Lake Erie's predator-prey fisheries relationship a duet of many mouths to feed

With Lake Erie’s top-end predator population having filled nearly all of its nooks and crannies the status of the supporting forage has never become more vital.

And the verdict from Ohio Division of Wildlife is “good.” Well, probably good, anyway, with some signs of stretch marks. These indicators appeared following the several recent arrivals of abundant hatches of walleye. So much so the lakewide population of walleye is pegged at 41 million fish, more than anywhere else on earth.

And in some places, particularly in the lake’s Western Basin, pretty respectable numbers of yellow perch exist as well.

Yet savvy anglers are beginning to notice some peculiarities, especially when it comes time to fillet the walleye they catch. Often the dissected walleye are being seen to have little in their stomachs though the pre-gutted fish do appear healthy overall.

Also, another key anecdotal point is while some walleye fishers report seeing images on their electronic fish finders of clouds of bait, these electronic snapshots suggest a greater than usual randomness to their frequency.

Among the puzzled anglers is Huntsburg Township (Geauga County) licensed charter captain Marv DeGreen. DeGreen operates his “Evil Eye” charters out of the Grand River.

On one recent outing DeGreen said he hadn’t viewed on his fish finder’s video screen much in the way of what one could call “clouds” of bait. However, the next day while trolling in 70 feet of water, DeGreen said his fish finder showed massively large images of rainbow smelt. His assurances that these underwater thunderheads were made up of smelt were bolstered by the walleye and steelhead his customers reeled in.

“The fish were regurgitating smelt when we brought them in with the net, and the cooler had a lot of smelt the fish had tossed up,” DeGreen said. “No question, the walleye are hungry and are looking for forage to eat.”

Mentor angler Bob Ashley has visualized similar incidences of this here-and-there forage partially cloudy conditions while angling off the Mentor Lagoons.

When asked what he’s been finding in the stomachs of the walleye that he and his friends have taken and then cleaned, Ashley’s answer was blunt and to the point: “Nothing.”

Even so, a lot of agency optimism exists regarding the overall health of Lake Erie’s forage base along with its varied top-end predator populations, says Wildlife Division fisheries biologists Travis Hartman and Tim Bader.

Hartman is in charge of the Wildlife Division’s Lake Erie fisheries section and works out of the agency’s Sandusky office. Meanwhile, Bader is a fisheries scientist who toils over trawling, gill netting and other data collected on behalf of the agency’s Fairport Harbor Fisheries Research Station.

“The really good news is that Lake Erie is by far the most productive of all the five Great Lakes,” Hartman said. “It has the most abundance and the most diversity when it comes to forage.”

Such diversity runs from native species to exotic interlopers – which increasingly have become vital in Lake Erie’s predator-prey relationship. Among the natives are emerald and spot-tail shiners, mayflies as well as so-called midges.

Among the exotics are such species as gizzard shad, rainbow smelt, spiny water “fleas,” white perch, and gobies. Several of these species have occupied Lake Erie’s floor space for so long that for all practical purposes they are now biologically stamped with the “Made In America” label. Yet they remain what they are: Invasives that have succeeded as immigrants.

“Smelt populations are down overall but we are seeing good populations of gizzard shad, and we’re also seeing improvement in our emerald shiner populations,” Hartman said, continuing.

Down as well are round gobies with the 2019 international Lake Erie Forage Task Force report citing this species population – in the lake’s Western Basin at least - as being “… the lowest since the fish was first detected in the west basin (1997).”

And the joint U.S.-Canadian Forage Task Force report also says for Lake Erie’s Central Basin that “Forage abundance in Ohio waters has generally decreased since 2012. In 2018, most forage species continued to decline and are at the lowest densities since 1993.”

Even so, Hartman acknowledges how forage abundance and large doses of predators has coincided before. Such a coalescence came about during the 1980s; often referred to as the “good old days” of Lake Erie walleye angling. Or at least they were before this current hot streak of walleye fishing.

Hartman does say too that a walleye will not shy away from eating anything that comes across its path, among the menu items being small yellow perch, and even their own progeny.

