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While anglers enjoyed almost an eight-fold increase in walleye catches
on Lake Erie last year, few young of the year walleyes or perch showed
up in fall surveys, indicating slim pickings in future seasons.
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"We don't know why, but it wasn't a good year for either walleye or perch hatches," Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission biologist Roger Kenyon said. "The showing of young of the year for both those species was not good at all."
The paltry numbers indicate anglers may be in store for poor catch rates in three and four years, and a possible tightening of creel limits two years from now.
"If we think it's severe enough, we could try to preempt the decline with new restrictions," Kenyon said. "We've implemented some severe restrictions in the past and the walleye seem to respond."
In 2000, the Fish and Boat Commission modified size and creel limits to protect populations of walleyes and perch -- the lake's two most popular species -- and then relaxed restrictions in anticipation of last year's walleye bonanza.
In dock side surveys last summer, anglers reported catching a total of about 148,000 walleyes -- a whopping increase of 128,000 fish from 2005 -- and they kept 91 percent of the walleyes they caught, compared with just 32 percent harvested in 2005.
"We knew big numbers were coming, but we didn't expect it to be that high," Kenyon said.
Perch catches were down, although Kenyon surmised that it was more a reflection of the walleye fishing. "Anglers abandoned their beloved perch for the mighty walleye," he said.
Last year, 300,000 Erie perch were caught, compared with 360,000 in 2005. But since the size restriction was removed last year, the harvest was higher than in 2005. Anglers in 2006 kept 75 percent of their catch, compared with 66 percent in 2005. The impetus for lifting the size minimum was to salvage small fish that typically die when caught anyway, and to counter high harvests during ice angling in Presque Isle Bay.
Despite last year's heavy pressure on walleyes, Kenyon said he is "comfortable for now with the current regulations and the fishery wasn't cleaned out."
"There will be fewer walleye this year, but anglers will still be getting age fours and older -- which are 20-inch fish -- and it should be another good year," he added. "The 2003 year class was a big one. It will dominate the fishery and the meat hunters will like that."
Last fall's young of the year surveys with trawling nets were conducted by Canada and Ohio and focused on Lake Erie's western basin. Scientists haven't yet figured out why numbers were so low.
"Outside of weather and current, it could be anything," Kenyon said. "Walleye are real peculiar about spawning conditions. Their metabolism is sensitive to change. Fluctuating conditions -- a big slug of cold water from the eastern basin, say -- can slow embryo development or, if they're actively spawning, drive them from the beds, and they'll either return intermittently or not at all."
If a cold snap occurs after the spawn, fry can be deprived of zooplankton and starve too death, or, if they get caught up in a current reversal out of the eastern basin, they or their food source could get washed away, Kenyon said.
Although Lake Erie suffered a period of bitter temperatures in May, just after walleye season opened, Kenyon said it might not have been the culprit, adding, "We have no information that gives us any confidence in understanding why last fall's numbers were so poor."
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