Michigan Waters

[fishhead315]

you think you know . Once again DNR has stated over and over that the 28 inch and bigger (older females) have done their job of helping the population . The older they are the less fertile their eggs are with lower hatch rates . The 20-25 inch fish are the prime spawners so keep taking those out of the system and see what happens .
At my age . I have seen Erie at her best and worst through the days . Erie is far far from being fished out like some people believe . Mother nature has more control then any of us fishermen or DNR has . She controls the spawn weather good or bad .


Dale

[half pole]

I think them big 30 inchers taste pretty good myself

[fishhead315]

Half Pole . Never met an Erie eye I didn't like .

Dale

[Yonder]

Yep your right, don't preserve the fishery kill them all now and be sorry later!

[fishhead315]

Your right. Keep releasing those 30 inchers and eat all the prime spawnners and you will do just that. And just think, you thought you had all the answers.

Dale

[wakina]

This site was and is a site to talk fishing and to make it easier for those having trouble or those inexperienced with what it takes to harvest lake Erie walleyes. It was never intended to be the place to condemn, criticize and call names, those who abide by the regulations and laws as written and enforced by the ODNR just because their views and opinions are different than yours. You did write the following quote didn't you?

Quote "I'm guessing your one of the idiots, the point is fishing is advancing an today's fisherman can target big females weather it be spring or ice season, so the statements that you can't hurt the lake by hook an lining walleyes, that you can only hurt them with nets, was true 20 years ago but now a days with sonar and flashers and better boats,all the new equipment a guy can go out there and catch a 60 pound bag of fish." Unquote

You did say or have indicated that it is every ones right to keep what they want as long as they are within the regulations. If you honestly feel that way then your beef is not with the law abiding sportsmen nor is it with the other law abiding members of this forum who keep those legally caught big fish, so please quit trying to make them feel bad or guilty, but instead your beef is with the ODNR as they are the ones who set and enforce the regulations governing what can or cannot be kept. There are 3 types of fishermen and women on this site, those who will keep those big females and those who will not and those who keep no fish but catch and release only. The only way that you will be able to stop people who keep those fish is to petition the ODNR to make it illegal to include them in ones daily creel limit! You will never be able to change anyone's mind or behavior by posting those concerns on this or any other fishing reports site. I would also like to point out that within the last 10 days you have personally posted in a thread started by you asking for help to located the best areas to catch a combo of both perch and walleyes! Don't you think that is kind of contradicting what you have posted in this thread about 60lb limits for walleyes with all of the electronic gizmos you have available at your disposal today versus 20 years ago? If what you stated in this thread about the electronic gizmos is true then you should not have to ask for help finding the more plentiful smaller fish.

The culinary value of a large sized fish versus a smaller sized fish of the same species would be the individual preferences of each person. Just as it would be from one species of fish to another. I have had just as many small walleyes taste skunky as I have 8lb or larger walleyes. It is what it is and they are what they are. Just as you would cut and cook a roast differently than you would cut and cook a steak, the same applies to the bigger fish versus the smaller fish it makes a world of difference in the taste of the fish big or small.

Something to think about!

Once the 2003 hatch became mature adults there were roughly 35,000,000 adult breeders in lake Erie! Now assuming that only half of those adults were females of breeding age that would be roughly 17,500,000 mature females. The average number of eggs laid by a mature female is roughly 250,000. Please read the last post in this thread in the provided link as it is my source for the average number of eggs laid per mature female.
http://ohioseagrant.osu.edu/discuss/...ic,1075.0.html
So with 17,500,000 females laying an average of 250,000 eggs each that would be a total of 4,375,000,000,000. That is (four trillion three hundred seventy five billion) eggs laid. If only 1% hatched, that would be 43,750,000,000 fry and if only 1% of those fry lived to maturity that would be 437,500,000 (four hundred thirty seven million five hundred thousand) walleyes that would have survived into adulthood. So since those numbers have not or were not ever realized there has to be more involved than the few thousand females taken just before, during spawn or any other time of the year for that matter. As the numbers indicate those thousands females would have a very minor roll in the total overall egg production.

Some more good reading based on 2003!
http://ohioseagrant.osu.edu/discuss/...n.html#msg1644
One more link!
http://www.epa.gov/med/grosseile_sit...s/walleye.html

[Hiddenlake]

Today 07:47 PMHiddenlake
Them 30" walleye are also great smoked. Honey glazed!!!
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