“We do see small yellow perch show up in the stomach contents of the walleye we sample but it’s less than 20 percent,” Hartman said.

Walleye that have – for whatever reason - gathered off the mouths of the six rivers the Ohio Division of Wildlife stocks annually with 450,000 steelhead are not above eating these soft-rayed smolts, either, added Hartman.

“But we don’t have much actual data on that,” Hartman admitted.

Still, information collection of all kinds is vital. Such work includes checking the stomach contents of the fish the Wildlife Division encounters during its annual Central Basin summer-time trawls and seasonal gill net operations. All are important metrics in judging the health of both Lake Erie’s predator and prey populations, says Bader.

For that work the Fairport Fisheries Research Station continues to employ its 29-year-old fisheries research vessel, the “Grandon.”

“In the summer we see a mixed bag of prey the walleye feed on: white perch, shiners and smelt,” Bader said. “In the fall we see a switch to predominately young gizzard shad, fish that are six to eight inches long: something that can easily fit inside a walleye’s mouth.”

In regards to the importance of invertebrates, both Hartman and Bader said these creatures are essential prey for both walleye and yellow perch.

In the lake’s Western Basin this invertebrate biomass largely consists of mayfly larvae that pupate and ascend through the water column toward the surface. There the mayflies emerge as mating adults. In the lake’s Central Basin, the chief invertebrate are the infamous – and native - “midges,” or “muffleheads.” Scientifically, these non-biting fellows are labeled Chironomous plumosus.

“The midges are more important to a yellow perch’s diet than they are a walleye’s diet, though the mayfly in the Western Basin is important to that latter species.” Bader said.

So while Lake Erie has a current huge diversity and abundance of available prey, the notion the 9,910 square mile body of water has reached the predator-base saturation point is unlikely, though not entirely out of the equation.

“That’s a good question,” Hartman said, mulling over the idea. “I don’t have a definitive answer since fish production is such a variable, but I will say Lake Erie has excellent productivity for both prey and predators.”

For now, at least, that observation will have to suffice.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net

Fish Ohio program's pins a bit late in arriving for anglers' fishing hats

With the state’s ever-popular Fish Ohio program now at middle-age, a few creaks and groans are only natural to the maturation process.

As a result, several thousand anglers are going to have to wait a while longer before receiving their Fish Ohio pins. The artist in charge of designing the pin’s motif and working with the approved manufacturing vendor has been swamped with other projects, says Vicki Farus, the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s Fish Ohio program’s administrator.

“We are in the process of having the pins made and we hope to have them ready to send out by mid-August,” Farus told “Ohio Outdoor News” in a recent telephone interview.

Such a delay would mean that the pins are about two months behind from when they typically begin being sent out in batches.

“But we usually don’t see a lot of Fish Ohio applications entered on line early in the year anyway,” Farus said.

To date, Farus notes, the Wildlife Division has recorded via electronic means the submission of 4,711 Fish Ohio applications. Last year at the same point the agency had recorded on-line some 5,144 Fish Ohio applications. The drop is being associated with the poor weather that struck the entire state throughout the spring and into the first weeks of summer, and consequently, reduced angling activity.

Regarding the program itself, this year’s Fish Ohio pin will depict a pumpkinseed sunfish. While the bluegill sunfish has appeared on a few previous Fish Ohio pin renditions – most recently in 2009 – its more colorful cousin, the pumpkinseed sunfish, has never appeared.

The Fish Ohio program does predate by a year or two the issuance of pins but that latter give-away has helped spark interest in the Wildlife Division’s agenda in promoting the state’s recreational fishing opportunities.

The first Fish Ohio pin was a small oval model made of pewter and featured a smallmouth bass. This pin was issued in 1980. Thus, 2020 will mark the 40^th anniversary of the Fish Ohio program’s pin distribution.

Such an occasion may justify the Wildlife Division designing and issuing a commemorative pin marking the program’s unique anniversary mile post, just as the Wildlife Division did with its 20^th anniversary pin in 2000, Farus says and who has been with the program for 18 years.

