young walleye

[LEfriend]

Geographically the ODNR makes their yearly survey trawls in the same area's and water depth's year after year. In 2011 the algae blooms were extremely bad from the wet spring! Those little eyes are no different than any other life form on earth. What would you do if you could breath but not get enough oxygen to maintain a quality life not to mention the smell that must be in the water from that nasty stuff affecting their ability to locate prey. You along with any other creatures who have survived and multiplied over centuries of time would move to a more friendly environment. To me that is why the state missed the hatch survival rate in both 2010 and 2011, those year class eyes moved to a more environmentally friendly area of the lake where the ODNR does not do their survey trawls.

With all of the rain at this time and earlier this year I feel that everyone who fishes and or uses the lake for other forms of recreation should be prepared for a major algae bloom or blooms later this year. At this time we have the Maumee, Portage, Sandusky and Huron River spewing all of that farm runoff into the Lake, not to mention every minor watershed such as the Toussaint and any other small creeks feeding directly into the lake. On top of that some of the sewage treatment plants located along those rivers and streams feeding into the lake have most likely already overflowed into the drainage system compounding the problem even further. So I think the State ODNR will most likely miss the hatch again this year. The perch fishermen and the minnow boats will start to see those 2013 YOY walleye in mid to late August if they exist.
These are just my thoughts on the subject and not based on anything the scientific community would support but they are based on past experiences over my many years of fishing Lake Erie.

Actually the ODNR did adjust their trawl data for 2010 due to oxygen conditions. See http://www.toledoblade.com/StevePoll...ooks-good.html (At the time they were criticized by some for doing that and "cooking the books")

And they ended up rating 2010 as one of the two best years since 2006. So it is no surprise lots of smaller fish are showing up. The process ain't perfect, but best we have, and I put my faith in the scientists.

[Bggeary]

Where is everyone finding these shorts? The smallest I've caught this year is 17" I fished Green and Rattle early and have been at Kellys the rest of the time. Just wondering.

[BLACK PEARL]

Yesterday thru 7 shorts back that were 8"-14" in just under 4 hours!

[walleye2go]

Where is everyone finding these shorts? The smallest I've caught this year is 17" I fished Green and Rattle early and have been at Kellys the rest of the time. Just wondering.

I've had to throw quite a few back from American Eagle shoal, but there is a large school of fish North of B and C can extending to East of West Sister and over to the Kidney where many of the short fish are being caught. They were also getting them shallow out in front of Crane Creek and down the shoreline to Bessie...but I haven't heard anything about that bite for awhile.

Greg

[Bggeary]

Thanks Greg, not that i want to catch some, just wondering where they were all hanging out. That sounds to me like the 80's when the limit was ten.

[wakina]

I had my boat docked at Tibbles Marina on East Harbor in 04,05,06,07 and 08 fished both east of Kelly's and straight out of and west of East Harbor and the Bass Islands. I cannot remember catching a great many shorts east of Kelly's but did catch quite a few straight out between Kelly's and the Bass Islands but once you went west of the Bass Islands and got out around the reef complex the bite was on for those shorts in late 2004 and all of 2005. It was nothing to catch 40 to 50 a day in the area of the reefs.

Like I said before the adult population was really low and keepers were hard to come by once the water temp. got into the mid 70's, it seems that most of the adults went east those years. Once those 03 fish got to keeper size they would hang around on the western end of the lake in numbers great enough to give you some very excellent fishing even though the were not the trophy sized fish. They still made for fun and some very good eating.

[wakina]

LEfriend:
You are exactly right they did change their assessment in late 2010 based on further trawls and information provided by some of the other jurisdictions! I did not mean to make it sound like I do not put my faith in the ODNR, I feel they have a thankless job that is hard enough to get done properly without me or anyone else bashing them. In order to have something to compare the new YOY class to~~ they have to do the trawls in the same geographic locations and water depth's every year or the comparison would be like apples to oranges so to me if there is a flaw in their assessments it would be Mother Nature's fault through her changing conditions and not the ODNR's.

Unlike 2010 there was no official follow up in 2011 to the August Trawls by the ODNR, there were no ODNR news release's confirming their findings once all of the data was in from the other jurisdictions and processed. The only news that I have found beyond the release in early Sept came from Ohio Sea Grant. Link provided.
http://ohioseagrant.osu.edu/discuss/...5f471393148016.
Even the ODNR's website leads one to believe that the August trawls are only a portion of the information the ODNR uses to assess the quality of the current years hatch I believe they even stated that they were also using a 2nd series of trawls in October(later in the fall) to better assess the current hatch, I cannot find the webpage for that info at this time but I am still looking. At this time their assessment of the 2011 and 2012 hatches are not supported by the number of short walleyes in the 7 to 10 inch size(2012 hatch) or the number 13 to 15 inch shorts(2011 hatch). One only needs to ask this question! Where did these shorts come from if not from the 2011 and 2012 spawns?

