Anglers look ahead to summer's action

With May in full bloom, a fine green tint washes the landscape, the flowering trees add pastel highlights and the fish are busy all over Northeast Ohio.
Fishing has been good to excellent on most of our region's waters throughout April and into May. The walleyes have been unusually cooperative and the crappies are showing up in their typically bountiful numbers. Bass fishing, meanwhile, has been pretty good, too.
But anglers are looking north and south of Youngstown for hints about this summer's action on two fisheries.
Early spring fishing for smallmouth bass in Lake Erie has been a bit slower than what anglers experienced in recent years. And the Ohio River remains a big question among those who recall the fantastic fishing for smallies there a couple of years ago.
Erie's walleye fishing already has shown signs it will again be vigorous in 2006. The fish are showing up in their traditional spring locations, with anglers scoring everywhere from the western basin's reefs to the near-shore breakwalls.
Concerns about smallmouth bass fishing began to grow last year. Anglers still caught good numbers of fish and they averaged on the big side. But the fishing was more difficult compared with the easy pickings of 2003 and 2004, leading to speculation that angling pressure and nest predation by round gobies were taking their toll.
Noticing a decline
Few anglers in 2005 reported 40- to 50-fish days like they had in previous seasons. They also noticed a decided decline in the numbers of small bass, creating suspicion that once the mature 3- to 5-pounders have passed their prime, we may witness a big decline in Erie's smallmouth catch rates.
Ohio has imposed a 14-inch size limit and closed season during the spawning period for Lake Erie bass in an effort to increase the recruitment of young fish into adulthood and thus sustain the fishery at a high-quality level.
Smallmouth anglers are hoping that the regulations work and that enough fish survive to the size where they can eat gobies and keep the invasive species' population in check.
The Ohio River, meanwhile, was a pretty miserable place for bass anglers in 2005, unlike the early years of the 21st century, when limit catches were commonplace and lunker-class fish in the 3- to 4-pound class were expected.
The reasons for the drop-off were not clear, but many speculated that the low flow resulting from an unusually dry summer contributed to the tough fishing. Largely current-oriented predators, the smallies that live in the Ohio River may have been forced to feed out over open water on the still-abundant shad, and that behavior change made them difficult to locate and catch.
Signs that encouraged
Encouraging signs last year included the fact that a lot of small fish were evident, shad and other baitfish were still numerous, and other game species like saugers and walleyes seemed to be thriving.
Long known as a cyclical fishery, with high peaks and deep troughs, the Ohio may have bottomed out in 2005 in terms of smallmouth fishing.
A few river anglers have reported good fishing so far this spring, creating a glimmer of hope that the summer and autumn action will start another climb up the cycle.
In the meantime, most of this region's serious fishermen are wishing for rain. The local reservoirs are considerably below the water levels that are typical for early May. The bushes that are typically flooded this time of year are high and dry, so anglers who chase crappies and bass have been forced to adjust their shallow-water tactics.
A couple of rainy days, while not high on everybody's wish lists, will bring up the lakes and set the stage for a continuation into summer of the fine fishing we've enjoyed so far this year.
jwwollitz@aol.com