PORT CLINTON, OH (June 29, 2005) - Governor Bob Taft today reeled in several Lake Erie walleye as part of the 27th annual Fish Ohio Day celebration. The governor joined members of the press, conservation leaders and state wildlife officials to promote Lake Erie fishing. Fishing the lake’s western basin, participants landed approximately 100 walleye - with the governor catching three of the fish.
“When it comes to fishing for walleye, yellow perch and smallmouth bass, there is no finer destination in the country than Lake Erie,” said Taft, who also serves as co-chairman of the Council of Great Lakes Governors. “While we enjoy some of the finest fishing today all across our Lake Erie coast, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources is working hard to ensure that this great fishery will be preserved for the future.”
Taft credited the progress that has been made over the past six years to strengthen fishing opportunities for walleye, smallmouth bass and yellow perch.
“We have been very proactive in managing Lake Erie, and as a result the fishery is stronger and better poised for success because of the tough decisions we have made over the past six years,” Taft said. “Yellow perch are plentiful once again, smallmouth bass are rebounding and we now have the strongest walleye population in the past 15 years.”
Taft also celebrated the success of securing funding last year from Congress and other Great Lakes states for the construction of an electric barrier in the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal to stop the spread of the invasive Asian carp.
At Fish Ohio Day, the ODNR Division of Wildlife announced that proposals will be made this fall to increase the bag limit for yellow perch and walleye for the 2006 fishing season as a result of the strengthened fishery. Proposed were an increase in the daily bag limit on yellow perch from 30 to 40 fish and an increase in spring bag limit on walleye from three to four fish.