As to cooking the books that would not serve anyone's purpose especially their(ODNR's)own. The vast majority of the fisheries division relies heavily on the Lake Erie Walleye and Yellow Perch fisheries so to cook the books would only produce a very short life expectancy for those officials and their lucrative budgets.

[LEfriend]

LEfriend:
You are exactly right they did change their assessment in late 2010 based on further trawls and information provided by some of the other jurisdictions! I did not mean to make it sound like I do not put my faith in the ODNR, I feel they have a thankless job that is hard enough to get done properly without me or anyone else bashing them. In order to have something to compare the new YOY class to~~ they have to do the trawls in the same geographic locations and water depth's every year or the comparison would be like apples to oranges so to me if there is a flaw in their assessments it would be Mother Nature's fault through her changing conditions and not the ODNR's.

Unlike 2010 there was no official follow up in 2011 to the August Trawls by the ODNR, there were no ODNR news release's confirming their findings once all of the data was in from the other jurisdictions and processed. The only news that I have found beyond the release in early Sept came from Ohio Sea Grant. Link provided.
http://ohioseagrant.osu.edu/discuss/...5f471393148016.
Even the ODNR's website leads one to believe that the August trawls are only a portion of the information the ODNR uses to assess the quality of the current years hatch I believe they even stated that they were also using a 2nd series of trawls in October(later in the fall) to better assess the current hatch, I cannot find the webpage for that info at this time but I am still looking. At this time their assessment of the 2011 and 2012 hatches are not supported by the number of short walleyes in the 7 to 10 inch size(2012 hatch) or the number 13 to 15 inch shorts(2011 hatch). One only needs to ask this question! Where did these shorts come from if not from the 2011 and 2012 spawns?

As to cooking the books that would not serve anyone's purpose especially their(ODNR's)own. The vast majority of the fisheries division relies heavily on the Lake Erie Walleye and Yellow Perch fisheries so to cook the books would only produce a very short life expectancy for those officials and their lucrative budgets.

Wakina - Thanks, no problem, we're on the same page. If you go to the home page of Lake Erie Fisheries Unit and click on the latest "Lake Erie Status Link" you can get the 2012 report that was prepared Mar 2013. The 2011 might be archived at the bottom. Here is link to their page:

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/Fish...3/Default.aspx

The number of shorts is an interesting question. I am acquainted with a couple of those guys and may email them that one. Course catching shorts in one area and translating that to an accurate population estimate for whole lake are two different things. Nevertheless, it is a good sign and one certainly would rather see them than not, and hope they are a sign things are better than was thought. Good luck!

[Rmonaco]

Sorry guys didn't mean to ruffle feathers, but i do appreciate farmers and I'm not blaming them for the algae blooms, just stating a fact that something has to be done to prevent or decrease blooms. I encourage everyone to take a look at the link I have posted.
http://www.cleveland.com/science/ind...e_algae_b.html

[troy1976]

no feathers ruffled here. I am just trying to educate the non farm community. THe finger always gets pointed our way when it comes to run off. There is no doubt that farmers contribute to the problem. In the article you just posted though it states that millions of dollars in fertilizer end up in the rivers. I am not sure how accurate that number would be. The phosphate fertilizers applied today for the most part are deficient applied. What I mean is farmers apply phosphorus at rates less than they should to maintain yields. When I first started working 16 years ago, farmers broadcast applied phosphourus on every acre they farmed. Not the case today. Most fields i work with are variable rate applied when it comes to phosphourus, and most fields do not call for any at all. Row starter is used on corn, but most commonly only about 35-40 lbs per acre of phosphourus are applied to the entire crop.
Now if you want me to ruffle feathers...how many of you guys live in the burbs or city and put fertilizer on your yards or pay someone to do it once twice or more times a year? I won't go thru the numbers but lets just say that on a per acre basis, homeowners put WAY more fertilizer(especially phosphourus) ;on their yards than a farmer does on his fields. Now when you have weather events like we have had lately what stands in the way of the storm sewer and the lake? Not miles upon miles of farmground, filter strips, and creeks. Water coming from farm country is filtered a lot before it hits the maumee or detroit river. Because of the sheer volume of acres that drain to these two rivers though, farmers will never be able to completely not be to blame. As I said earlier management practices are in place, and we are all looking for new practices to employ, with the goal of reducing our portion of the problem. We all want to be as efficient as possible while still making decisions that make economic sense as well.
I apologize if anyone is upset, and I will get off the soapbox now. good luck to all fishing and be safe everyone