Small eyes

[rod bender bob]

There are a lot of small eyes (seem to be from 2 age classes) being caught right now in the Western Basin. Seems like good news?

[Colleen Wellington]

Interesting. It is good to see that we are actually having recruitment to the fishery. Your observation is consistent with the estimated population numbers for Lake Erie walleye. According to the 2011 Lake Erie Walleye Task Group Report, here is the breakdown:

Age 2 (2009) – 3.550 mil
Age 3 (2008) – 2.653 mil
Age 4 (2007) – 8.701 mil
Age 5 (2006) – 0.358 mil
Age 6 (2005) – 0.596 mil
7+ - 5.384 mil

Besides the 2003 and 2007 fish, the age-2 (2009) walleyes should be the most abundant fishable walleyes. Next year we should be seeing even more young catches with the 2010 walleyes moving into the fishery. 

[Rick Pichola]

I caught 10 walleyes on July 4th in the Western Basin. One was 7inches long and 2 others were 12 and 14 inches. All of the undersized released unharmed of course. What year would the 7 inch fish be from 2010 or 2011?
Thank you,
Rick Pichola

[John Hageman]

The 7" walleyes would be from 2010. We have been seeing young-of-year 2011 walleyes in our trawls at Stone Lab and the Ohio Division of Wildlife trawls are also getting them at most of their sites. Hard to believe any of the eggs/fry could have survived the awful spring weather........

[Eugene Braig, Ohio Sea Grant]

Again, I remember dire predictions for the 2003 year class given the associated harsh spring, and it turned out to be the best we've had in recent times.  I'm still quite reserved in my expectations, but eager for the formal word on 2011.

[rod bender bob]

I remember an associate of yours telling me he thought conditions were too tough in 2003 for a good hatch. He then told me "see how much I know", and said he was not going to make any more predictions :-) I think it just shows how terribly hard it is to predict Mother Nature, all most as hard as predicting Lake Erie weather.
I've got my finger and toes crossed....