Is there a PM walleye bite in April?

[wakina]

If it is legal for you to keep the fish that you catch be it a male or a female and you want to keep it by all means do so!! A female walleye is just as much a female walleye in July as it is in April or in November.

For those of you that want to change or challenge the Regulations for spring spawning season or tell others what gender fish they should keep or release here are some numbers for you to think about!

After the 2003 year class of walleyes became old enough to contribute to the spawning population of adult walleyes, there were approximatley 30 million adult walleyes available to spawn, now if only 1/3 of those were females that would be 10 million female walleyes available to spawn. If each female walleye only layed 150,000 eggs that would be 1,500,000,000,000 eggs layed and with a hatch rate of only 1% that would be 15,000,000,000 larval walleyes hatched and at a survival rate of only 1% living to their first year that would mean that there would be a minimun of 150 million 3 to 6 inch walleyes left to keep the population stable. So what happened to all the little walleyes? So how does changing the regulations or releasing a legally caught female walleye change for the better or increase the survival of the little eyes that are hatched. Please explain!
I left the numbers of females and the amount of eggs that each female would lay on the conservative side. If the population was evenly split between boys and girls there would be an additional 75 million little eyes left at the end of the first year. Here are some more numbers to contemplate!

Walleye produce 20 to 25,000 eggs per pound. 3-10 year olds producing 53,000-426,000 eggs. Ohio Seagrant often states that 250,000 eggs as the average.
10-50 percent of the eggs hatch.
25-50 percent of the hatching fry survive.
10 percent of the hatch live to be three year olds.
If 30 percent hatch and 25 percent live it would take 640 females to produce 12 million fry. OR 3,000 to produce the 56 million.
A more conservative estimate of 10 percent hatch and 10 percent of the hatch living to three years old requires 5,000 females for 12 million and 23,000 for 56 million.
(By TOMB)

The problem is not, and has not been the lack of adult spawing walleyes but the problem is and has been the survival rate of the larval walleyes and fry into their second year.

[LmitingOut]

whats the point to keep the real big ones anyways they taste like poop

[jiginitis69]

We throw the big ones back, but I live in Toledo and it only takes us 20 minutes to go fishing. The locals here only want the 18-22 inch eyes for dinner

[wakina]

whats the point to keep the real big ones anyways they taste like poop

Everyone should keep what ever they like as long as it is legal! Just because someone does not believe in keeping a fish of one gender or the other, one size or another for whatever their personal reasons or feelings may be, does not mean that everyone should have to follow what that persons personal preferences are! Lets quit clouding the issue with all sorts of reasons why it is wrong to keep the larger legal fish. Fact is if a person wants to follow their personal conservation principles that are more restrictive than what the state game law allows then by all means they should follow those princples, and no one should condemn them for it, but just like everything else in life they should not try to force those principles on anyone else. The same should apply to those who chose to keep their legal limit of walleyes no matter what gender they are, it is their legal right to do so, and they should be able to do so without others telling them it is wrong. The people that hurt the population the most are those who have no principles at all as far as game laws are concerned, the ones who make two, three or four trips in one day taking several bag limits of fish or those who exchange(throw back) a smaller dead walleye from their limit(cooler) to make room for a larger freshly caught one.

[LmitingOut]

Everyone should keep what ever they like as long as it is legal! Just because someone does not believe in keeping a fish of one gender or the other, one size or another for whatever their personal reasons or feelings may be, does not mean that everyone should have to follow what that persons personal preferences are! Lets quit clouding the issue with all sorts of reasons why it is wrong to keep the larger legal fish. Fact is if a person wants to follow their personal conservation principles that are more restrictive than what the state game law allows then by all means they should follow those princples, and no one should condemn them for it, but just like everything else in life they should not try to force those principles on anyone else. The same should apply to those who chose to keep their legal limit of walleyes no matter what gender they are, it is their legal right to do so, and they should be able to do so without others telling them it is wrong. The people that hurt the population the most are those who have no principles at all as far as game laws are concerned, the ones who make two, three or four trips in one day taking several bag limits of fish or those who exchange(throw back) a smaller dead walleye from their limit(cooler) to make room for a larger freshly caught one.

these are our opinions, nobody is telling anybody what to do, if your keeping fish your keeping them to eat, to me i rather eat a 3-4 pounder instead of a
6+

do you have the stats on mercury poisning this year??

hopefully the hatch is good this year cause it hasnt been good for a while

if you want mercury poisning go for it dude

[wakina]

these are our opinions, nobody is telling anybody what to do, if your keeping fish your keeping them to eat, to me i rather eat a 3-4 pounder instead of a
6+

do you have the stats on mercury poisning this year??

hopefully the hatch is good this year cause it hasnt been good for a while

if you want mercury poisning go for it dude

I agree that we need a good hatch this year but as it turned out last years was not that bad, as it was near avg. so maybe the stars will align for us this year and there will be a good hatch.