“Oh, my gosh, eighteen years,” Farus said with a startled chuckle.

Farus said the pins have undergone various modifications over their 39 year span but the basics have largely remained the same: a soft, struck brass body, enamel paint, and a clear epoxy coat. And a design that represents one of the program’s various recognized species, which has ebbed and flowed in numbers and species over the ears.

While each pin costs 37 cents to produce they do cost about $3 each to send. This is necessitated by the requirement to use a blister-style envelope that protects the cargo. And which explains why applicants receive a pin for just their first entry only.

That is, unless they enter a fish from at least four qualifying species, in which case they become eligible to eventually receive a stepped-up Fish Ohio Master Angler pin plus a certificate.

In all, the Wildlife Division produces enough pins to ensure that one goes to each eligible entrant with enough lapel-hat medals left over for to present as give-away tokens at agency youth fishing events, Farus said.

“The kids love them,” Farus said.

So do adults with all entrants submitting their applications via the Wildlife Division’s web site and its fishing section portal. From here the entries are recorded electronically. At the same time an entrant can print out on a home printer a colorful certificate of the trophy fish catch, including using either Wildlife Division supplied artwork of the submitted species or else the person attaching a photographic image of the actual fish being submitted.

“I’m not aware of any other state that has a trophy fish awards program quite like our Fish Ohio program that includes a collectible pin that changes its design every year,” Farus said.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net

Time to dethrone Lake Erie's Western Basin as "The Walleye Capital Of The World"

“I said I didn't have much use for one. Didn't say I didn't know how to use it.” Tom Selleck as Matthew Quigley, “Quigley Down Under”

PORT CLINTON – As 40^th anniversary parties go the Lake Erie Shores and Islands and the Ohio Division of Wildlife really knew how to throw a good bash.

Party favors for the four-decades-old Governor’s Fish Ohio Day event included these really cool soup-size embossed mugs, the traditional assortment of (your choice) Fish Ohio Day hats or sun visors, and most useful of all, Fish Ohio Day towels that can be clipped on a belt. If I were to wear a belt but I don suspenders. Don’t ask; it’s a fat, crippled old man’s thing.

Anyway, the towel was not of much good, at least not on the Lake Erie Charter Boat Association volunteer vessel I was assigned to anyway. For the second consecutive outing I had been assigned to this same boat and for the second consecutive outing the results had the same dismally disappointing outcome; namely lots of fishing but little catching.

And no less in the fabled Lake Erie Western Basin where promotional fluff by the outdoors media, tourism folk and fisheries experts alike pretty much say you don’t even need a fishing pole with the walleye practically jumping into the boat all on their own.

Well, they didn’t on my Fish Ohio Day trip, a fact I had foreseen. I even cautioned a newbie Fish Ohio participant against going on any boat to which I was assigned. A smart warning given that our boat landed just eight walleye.

There is not much of a point to simmer the stew pot too much as to the whys I believe the four guests and the boat operator (I still hesitate to use the word “captain” or “guide” here) did so poorly. Suffice to say, many who know my angling preferences are aware of my general lack of enthusiasm for Lake Erie angling in general and fishing for its walleye in particular. I much prefer streams for hunting steelhead and trout or else farm ponds and lakes for searching out bass and panfish. Lake Erie is often enough a dull place to fish and the walleye is - also often enough - a dull fish to fish for.

The way I saw it, the boat operator simply didn’t adapt to the challenges, failing to adjust the kind of bait-tossing gear the guests were handed. Just as bad in my opinion was when we trolled, the boat speed was not dialed back from 2.4-2.5 miles per hour – which is great if you are after salmon but terribly quick by at least one-half mile per hour if it’s walleye you are seeking.

It’s sort of like that lead-in quote said by Tom Selleck in his best-ever role, Matthew Quigley. I don’t do much Lake Erie walleye fishing but when I do, it’s with an eye toward observation.

Of course, other volunteer charter captains did better. I heard several did much better, in fact. The boat that outdoors writer Steve Pollick was aboard managed to wade through 75 fish in order to secure its limit of fish, for example.

