trawl results

[LEfriend]

In my discussions I have not been hearing quite so optimistic numbers for walleye as the other posters, and hearing perhaps better numbers for perch. I have had one on ones with a couple of the lake erie fisheries people and they told me pretty much what Sea Grant agent Tony Gabriel says below in his recent post on their discussion board. That's not the first time I have heard the ice cover theory link. Coming off one of the warmest summers on record, wonder what this winter will bring? Still early, but here is what is posted on Sea Grant as of now:


http://ohioseagrant.osu.edu/discuss/...ic,1489.0.html

"We're still waiting on the basin wide estimates as well. Ontario is still completing their surveys. Ohio's August bottom trawls are only a portion, but those results were below average at two young of year walleyes per hectare. That's similar to the numbers seen in 2008, 2009, and 2011. For comparison, average is ~9 fish per hectare. An average hatch will usually contribute 10 million or so age-2 fish to the population, whereas the 2008 and 2009 hatches contributed between three and four million age-2 fish each.

So, not great news as of now although it could be worse. There's some data that long, cold winters with lots of ice cover can be a factor in a good hatch the following spring, and we had none of that this past winter. Folks were hopeful that the relatively calm spring would give them a boost, but apparently that wasn't enough to offset the many other variables that come in to play here.

I'll be interested to see how it all shakes out once the data comes in from the Ontario side."