# Ohio waters Lake Erie Perch Limit cut to 25 in Western Basin



## roger23 (Mar 7, 2007)

this is going to suck from the Plain Dealer

Lake Erie Perch Limit cut to 25 in Western Basin

Lake Erie Perch Limit cut to 25 in Western Basin
Posted by D'Arcy Egan January 22, 2008 16:59PM
Categories: Outdoors

The Ohio sport fishermen's daily bag limit for yellow perch on Western Lake Erie will be trimmed from 30 to 25 fish per day on July 1. There will be a corresponding cut in the commercial fishing industry's allowable perch harvest. 

"Preliminary indications are that yellow perch stocks in the Western Basin are lower than last year," said Deputy Chief Jim Marshall of the Division of Wildlife. "We need a lower harvest in 2008, especially during the fall perch fishing season, to make sure we continue to have viable stocks of yellow perch in Western Lake Erie."

The Western Basin includes Ohio waters from the Michigan border to a north-south line off Huron. 

The sport fishing daily bag limit will remain at 30 perch in the Central Basin of Lake Erie, which includes the Cleveland area.

Catch estimates from 2007 and perch samplings by fisheries biologists from Ohio, surrounding states and Ontario have documented the slump in the perch population in the western portion of Lake Erie. With good hatches from spawning perch over the last two years, Marshall said Ohio officials are hopeful the bag limits and commercial fishing quotas will return to 2007 levels in 2009.

The reduced commercial fishing quotas will be presented to Ohio's commercial fishing industry at a meeting on Friday in Port Clinton.

"The timing couldn't be worse," said Marshall, with the DOW is implementing new commercial fishing regulations, including the use of monitoring equipment, mandated by 2007 legislation.


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## NorthSouthOhioFisherman (May 7, 2007)

Man, have we got it comin!!!!
geez whats the difference if we harvest 1000000 or 9000000
just like EZ said 
"25, 30 or even 40 who cares? they (ODNR) has been saying for years, that you cant hurt the population with a rod and reel right??. put a halt to comm fishing for a year and let the stock rebound. yea, i know about all the familys and bla bla bla...they did it to them selfs."


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## Fishpro (Apr 6, 2004)

NorthSouthOhioFisherman said:


> Man, have we got it comin!!!!
> geez whats the difference if we harvest 1000000 or 9000000
> just like EZ said
> "25, 30 or even 40 who cares? they (ODNR) has been saying for years, that you cant hurt the population with a rod and reel right??. put a halt to comm fishing for a year and let the stock rebound. yea, i know about all the familys and bla bla bla...they did it to them selfs."


25 fish is plenty per person. Maybe people will think twice about that 7" they are about to put in the box. I think a bag limit reduction is a good thing right now. And your comment about commecial fishermen...not all of them break the rules. Fine the ones that do, they deserve it, but don't put the blame on them all.


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## LEJoe (Jun 27, 2006)

Good points gentlemen. 25 fish limit? Well... ok... whatever... I'll still be out there getting enough for the freezer.


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## fshnfreak (Feb 24, 2007)

that just means ill spend more gas goin to and from erie this spring and fall to fill my freezer


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## cramerk (Aug 3, 2005)

Great point fishpro! NOw hoepfully we wont have so many people keeping the 6 and 7 inch fish. MAkes me sick to see people keeping those little ones and then come in and breg about gettin a limit in blah blah hours. maybe this reduced limit will help with the quality of fish even though the quanity has been reduced. plus 25 perch can still make 4 or so meals easily!


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## capt S (Sep 5, 2007)

if the new limit helps the perch fishery then i'm all for it! as fish pro said don't blame the commercial guys that don't break the rules. thats still 50 fillets!!!!!


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## hearttxp (Dec 21, 2004)

I just want to know HOW MUCH they cut from the commerical guys limits ? Both Here and the ones across the Border ?? It is not the Hook and Line guys who are putting a hurt on the perch Stocks. Remember that !! Maybe it is the commercials or something to do with the 2003 walleye hatch or maybe are friends the Gobys or something ? But I do no think it is from Fishing pressure ?


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## Fishpro (Apr 6, 2004)

hearttxp said:


> I just want to know HOW MUCH they cut from the commerical guys limits ? Both Here and the ones across the Border ?? It is not the Hook and Line guys who are putting a hurt on the perch Stocks. Remember that !! Maybe it is the commercials or something to do with the 2003 walleye hatch or maybe are friends the Gobys or something ? But I do no think it is from Fishing pressure ?


You could always find out where the meeting is going to take place tonight and see if its open to the public.


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## hearttxp (Dec 21, 2004)

Hey Paul I doubt it is open to the Public ? But no big deal. I just don't like the stupid idea of having one limit for here and one limit for over there !!! If the stocks are low make the new limit for the whole lake ! But what can you do. I am going to bring up at charter Conferance next month If I make it ?


