sudden.
Over fishing when numbers are down isn't good. ODNR and the feds have no control over how Canada wants to fish. We ask them to cut back, they say ok, them take theirs out of the middle. As stated in a previous post, things will come back around in the future sometime. There will be tons of perch and very few Walleyes. Then the other half will be complaining.

http://www.glfc.org/pubs/pressrel/LE...20%20FINAL.pdf

This is from last year. This years should be published soon. I'm sure there will be a reduction in the TAC of perch and it will be in the central basin areas. The problem is that if there are limited numbers of perch in the central basin the Canadian commercial fleet (200 license ) just pick up and move to where there are better numbers. There they WILL FILL THEIR TAC!. If MI, OH, PA, NY, filled their TAC, well you get the picture. The commercial take is worth maybe 100-120 million total Can/US. Go look up what the estimates say sport fishing brings just to the state of Ohio. I'm not going to beat a dead horse anymore but if you're interested do the research yourself. Be warned though...There is mot much info on the Canadians. They don't want anybody to know anything.

The Canadians are not allowed to fish on our side are they? Perch don't move from CLE shore to North shore in huge numbers. Not like the walleye. IF Canadians are staying on their side, we can protect them by lowering quotas on our side for commercial nets to 30% too.

Rickerd