Is there a PM walleye bite in April?

[eyecrazy]

I was wondering is there a PM walleye bite in April? We should arrive April 7 Around 5:30-6:00 PM on thur, if weather permits. Just wondering if bite is stiill on then.
Thanks alot for any info fellas

[jiginitis69]

Never done it. The morning bite is soo good. And they bite all day. Never had to fish at night in April. Sorry

[Gettin Jiggy]

The femails move onto the reefs after dark. I have talked to some guys who have done really good late at night. However I have only trolled at night around vermillion, not jig fished the reefs.

[Walidave]

Fishing late at night can be cause for problems, along with risk also come reward. Use large suspending jerk baits, on top or reefs for huge females!! just remember catch and relaese giant females for the sake of our fisheries eat the males!!!!
Fast Action Dave

[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.

[eyecrazy]

Sorry fellas what I meant to ask is there a afternoon jig bite 4:00PM to dark.

[wayne johnson]

yes evening fishing is great to dark leave before it gets to dark so you get to marina safety, the fish move into 3 to 4 ft. of water right off the beaches, either maumee bay or the reefs,
we fish all the time after work and limits are comom, same fishing jigs and minnows.