Quote Originally Posted by pappyon View Post
We made it to fenwicks at 6 am. I knew things were bad when we were not the only boat at the launch..but the only truck with an empty trailer there. We went out in the fog...NE. Stopped at crib..nothing. Casted and caught a few white bass...and a sheephead. Went to trolling. Nothing. The water was clear. I have seen it a lot worse and caught fish. But we could see our lure go down 3 feet or so easily. We casted again. Trying everything. Had 7 charters in a pack. We fished all around and funally had one on. Got him to the boat and he got off. But the dead eyes....my god. You can bet the bottom of the lake is covered with 100,000s of thousands....if not millions of fish. The western end is dead. I hope it can come back. We need to push the DNR to restock. We pay the license fees....they need to return some back to us and restock the lake. I think we will end up east next week. I am afraid a few years down the road this fish kill is going to kill the fishing. No reproduction one year is a huge loss. Been fishing this lake since 83. Have never seen it like this this time of the year.
Same old stuff. Bad fishing must mean the sky is falling and the lake is dead. Here is an update from the Ohio Sea Grant. Please educate yourself before screaming that the sky is falling.



The following update was received today from Roger Knight, Lake Erie Fisheries Program Administrator, ODNR, Division of Wildlife:

Update…
· The kill appears to be in the 1,000s of fish based on public reports and DNR field inspections (boat, aircraft).

· The kill was primarily found from Davis Besse to the islands, suggesting it involved reef-spawning walleyes.

· With a population of over 20 million fish, a few thousand deaths will not have a population impact

· While it is an unusually high mortality event, it happened in the face of unusual spring weather during the spawning period when some fish die each year

· We are on the backside of it … dying fish are not showing up in unusual numbers any longer

· We are testing fish to see if a pathogen (like VHS) was involved, but we suspect that isn’t the case and fish viruses are not transmittable to humans

· The poor fishing in the Western Basin right now is not related to the kill; anglers are marking fish on sonar and healthy fish are being caught.


In short, the issues appear to be more aesthetic than biological from a fish population standpoint. We will continue to monitor the situation and believe that the worst is behind us. Weather is affecting the fishery more than any other factor right now and we expect to see improvements in both over the ensuing weeks.


Roger L. Knight

Lake Erie Fisheries Program Administrator

ODNR, Division of Wildlife

305 E. Shoreline Drive

Sandusky, OH 44870

419-625-8062

419-625-6272 fax


Dave Kelch, Ohio Sea Grant Extension Specialist, Ohio Sea Grant College Program




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