Lake Erie walleye forecast from the south side.

[OhioFisherman]

http://www.cleveland19.com/story/38259526/northeast-ohio-fishing-walleye-are-practically-jumping-into-boats-on-lake-erie-in-these-spots

Hope that is the same for you on the north side!

[AKRISONER]

stuff like this just really proves to me that all of the work that the ministries have done to tighten regs after our history in the 1900's of decimating fish populations is finally coming into fruition.

Seriously, it seems like every year the fishing is actually getting easier and the catches are getting bigger. Records are being broken, and guys are having some real success fishing again.

Hell, Ohio, youve told me what fishing was like in PAB back in the day...then things really took a sharp decline after the commercial fishing and loose regs...they cranked the regs right down on almost everything and sure enough the fishery has come full circle and guys are catching piles of fish and loads of big ones too. Its a win win for us all, we can still eat a few, but also catch and put a lot more back.

Edited May 24, 2018 by AKRISONER

[BillM]

Back in the day there was no such thing as catch and release.  My oldman is a perfect example of that.  Meat hunter like most old boys are, lol.  Times have changed.  

[OhioFisherman]

8 minutes ago, BillM said:

Back in the day there was no such thing as catch and release.  My oldman is a perfect example of that.  Meat hunter like most old boys are, lol.  Times have changed.  

Ditto, my dad was a great depression era kid, catching and keeping fish was almost like free food, I don't think it ever left him. Never experiencing a real life food shortage personally sort of made it hard for me to understand the need to keep every legal fish you caught.

LOL, I think dad cringed every time I threw a fish back in!

[OhioFisherman]

26 minutes ago, AKRISONER said:

stuff like this just really proves to me that all of the work that the ministries have done to tighten regs after our history in the 1900's of decimating fish populations is finally coming into fruition.

Seriously, it seems like every year the fishing is actually getting easier and the catches are getting bigger. Records are being broken, and guys are having some real success fishing again.

Hell, Ohio, youve told me what fishing was like in PAB back in the day...then things really took a sharp decline after the commercial fishing and loose regs...they cranked the regs right down on almost everything and sure enough the fishery has come full circle and guys are catching piles of fish and loads of big ones too. Its a win win for us all, we can still eat a few, but also catch and put a lot more back.

Yep Akri, changes, when we first started going there one of the first sights we saw was a big commercial netter tied up to the dock by Kennedy's, it seemed like that was his base, it was there every year. Knowing the area and the primary spawning area it wasn't hard for them to decimate or severely impact a walleye population?

In later years when you didn't see a commercial boat tied up there walleye fishing was much better. A lot of reasons though? I do credit things like bassmasters and raising public awareness to catch and release, improved water quality and such though too.

I have watched some local area fishing videos from our Lake Erie shoreline, they seem to be catching smallies, largemouth, and walleye in places were sheephead were the catch of the day in my youth!

[dave524]

Been fishing Lake Erie since the late 50's and my dad before that , most of the recovery of Erie is about water quality IMHO, it is far better than the late 60's. Bass fishing this side there is a lot of catch and release but the boats trolling for Pickerel is pretty much a catch and keep crowd, same with the Perchers.

Edit: The good old days are the past twenty years, fishing on Erie has never been better than anyone currently living can remember

Edited May 25, 2018 by dave524

[AKRISONER]

I think in PAB water levels have also provided a huge improvement in the ability for fish to spawn and thrive. 

In fact it kind of created the perfect storm...we had close to 20 years of low water, where the forest began to reclaim the shoreline...and then the water rebounded extremely fast and now weve got forest sitting in the first 3 feet of the water line...if that isnt providing insane cover for every fish that likes shallow water to spawn in then i do not know what to say.

If you go up shallow looking for pans in the spring they are 20 feet back of the tree line hidden up in the trees. good luck catching em lol.

[Mister G]

A LOT of complex reasons for the much better walleye and perch fishing on Erie, but catch and release is NOT one of them.

On the south shore there are no more commercial GILL netters and that has help a LOT. They were all bought out years ago. Too bad the north side can't do the same.

Environmental factors play a huge factor in fish populations including weather for spawning.

Just remember that it is never as good as they say it's going to be and never as bad as they say it's going to get.

 

[OhioFisherman]

3 hours ago, Mister G said:

A LOT of complex reasons for the much better walleye and perch fishing on Erie, but catch and release is NOT one of them.

On the south shore there are no more commercial GILL netters and that has help a LOT. They were all bought out years ago. Too bad the north side can't do the same.

Environmental factors play a huge factor in fish populations including weather for spawning.

Just remember that it is never as good as they say it's going to be and never as bad as they say it's going to get.

 

I am 67 and never saw a Walleye caught outside of the 2 known river spring spawning areas until they banned the commercial fishing for them, not even a small one. I can still remember the battles over that move, we're not taking enough walleye to hurt the population! LOL, and a few years after the ban they were all over the place.

 Yes environmental issues were a very big issue here, Lake Erie was a mess, that lakefront property you could buy for a song back in the 60's and early 70's has become prime property again.

[BillM]

On 5/24/2018 at 1:44 PM, OhioFisherman said:

Ditto, my dad was a great depression era kid, catching and keeping fish was almost like free food, I don't think it ever left him. Never experiencing a real life food shortage personally sort of made it hard for me to understand the need to keep every legal fish you caught.

LOL, I think dad cringed every time I threw a fish back in!

My oldman still does!!   LOL!!!