I agree with you on what you are saying, no big rain storms means no large amount of pollutans washing into the lake. Now we can hope the little guys can live into the fingerling stage and that is the hard part, but they grow fast and every day without a major storm is a blessing and adds to the chance for success.

Getting the eggs hatched is the easy part, getting the fry to the fingerling stage is the hard part. What I am trying to say is the survival of the fry is what determines success or failure. That is why the state quit stocking eyes in Erie.

Stated to me by an ODNR staff member:

"If the conditions are not conductive for wild fry to survive then those same conditions are not conductive for the survival of hatchery raised fry. Lake erie being such a large body of water is impacted by storms and runoff from a much larger and more diverse area with combinations of different pollutants than a smaller inland lake would be"