Anyway, those personal appraisals aside, the trip got me to thinking. Lake Erie is rightfully called “The Walleye Capital Of The World.” I harbor no ill thoughts against that title which was coined during the first-ever Fish Ohio Day by then-governor James A Rhodes. And six Ohio governors later the case for that claim remains solid and indisputable.

Nor can I fault the western end of Lake Erie for attempting to place on its head the title’s crown.

Only it’s not, and not by a long shot. Fact is, after observing for more than 40 years the fishing techniques of professional and non-professional anglers alike in both the lake’s Western Basin and Central Basin, I have come to believe that the latter are better at the game.

For starters, they are quicker to learn from others. When in the late 1980s an early 1990s the Central Basin played host to a series of professional walleye contests the anglers here more readily adopted and then amended their techniques.

The same goes for their equipment as well. Central Basin fishers soon learned that in-line planer boards are sometimes better than the outrigger styles, the former allowing a boat to swerve rapidly back into a small pod of fish. They also began tooling with Jet and directional divers earlier, experimenting with downriggers and heaven knows what else.

For any number of them – not all, of course, but for the smart ones in the Central Basin – fishing became as much (or more) of an educational challenge than one of simply catching walleye.

They also hooked on to night walleye fishing, starting at the western fringe of the Central Basin and working east. Admittedly, most late-season Central Basin walleye hunters have not gotten it into their heads yet that the night bite can be just as good off the Chagrin and Grand rivers as it is off Cleveland. I suspect it’s only a matter of time before they figure that one out on their own or via social media.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources is equal in sharing blame for the disparity as to which side of the lake is best worthy of the title. Almost certainly this indifference is not intentional though it does exist. The Governor’s Fish Ohio Day’s location, for instance, has budged hardly a dozen or so miles in four decades. It’s stuck in a rut, as if participants would plummet off the earth if they were to travel east of Kelleys Island.

And not lost is the agency’s own words, or a lack of them, if you please. A look at this year’s four-page full-color Fish Ohio Day pass-out has the Wildlife Division’s expected blessing regarding the lake’s walleye and perch fisheries, including a mention of the Central Basin, thank you.

Yet near the last part of the document is the heading “Additional opportunities” and you’ll read points about the lake’s smallmouth bass and even largemouth bass.

However, no where in “Additional opportunities” does the Wildlife Division even bother to cite steelhead, a tremendously illustrative oversight, if truth be told. Look at just about any Central Basin charter captain’s business card and you’ll likely see the word “steelhead,” printed alongside “walleye,” “perch,” and “bass” as the boat’s targets. Many of these charters even proudly proclaim they go after trout by plastering the side of their vessels with that important detail – and one Western Basin charter captains cannot honestly use.

Come to think about, I cannot recall ever hearing any Natural Resources director, deputy director, assistant director, Wildlife Division chief ever even mentioning coming to fish down this way. If they do, I suspect it’s not on a regular basis or with the same promotional zeal they hold for the lake’s Western Basin.

Perhaps the highway watershed out of Columbus to the Western Basin runs more swiftly and with a wider estuary than it does toward the Central Basin.

I will give you this, though, the charter captains and the tourism folks of the Western Basin outshine their counterparts in the Central Basin when it comes to promotion They have been much, much better – and much, much more successful – at energizing their respective bases in competently convincing the country how the Western Basin is the Walleye Capital of the World.

But I’m here to tell you that while Lake Erie is unquestionably the Walleye Capital of the World, Port Clinton is not its White House. For my money I’d say that crown belongs to Geneva, which in many respects is like the Western Basin’s Put-in-Bay.

I am also firmly convinced that any Central Basin angler – be he a good private fisher or a licensed fishing guide – would more certainly fill the cooler with a boat limit of larger walleye. Or else die trying.

- By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net

Ohio fish and wildlife resources and programs being soaked by the heavy rains

Though Ohio’s nearly 78,000 farms are bearing the brunt of the on-going deluge, the state’s wildlife – and even fishes – are also being soused by the endless bouts of rain.

