New Limits for lake erie

[Line Dancin]

Over the weekend i heard a rumor of new limits on lake erie for michigan waters. Possibly as low as two fish per person per day. So i called and talked to a fisheries Biologist in lansing today. What i was told is michigan is going to a new quota system like ohio and canada and joining a council to protect the declining walleye population. The way it works is based on the amount of real estate involved with a table the council as come up with. Of course michigan has so little water in our area we are at the bottom of the numbers. So this equates to the limit being changd by all three involved in the council every year. Ohio will typically be able to take more fish due to owning more of lake erie. It is based on numbers caught the previos year and this table that will set the limit for the next season. He also said with the decline in walleye popultion that the 5 fish per day will be decreased just not sure what it will be till the numbers come in. I was told to watch for news briefs before season opens as the fish regulations are prited in feburary, and the numbers dont come in till the end of march and limits set the beginning in early april. My question then was how much of a reduction in the creel limit and was told he wasn't sure till the numbers come in, it could be 5 but probably 4 and no less than 2. the minimum creel will be two fish per day per person. I askd about stocking and he said that lake erie is an all reprodution fishery and no plans on doing any stocking. That the fishery runs in cycles and it could turn around agian hopefully in the next few years but we will see reduced creel limits till it does turn around.

[JWheeler]

Interesting indeed. I wonder with all of Sag. Bay's walleye spilling out into lake huron if they will follow suit with some sort of a lessor limit of fish as well. If you keep your eye on this issue, please update this thread....thanks

[Line Dancin]

From talking with the biologist it "sounds like it is going to be juat lake erie" that is going to have these special regulations. But we all know how the state works. Nice thing is i get an ohio license and go into ohio water to fish and i can take their limit. He was also saying that if we are forced to reduce by one, canada and ohio have to also, which would still allow me 5 fish if i fish ohio waters and they reduce the creel to 4 fish for michigan. The problem with canada is the commercial netting, this does not in any way have aything to do with the netting going on in canada. As of now i am boycotting any fish that comes from the canadian industries. I may have to bring my boat up to linwood this year instead of lake erie. depending on what they do with the creel limits.

[Line Dancin]

There is a real good write up in outdoor news about how the walleye limits will works on erie. and it is only on erie from the article.

[Adam Bomb]

Wow...didnt realize Erie had that poor of numbers. My buddy lives down there and does well on Erie all summer long.

[Priority1]

Lake Erie has some hogs but there are some weak year classes. Back in the 80s Erie had mostly juvenile walleye and had a larger daily limit and I believe the legal size was 13 inches.

The Saginaw Bay in the 80s was Hog Heaven.

[Line Dancin]

Lake Erie has some hogs but there are some weak year classes. Back in the 80s Erie had mostly juvenile walleye and had a larger daily limit and I believe the legal size was 13 inches.

The Saginaw Bay in the 80s was Hog Heaven.

Very true. Hopefully they can regulate the fishery properly and keep it from getting any worse.

[tgafish]

Wow...didnt realize Erie had that poor of numbers. My buddy lives down there and does well on Erie all summer long.

If you follow the fish, limits of 5 in Mi or 6 in OH are still very obtainable. It's just not stupid fishing like it was the last 5 years. I was one of those guys that struggled this year because I stubbornly didn't want to burn gas to find the fish and fished where I thought there "should have been fish" instead of where they were.

With that said I think proactively working the numbers is a good idea. It will have a two fold effect. Numbers caught by fisherman will go down and less fisherman will be harvesting the resource because some will be less inclined to travel to catch 3 fish.