I well remember when some fisheries biologists with the Ohio Division of Wildlife said it was the Lake Erie yellow perch anglers who were fishing in all the wrong places and at all the wrong depths. That the perch were now suspending, feeding on spiny water fleas. Anything and everything but admitting that perch stocks in the Central Basin were crashing.
Oops. How the tune has changed. Here's the official statement from the Wildlife Division on the seriousness of the decline of perch stocks from Huron to Fairport Harbor and what the agency intends to do about it, namely reduce the daily bag limit.
Just how a Lake Erie law enforcement officer will know that an angler caught 30 year perch from off the Perry Nuclear Power Plant and not off the fabled Hump slightly northwest of the Grand River is anyone's guess.
Anyway, here's the agency's official take on the subject:
A declining population of Lake Erie yellow perch in the central basin has prompted a reduction in the daily limit from 30 to 10 from Huron to Fairport Harbor beginning Saturday, May 1, 2021, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife.
Lake Erie walleye and yellow perch fisheries are managed through an interagency quota system. Each jurisdiction regulates its catches to comply with annually determined safe harvest levels that ensure sustainability. The most recent quotas were announced on Friday, March 26, 2021.
“Low yellow perch hatches in recent years have caused the daily limit to be reduced to 10 from Huron to Fairport Harbor,” said Division of Wildlife Chief Kendra Wecker. “Science-based management shows us that we have to act quickly to ensure that the yellow perch population has time to improve in select areas of the central basin.”
Low abundance from Huron to Fairport Harbor led to a very conservative quota for yellow perch fishing from May 1, 2021, to Feb. 28, 2022. Central basin yellow perch hatches have been well below average and strong year classes are needed to rebuild the population to prior abundances. The daily limit is 30 yellow perch until Friday, April 30, 2021.
Yellow perch abundance in the western basin provided limit opportunities seasonally in 2020 and remains strong in 2021. Ohio’s daily limits will remain at 30 in the western basin from Toledo to Huron and farther east from Fairport Harbor to Conneaut.
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
JFrischk4@gmail.com
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