Everything from turkey poult production to pheasant recruitment to the timing and placement of stocked channel catfish is being dampened by the rains.

Even the submissions of Fish Ohio applications appears to have experienced at least some drenching by the rains.

More directly, though, is the rains’ influences on crop planting. How serious is this production threat can be seen weekly in figures tabulated by the federal government’s Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. These figures are passed along to the Oho Department of Agriculture.

Ohio has approximately 78,000 farms totaling some 14 million acres. Corn, by far, comprises the largest cash crop, its planting accounting for about 6.7 million acres of this total.

And data compiled by the Statistics Service acknowledges that as of June 17 – the last date for which figures were available at writing time – 68 percent of the state’s corn crop was planted compared to 100 percent for both last year and the five-yer average.

The statistics were even more dismal for soybeans: 46 percent planted as of June 17 compared to 94 percent last year as well as for the five-year average.

Whether these figures will rebound is uncertain, however.

“This situation is still in flux, and that cannot be determined at this time,” said Ohio Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Shelby Croft.

While hope for a rebound cannot entirely be abandoned, the situation is grim enough that Governor Mike DeWine on June 14 petitioned U.S. Agriculture Department Secretary Sonny Perdue for an agricultural disaster designation for Ohio.

Still, the substantial and sustained rains that Ohio’s been encountering may very well have all ready negatively impact ground-nesting birds. Among the vulnerable species are quail, ring-necked pheasants and wild turkeys, assesses Mark Wiley, the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s forest game biologist.

“Unfortunately, much of our better pheasant habitat is on CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) land, and that is just the sort of land that is set aside because it’s the most marginal for farming and consequently is also the most prone to reoccurring flooding,” Wiley says.

Too, Wiley says when forest edge cover is missing it’s common for some ground-nesting bird species to move their chicks into crop fields. Here, the family can take cover underneath a “canopy of maturing soybean leaves” and other growing grains, Wiley says.

Flood those field - or else not plant those fields at all - and the proper protecting cropland vegetation never materializes, Wiley says.

As for wild turkey poults, while these young birds are able to join their mothers in jumping into trees to roost at night and consequently cam avoid any flooding, the young are no less vulnerable to hypothermia and pneumonia as are quail and pheasant chicks, Wiley says.

In looking at any re-nesting, should a nest and its clutch of turkey, pheasant or quail eggs be flooded out a hen might pull off another go at the task The rub, says Wiley, is that the deeper the incident happens into the nesting season the less likely a hen will start over, Wiley says.

“The problem’s been, we just haven’t dried out long enough,” Wiley says. “Everything in moderation, including rainfall and temperatures.”

Make no mistake, either, says Wildlife Division aquatic scientists, even the agency’s fish management program has experienced challenges brought about by the seemingly incessant stretches of rumbling thunderstorms, rain showers and cold fronts.

Among those tests of patience involves the Wildlife Division’s St. Marys Fish Hatchery, located in the low-lying region of Auglaize County. Here, the agency saw itself stoking the pumps in order to remove the excessive rain water from the fish-rearing ponds, says Kevin Kayle, administrator for the Wildlife Division’s fish hatchery section.

“That issue impacted our channel catfish production at St. Marys but we’ve been able to readjust our stocking schedule, and we’ve also obtained catfish from our other hatcheries,” Kaye said.

Kayle did say the stocking of catchable trout, steelhead, walleye, yellow perch and saugeyes has gone off within a drop of complaint to muddy the scheduling of waters.

However, sometimes the agency needed adopted a strategy of re-positioning the location of where such stocking occurs. This approach is being accomplished because inland reservoirs are designed to expel excess water over spillways or down other draining systems.

And that release of water can include the loss of both recently stocked fish as well as existing populations of a reservoir’s resident fish, Kayle says.

“In those case we’ve gone to stocking the middle and upper sections of reservoirs and lakes,” Kayle says.

In other respects the inundation has not proven itself to be a negative issue. This year’s to-date Fish Ohio program’s application entries are running close to what they were one year ago, says the administrator of that program, Vicki Farus.

