GPS trackers keep their eye on Lake Erie’s resident walleye
Lake Erie anglers enjoyed another great year of walleye fishing. From 2017 through 2019, Pennsylvania angler catch rates were three times the long-term average. New research is showing where some of those ’eyes are coming from.
The robust nature of the fishery is generally attributed to successful spawning among several consecutive year-classes in the lake’s shallow western basin between Toledo and Sandusky, Ohio. Mature fish travel in spring and summer throughout the lake following food and comfortable water temperatures. The migration takes many over the Ohio-Pennsylvania line, past Presque Isle and all the way to the deep, cool waters east of Long Point, Ontario.
The migration is welldocumented in Lake Erie’s west and central basin management areas, where telemetry studies have provided solid estimates about the lifestyles of resident walleye that don’t travel with the packs. Less is known about resident walleye in east basin waters.
Unlike their migrating cousins, resident walleye never stray far from their breeding grounds. Years ago, Ohio and New York wildlife agencies launched telemetry studies in which GPS units were implanted inside walleye to track their movements. Submerged receivers gather information and rise to the surface, where they are picked up and analyzed.
Pennsylvania’s walleye tracking program, funded by fishing groups, began last year. Many resident east basin walleye spawn off Dunkirk, N.Y., or near shore off Erie County.
In September project coordinator Mark Haffley, a biologist with the state Fish and Boat Commission, reported preliminary results to S.O.N.S. of Lake Erie, one of the project’s investor groups.
Of 41 walleye tagged at a spawning reef and by tributary mouths, Mr. Haffley focused on three resident fish in a report published in the S.O.N.S. September newsletter. The first fish tagged this year on April 23 was a 26-inch male.
“Once he left our spawning area [off Dunkirk], he staged out in front of Walnut [Creek] in 30-ish feet of water until June 2,” said Mr. Haffley. “Eight days later, he was picked up [by] the spawning shoal receiver. That is 56 miles in eight days. He was [later] picked up by the receiver off shore in the eastern basin.”
Another fish, tagged last year off Walnut Creek, spent most of the year in the eastern basin, returned to the receiver just off Walnut for spawning, and then went back to the eastern basin.
“On July 10 he was picked up on the eastern basin grid and then four days later he was caught in Presque Isle Bay between the parking lot for Perry’s Landing and the condos.”
The only female tagged last year showed up often on the receivers. She spent all summer in 30-foot waters off Walnut Creek. In the fall she came near shore on the east side.
“On Dec. 2, she made the run from the east basin grid back to Walnut, where she stayed until April 2,” Mr. Haffley said. “I assume she went near shore to the spawning shoal where she stayed until she returned to that deeper water on May 31. Even during the entire month of July and most of August, she was picked up on the shallowest receivers in the central basin grid off Walnut Creek.”
Mr. Haffley said the receivers, collected in midJune, documented 60,016 hits from tagged walleye. Five of the fish were caught by anglers. Results were still being analyzed, he said, and animations were being created to map out the resident walleyes’ previously unknown travel routes.
Steelhead access
One of the best-kept secrets in Pennsylvania steelhead trout fishing was made public this year when the state Fish and Boat Commission announced it had improved access and installed a parking lot for anglers on Crooked Creek in North Springfield, Erie County.
The stream may have been overlooked by many steelheaders because of the “no fishing” nursery waters near its mouth. Miles of brushy creekside and some “no trespassing” private properties compounded access issues.
But the stream is fishable at points as far south as Route 20. Perhaps the only gravel-bottom Erie tributary in the state, Crooked Creek holds a breeding population of lake-running rainbow trout. The new access area is near the bridge on Happy Valley Road.