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## roger23 (Mar 7, 2007)

Michigan and Canada have not changed there limits ,,will just have to be careful when fishing the state line or boarder,


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## Fishpro (Apr 6, 2004)

hearttxp said:


> Hey Paul I doubt it is open to the Public ? But no big deal. I just don't like the stupid idea of having one limit for here and one limit for over there !!! If the stocks are low make the new limit for the whole lake ! But what can you do. I am going to bring up at charter Conferance next month If I make it ?


I agree, there shouldn't be zones, The states and Canada should work on agreeing to bag limits and commecial limits being the same where ever you fish in Lake Erie. That way, no one can point the finger about who's taking the most out. It'll be interestion to see what was said at that meeting tonight. I hope theres a report out soon.


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## ezmarc (Apr 6, 2004)

Zones for non migrating fish make a lot of sense to me and I don't see what is so hard to understand about it. Every state and province have different laws, aren't they just different zones of the same lake?


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## Fishpro (Apr 6, 2004)

ezmarc said:


> Zones for non migrating fish make a lot of sense to me and I don't see what is so hard to understand about it. Every state and province have different laws, aren't they just different zones of the same lake?


I don't understand the"non-migrating fish" part. We know that walleyes migrate, and I would assume perch do to, so why not have the same regulations no matter where you are fishing in the lake? I realize the concept of having the same regulations for the entire lake will probably never happen, but I don't think it would be a bad idea either.


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## riverKing (Jan 26, 2007)

honestly guys not to get on the catch and release stuff but if your only on the water to fill your freezer..go to krogers. 25; 8-11in perch will feed 10 people if they are filleted correctly. if you feel you have to keep more than that to show you can fish i'm just gonna wonder what freud would say.
i think the dnr is starting to realize that rod and reel harvest can make a dent in the fish populations and maybe they will start implementing more of these types of regs, we can only hope.


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## Fishpro (Apr 6, 2004)

riverKing said:


> honestly guys not to get on the catch and release stuff but if your only on the water to fill your freezer..go to krogers. 25; 8-11in perch will feed 10 people if they are filleted correctly. if you feel you have to keep more than that to show you can fish i'm just gonna wonder what freud would say.
> i think the dnr is starting to realize that rod and reel harvest can make a dent in the fish populations and maybe they will start implementing more of these types of regs, we can only hope.


No way am I going to the store to buy my fish as long as I have a boat. I think that limits are a good and necessary thing to sustain a healthy population of fish, but I also belive in selective harvest. Fish are a renuable resource that managed correctley will continue to benefit all of us that enjoy to catch and eat fish.


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## LEJoe (Jun 27, 2006)

Hey, I have a Kroger Card... maybe I can get enough interested to have a Krogers Tournament! I was there yesterday after work and all the fish were in there, but they weren't hitt'en. They were just sorta ly'en there ... um... stiff. Some old lady was making alot of noise while I was trying to catch some fish, so I lobbed a flare across the front of her cart. She crashed into the deli so I bugged out before the cops got there.

Tight lines and frozen pizza,
Lake Erie Joe


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## duckman (Sep 18, 2004)

I don't get the July 1 effective date.... I support this but if we are going to do it how about we do it effective Mar 1 before they print the regs


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## Hardtop (Nov 24, 2004)

Just a word of caution.........one down side to this continual reduction to the limit, is that guys will do MORE sorting, and the sea gulls are the ones who benifit from that. Nothing irritates me more than tossing a samll perch back and seeing it go belly up and become gull food. I think there are more perch taken out of the herd due to this than DOW knows. Not sure the limits are a good thing, they produce a little revenue thru fines, but the best control on over fishing is an empty cooler, that keeps guys from comming back with gas at $3.60/gal.........


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## krustydawg (Apr 26, 2004)

duckman said:


> I don't get the July 1 effective date.... I support this but if we are going to do it how about we do it effective Mar 1 before they print the regs


Before the regs. are printed ???? How about before the spawn occurs !


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## Troy Dave (Jan 26, 2007)

I gave up on Erie perch a long time ago. Have never caught any much bigger than what we used for pike bait when I was a kid. If I want some nice jumbos I go north.


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## Korbas1 (Jul 11, 2007)

If I had to make an educated guess, I would say the change in the limit is mostly due to the growing population of walleye, especially since many of them migrate to the Western Basin for the spawn. Just my $.02


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## LazyBones (May 25, 2004)

I don't mind the limit change, as long as it ensure a good population of fish in the future for my grand kids. What I don't like, is the ones who go out for two and three limits a day. Get real who needs that many fish. Hope they get caught


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