10-fish limit of Erie yellow perch begins May 1
A formula devised about a decade ago has triggered what some veteran Lake Erie anglers might deem unthinkable: a 10-fish daily limit of yellow perch.
The limit will begin May 1 in the Ohio waters of Lake Erie from Huron to east of Cleveland at Fairport Harbor, in an area known as the central basin. The previous limit on yellow perch, which has been in force for a number of years, was 30.
“We get the value of the fishery,” said Scott Hale, executive administrator of fish management and research for the Ohio Division of Wildlife. “We know this will impact a lot of people.”
A 30-fish limit will remain intact from Huron westward, an area known as the western basin where perch are doing well in the relatively shallow, reef-strewn water. A 30-fish perch limit also will remain in the waters east of Fairport Harbor.
The decision on Lake Erie limits for yellow perch and walleye isn’t an issue division bosses have to wrangle over.
The limits are, in fact, unavoidable. They were written in 2009 as a table and inserted into the Ohio Administrative Code, in part to allow quick action resulting from booms and busts in the fishery and also to bring the best available science to bear without the influence of political and public pressure.
The mechanism for how it’s supposed to work is written in the code:
“In accordance with interagency fisheries quota management on Lake Erie, this rule establishes annual walleye, sauger, saugeye and yellow perch daily bag limits in the Lake Erie sport fishing district that will prevent sport harvest in excess of the Ohio quota allocations for these fish species.”
Each jurisdiction’s quota, known as the total allowable catch (TAC), is established annually in March by fishery management professionals from Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York and the Canadian province of Ontario. As the TAC settles into predetermined slots, Ohio’s tables provide a number for recreational fishing limits.
Based on modeling and evidence related to years of poor hatches, the fishery biologists saw a need to reduce the TAC by 70 percent in the management unit from Huron to Fairport Harbor. That cut to 615,000 pounds produces a 10-fish limit on the table.
The limit comes as neither a jolt nor a surprise to at least one person whose livelihood is linked to Lake Erie fishing.
“If this would’ve happened a few years ago, it would have been a shock,” said George Garwell, longtime operator of George’s Bait & Carryout in Lorain. “But the truth is, not many of my customers have been catching 30-fish limits of (yellow) perch for some years now.”
Walleye numbers are at high levels, and most anglers seem to be content with that, Garwell said, although he’s sorry to no longer see the seasonal clients from all over Ohio who used to check in for the fall perch bite.
Commercial netters also will be taking a hit, said Travis Hartman, administrator of the wildlife division’s Lake Erie fish management program.
“We generally allocate 65 percent of our perch quota to sport anglers and 35 percent to the trap net fishermen,” he said. That formula remains unchanged.
The commercial take has been shrinking along with the Ohio TAC, Hale said, falling from 1.5 million pounds a few years ago to 1.1 million pounds a year ago. Under the coming restrictions, netters’ take lakewide will be limited to 854,000 pounds.
A future boom in perch numbers isn’t out of the question, Hale and Hartman said, though neither was making predictions. The reasons for the central basin perch dearth remain a mystery.
outdoors@dispatch.com