Saginaw Bays walleye future looks bright. So Far anyways.

[Walleye Express]

Wrote and then answered my DNR regional biologest bud about the September Trawl results on the Bay.

Dan:

We are still analyzing this years Saginaw Bay survey catch so results are preliminary. The trawl catch rate of young-of-the-year walleye this year (2007 year class) was the fourth highest on record (meaning in our trawl survey series since 1970). We are naturally pleased with this, remember too that 2007 was another nonstocked year. You will recall that the 2006 trawl catch rate of YOY was much lower but this year it quickly rebounded. Remember, however, that abundant YOY doesn't necessarily equate to a strong year class as they still have to survive their first winter, but generally walleyes have not been having trouble with that (although perch have been). Growth rates of age-3 walleyes (our main indicator age group) has remained lower but remember too that this is a result of increase abundance of walleye (more competition) and is generally a good sign as it means the walleye population is growing. Even with the reduction in growth rate, they are still at about 110% of the state average rate which is just about exactly where we want them. On the whole, things continue to look fantastic for walleyes in Saginaw Bay, but we still have problems with yellow perch and there are still threats to walleyes in the form of VHS which we still don't know the full or future impact of. We still do not consider the walleye population fully recovered in the bay, we have specific criteria for that, and they have not been met yet, although clearly we are much much closer than we were just 4 years ago. I'll have more specific findings and conclusions about the 2007 survey as our analysis progresses here in the months to come. Feel free to check back with me on that. I am also curious to see the fishery (creel survey) results from 2007 for the bay but those aren't released until mid March.

Dave.

What you'll see in my average survey reports for the 2007 season are 2 things. Just a tad fewer in the boat this summer, but more in the box. And probably more of both from many of the other charter boats, as a few of the guys were on fish well removed from where I spent most of my time. Most of the fish and better catches this year seemed to be in deeper water for the most part, versus my hot spots in 14 to 17 FOW like last summer. What this means is probably better figured out by guys like you. Anyway, thank you very much for making me feel better about paying next years Marina Slip Rental early.

[Priority1]

Sounds encouraging. I fished more for walleye this year than ever before. Most every time out I had some rookies onboard. It wasn't difficult to get them to go again, because of the great fishery. Even my 4 yo grandson yells "inside or outside board", when we hook a fish. Gotta Luv the Sag Bay. Gotta Luv seeing a kid catch his or her first walleye.