I don't remember ever saying nor writing about what size fish that I keep personally. I think that you have failed to read my post completely and that you have just assumed that I eat those large walleyes. You know absolutley nothing about what I may or may not be keeping. I have never advocated keeping or releasing those larger fish, but I did advocate keeping them or releasing them as an individuals personal preference/choice.
If you can point out where I have said/wrote that I kept/consumed those larger walleyes I would be most greatful to you. Why didn't you post the warning about the Mercury poisioning in your original post? The one that got under your skin when I replied and stirred this whole thing up. Instead you stated that they tasted like poop. The fact is that you asked a question in the first half of your post and that does not make it an opinion, it makes it a question, the 2nd half of your post was an opinion/statement, and the whole thing was in a one sentence post. I tried to get the point accross that you should do what you want to do and every one else should do what they want to do as long as it is legal. So Dude I answered the half of your sentence that was the question portion but did not comment on the opinion/statement portion of you post because I do not know what poop tastes like, so I am taking you at your word that you know what you are talking about as it would pertain to the taste of poop.

[peleebound]

Wakina, I agree with you. The thing that hurts fishing populations more are anglers who don't abide by the regulations. The walleye population must be pretty good for an amateur like myself to go out and have the season like I did last year. My first time jig fishing and I hauled in my fair share of limits. Then transitioned to trolling and cleaned up there as well. If a shmuck like me can go out and do pretty good then I have to think that the walleye are doing just fine. Hopefully, there are more law abiding guys and gals out there than those who take more than their share.

[bdrieck]

I know everyone is sick of the the topic of releasing/keeping the larger fish but I wanted to share my own experience or opinion. I would find it hard to believe that there is anyone on this thread that would say that larger fish taste better. if there is then you really like the "fishy" tasting fish. which I can attest some people do like. However I'm not one of those people. I would hope that EVERYONE would follow the legal guidelines for size and limits. that isn't the issue. The issue is that every time I go out to Erie in the spring I hear guys either at the cleaning station or talking over a cold one at wild wings about better days gone by as far as the average size of fish caught out there. This of course is at the exact same time they are cleaning a nice 6-8 pound female full of eggs. tagged along with some new friends last year and they may us keep everything. I'm still trying to choke down the fishy table fare. On the flip side, I agree that sometimes it is very hard to catch your limit of nice eaters but Who put the stigma around catching your limit? that seems to be the only thing that matters. If I caught 8 fish in the day (hopefully will be more) and only caught 3 under 20" what is wrong with keeping three fish? I will never go hungry. I like to catch fish and would love more chances at landing a 10+ lber. I do realize that there needs to be population control for the benefit of the fishery as well. I just have to put my faith in the DNR/fisheries to know what they are doing. having grown up in Minnesota I was very surprised to see that there is no slot limit to the walleye. I realize that this body of water is different from most if not all lakes in N. America and there may be no problems. anyway, sorry to put you all through this. I'm not taking sides here just can't believe how some people complain about things while doing the exact thing that causes it. Kinda like sticking your tongue to the frozen flag pole and bitching about why it sticks.

[Go-Time]

Either start your own thread or stay with the topic at hand.....P.M. fishing can be awsome !!!

[wakina]

Either start your own thread or stay with the topic at hand.....P.M. fishing can be awsome !!!

Agreed, I did get off topic and yes the PM bite can be great.

For safteys sake, It should be noted that it can be very lonely out there after dark with no or very few other boats close to you, the water will be very cold and anytype of boat flotation problems can become life threatening in a hurry. Cell phone use is patchy at best particuarly on the outer reefs so it is best to have a backup battery for your VHF radio and motor. In the spring there is always alot of junk floating around out there that can damage your boat such as trees/logs, plywood/timbers, utility poles. So do your home work before you venture out at night and have an alternate plan incase of trouble so you can return safely. We want to read your fishing report when you return and not a news report about when they found you.