No increase expected in walleye, yellow perch limits

Despite stellar growth reports for a few years running, recreational anglers banking on Lake Erie’s walleye and yellow perch production won’t see any alteration in the bottom line this year.

The bottom line, as far as fishermen are concerned, is the daily catch limit set by the Ohio Division of Wildlife.

“Same as 2017,” said Travis Hartman, the division’s Lake Erie fish management program administrator. That’s “30 fish per day in all Ohio waters for yellow perch, and six fish per day for walleye from May 1 through the end of February.”

To be clear, the daily walleye limit on Lake Erie and its tributaries drops to four during the spawning season, March 1 through April 30. Also, the division maintains guidelines that trigger increases or decreases in the daily catch limit dependent on the current estimated population of walleye and yellow perch lakewide.

So while Lake Erie walleye fishing, for instance, should be as good or better than it’s been for years based on catchable numbers, those numbers still don’t equate to a higher catch limit for each fisherman. That said, the likelihood of catching a daily limit should be greater in 2018.

All of this relates to a meeting of the Lake Erie Committee held annually in late March among fishery managers, including Hartman, from Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Michigan and New York during which a determination is made about how many walleye and yellow perch can be taken from Lake Erie without undue damage to the population.

Based on population models derived from fish sampling done the previous year, the so-designated Total Allowable Catch is divvied up among the four states and one Canadian province that include a section of Lake Erie An osprey flies away with a fish in its talons while a fisherman tries his luck with a rod and reel on Tuesday at Junction City Pond north of Eugene, Ore. Ospreys winter in Mexico, returning each spring to Oregon, where they feed on fish and raise their young. within their boundaries. Ontario and Ohio have jurisdiction over more of Lake Erie than Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York, and so get the biggest portion of the TAC.

The TAC for 2018 diced out at 10.498 million pounds of yellow perch and 7.109 million walleyes. The increase in perch poundage from a year ago isn’t much. Last year’s yellow perch TAC was 10.375 million pounds, although that was a 13 percent jump from the 2016 TAC of 9.208 million pounds.

Ontario, which has a busy commercial fleet and a negligible recreational catch, was allotted the most yellow perch in 2018 at 4.945 million pounds. Ohio, which shares its allocation between commercial netters and recreational anglers, will get 4.509 million pounds, followed by Pennsylvania with 0.628 million pounds, Michigan with 0.276 million pounds and New York with 0.141 million pounds.

The 2018 walleye TAC, meanwhile, reflects significant growth in the lake’s walleye population based on recent strong hatches and survival of young fish. In fact, this year’s TAC represents a 20 percent increase, the maximum allowed under Lake Erie Committee guidelines, over the 2017 TAC of 5.924 million fish.

As a further sign of where the Lake Erie walleye population has been heading, last year’s TAC reflected a maximum 20 percent increase over the 2016 TAC of 4.937 million fish.

Ohio, which does not permit the commercial catching of walleye, gets the biggest allocation in 2018 at 3.634 million fish, though it’s likely recreational anglers will take only a portion of that allocation.

Ontario, which allows commercial netting of walleye, gets 3.061 million walleye. Commercial netting almost guarantees Ontario will take its full allocation of walleye, or pickerel, as they are called in Canada. Michigan’s allocation is 0.414 million walleye. Neither Pennsylvania nor New York is included in the walleye TAC.

Based on growth rates, fishermen in Ohio waters should have a fairly easy time catching a limit of walleyes at least 15 inches in length, the minimum for keeping. Yellow perch fishing was good a year ago in the western, shallow portion of the lake, but perch catches in deeper waters east of Huron-Vermilion were not encouraging for anglers accustomed to filling coolers with jumbo perch, particularly during late summer and autumn.