LAKE ERIE Ontario, U.S. states angle for walleye catch

Walleye season brings uncertainty and border tensions.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
GRAYLING, Mich. -- Walleye fishing in western Lake Erie will be a mixed bag this spring.
Michigan waters are closed to walleye anglers in April and May. Ohio waters remain open, but with a three-fish limit per day in March and April and six fish after that. Walleye fishing is closed in Ontario through May 7, and then six fish a day will be allowed with no minimum size limit.
The two-month closure in Michigan is controversial, and the controversy likely will increase next month, when Ontario decides what it will do about the commercial quota that accounts for 95 percent of the province's walleye catch.
Ontario has the last commercial walleye fishing on the lake, which infuriates American sportfishermen. They blame the netters for drastic decreases in the walleye population, though many scientists blame environmental factors, including a decreased forage base.
Ontario allotment
Because it owns 43.3 percent of the surface waters of Lake Erie, Ontario is allotted 43.3 percent of the walleye catch by the international commission that controls Great Lakes fishing.
Ontario already has cut the commercial walleye catch by about half, although it has remained the same for the past three years. But commercial fishermen on the Canadian side are already grumbling about what they expect will be a further reduction to satisfy the four American states that border the lake. All have reduced the daily quota for sportfishermen, the length of the season or both.
Once Michigan's Lake Erie waters open June 1, the bag limit will be five walleye a day with a 15-inch minimum size, down from six fish and 13 inches last year.
Pennsylvania and New York closed their waters from March 15 through April 30. Both set a four-fish daily limit, with minimum sizes of 18 inches in Pennsylvania and 15 in New York.
Crowded waters
Wayne Banycky, a charter captain who fishes walleyes out of Ohio ports in spring, said the new rules mean "that I'll see 1,000 more boats fishing around me, because with Michigan closed in May, all of those guys are going to come to Ohio waters."
Ohio has the longest Lake Erie shoreline on the U.S. side and the biggest harvest quota. After allowing three walleye a day in March and April, Ohio will allow six the rest of the year. But Banycky said the weather in March and April is so uncertain that few people fish on Lake Erie.
"I do hear a lot of people say that because the Michigan waters are closed in April and May, they'll just go and fish the Detroit River," he said. "I think that's what everyone is waiting to see -- how the closures affect the fishery in the river."
The potential for increased traffic from neighboring states has not been lost on Ohio. It has increased the price of a daily fishing license, the kind bought by most people who go out on walleye charter boats, from $7 to $11.