Farus said as of June 20, the Wildlife Division had recorded 4,033 Fish Ohio applications. That is a drop of only 103 applications from one year ago, Farus said.

Sales of fishing licenses thus far also have seen little impact. Combining the various resident license permits – even taking into account the newly created multi-year resident fishing licenses – to-date sales as of June 21 were down only 20,354 tags: 515,547 for to-date in 2018 and 495,193 to-date this year, says Andy Burt, the Wildlife Division official in charge of tracking fishing and hunting license sales.

Similarly the heavy rains may even have resulted in some positive non-intended consequences.

Wildlife Division deer biologist Clint McCoy says ample precipitation in the spring “undoubtedly has a positive impact on fawn survival in a couple of ways.”

First, sufficient rainfall will provide good hiding cover once the fawns are born, offering bad weather-protected bedding sites for the young deer, McCoy says.

“And the other positive, of course, is that good ground cover can make it more difficult for a predator to find a fawn,” McCoy said.

McCoy says spring rain-enhanced lush vegetation actually “provides important nutritional resources for the doe.”

“The better condition the mother is in, the better she can provide nourishment for her fawn, and she can stay closer to her offspring, too,” McCoy says.

Though while cool weather with rains can cause some fawns to fatally experience hypothermia; in wet summers, fewer human-caused direct mortality of deer is likely, McCoy says.

“I’ve talked to a few folks who have yet to get a first cutting of hay, and these people may only get one cutting due to the wet weather. For fawns that can survive the elements, they’re less likely to be caught up in farm machinery this year,” McCoy says.

When considering adult deer, with crops being planted later in this sowing season and delayed crop maturation, Ohio’s hunters should see “more standing crops during the deer season” than is typically encountered.

“As you know, those conditions do not bode well for deer hunters looking to fill a tag. Standing corn provides a frustratingly good place for deer to hide,” McCoy says. “On the other hand, the deer could have a significant food source available to rack up on fat stores that will prepare them for the winter.”

Thus, the recent rains have – and will continue to – proven to be both a blessing and a curse.

“At least with the high water levels the steelhead won’t have any problems making up the streams,” added Mentor angler Bob Ashley.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

I'd hold off on boasting about the first-ever Inland Fish Ohio Day if I were Gov. DeWine

I certainly would not shout nor brag too much about a day of fishing like this, but then again, I’m not with the Ohio Divisoon of Wildlife where even the most minuscule of successess.

Still, it’s no wonder I didn't get this release from the Ohio Division of Wildlife but had to check out the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ web site.

The agency actually crows that the two largest fish of the day were a pair of 16-inch fish - one of them being a channel catfish?

Oh, well, at least the Wildlife Division waited until the last graph to mark this auspicious achievement. That is, just after the Governor's canned quote about Ohio having world-class fishing.

Hard to make this stuff up. Anyway, here is the official release:

“WILMINGTON, OH – Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Director Mary Mertz held the first-ever Inland Fish Ohio Day at Cowan Lake State Park in Wilmington on Saturday (June 8). The Governor fished on a boat with several of his grandchildren.

‘“We had a great day fishing at Cowan Lake,’ said Governor DeWine. ‘In Ohio, we have world-class opportunities for boating and fishing, not only on Lake Erie, but also on our inland lakes, like Cowan Lake. We want to highlight opportunities for families to fish and spend time together at our inland lakes this summer.’

“ ‘Ohio is such a wonderful place to live,”’said Director Mertz. ‘Our state offers families hundreds of lakes where they can spend a day relaxing, fishing, sailing, kayaking, or canoeing. Our inland lakes offer so much, and no matter where you are, there is a lake close to you!’

Attendees of the new Inland Fish Ohio Day enjoyed boating and fishing on the 700-acre Cowan Lake. Muskie, crappie, largemouth bass, catfish, and bluegill are plentiful at Cowan Lake.

“The two largest fish of the day were 16 inches long. One was a 16 inch channel catfish and the other was a 16 inch largemouth bass. Anglers caught nearly 200 fish over the course of the morning.”