Ohio Division of Wildlife (ODW) officials have released their 2024 trawl survey indexes for Lake Erie’s two most-sought sportfish: yellow perch and walleye. This year’s results bring an end to a streak of wildly successful hatches for walleye. For yellow perch two of Ohio’s three management zones were above average, with the third zone down by 70% over last year.
The trawl index numbers are based on data from hundreds of trawls conducted by fisheries staff at dozens of locations on Lake Erie by the ODW in Ohio and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry in Canadian waters, plus some additional fisheries data. The final numbers, derived from combined information from Ohio and Ontario, are intended to give fisheries managers a glimpse into the future and help them guide current decision-making with knowledge about how many young fish will become part of the catchable population.
The trawls are conducted using nets that are pulled along the bottom of the lake at set locations, on set date ranges and for set distances as well as time periods each year. They’re intended to gather up fish that were hatched in spring and are not yet one year old. Biologists refer to them as young-of-year (YOY), and for walleye those fish will be between four and five inches long — even smaller for yellow perch.
Walleye numbers at a glance: both zones down
While there had been six consecutive above-average hatches in the Western Basin, including several record hatches, the 2024 index fell far short of the long-term average of 58 fish per hectare. This year, trawls determined there were only about 19 fish per hectare, a 67% decline from the annual assessment’s average.
It will take about another year-and-a-half for the 2024 fish to grow to 15 inches and become legally catchable. This was the smallest result since 2016.
By comparison, the Central Basin indexes have averaged 7.6 walleye per hectare long-term, the 2024 index turned up just seven fish per hectare.
Travis Hartman, Lake Erie program administrator for the ODW, says there are numerous factors that can affect how many fish eggs hatch and then after that, how many survive the first few days or weeks, with availability of food being the most important.
“My personal opinion is when they hatch and they need to start eating, if there’s not enough plankton where they are and the right size plankton, they don’t survive,” he said. “After a couple days feeding off a yolk sac they need to start eating right away to survive.”
Hartman said once the tiny fish swim up and take their first gulp of air, they’re completely at the mercy of river or lake currents. And to survive, hopefully they’ll end up somewhere where there happens to be plenty of food of the right type and the right size.
Although the most well-known walleye spawning sites are on Western Basin reefs and in the Sandusky and Maumee Rivers, Ohio’s eastern Lake Erie waters also host spawning populations according to Ann Marie Gorman, fisheries biology supervisor at the ODW’s Fairport Harbor Fisheries Research Station.
“In the Central Basin we have spawning reefs just east of Fairport Harbor pretty close to shore,” she said. “And they do spawn in the Grand River so it’s similar though much smaller than what you’d find in the Western Basin.”
Gorman said that while the western end of the lake is a primary walleye hatchery, the central and eastern portions of the lake enjoy both high numbers and often larger fish.
“A lot of those West Basin fish have been tagged and there’s an indication in our telemetry studies that larger fish, especially females, may be migrating east moving down into colder water in summer,” she explained. “And also New York has seen some phenomenal walleye hatches since 2015 or so and their own resident stock over there is now nine years old and pretty big. And right now the anglers are going really far offshore and really deep, still even this late in the year to get those larger fish.”
Yellow perch numbers at a glance: Two zones up, one zone down
The Western Basin, has seen strong perch numbers for about a decade and 2024 offered an exceptional hatch. The survey index numbers indicate 673 YOY perch per hectare, which is well above the average of 462 yellow perch. This year’s Western Basin hatch is the seventh largest hatch of the survey’s 37 years. According to ODW officials, yellow perch fishing from Toledo to Huron, Ohio should provide good catch rates and fish size for the 2025 season and beyond.
In Ohio waters of the Central Basin, perch numbers were also above average. The trawl index showed 50 YOY fish per hectare, compared to the historical average of 37.
In far eastern Ohio waters, though, yellow perch were scarce, showing up at a rate of just 11 fish per hectare, far short of the average of 36.
Steelhead Alley gets new stream, more fish
Affectionately referred to as Steelhead Alley by anglers far and wide, dozens of rivers and streams along Lake Erie’s southern coast between Buffalo and Vermilion are a national outdoors attraction. This April Ohio’s steelhead waters have a new addition: the once-fiery Cuyahoga River. It’s now officially a steelhead stream along with the Ashtabula, Chagrin, Grand, Rocky and Vermilion rivers and Conneaut Creek, and as such will receive stockings of steelhead salmon every year. The fish are hatched and raised at the Castalia Fish Hatchery near Sandusky Bay.
In April, the first stocking of 10,000 fish took place near downtown Cleveland where ODNR officials heralded the Cuyahoga’s metamorphosis during a public ceremony. From a toxic, polluted industrial waste dump a half century ago to a clean and vibrant waterway suitable for the popular, and finicky, game fish. Steelhead, and trout in general, prefer streams with extra-clean, cool to cold running water.
“We recognize the improved water quality, habitat and the great public access provided here and we recognize the benefits of our steelhead fishery,” said ODW Chief Kendra Wecker at the May release. “We produce about 450,000 of these fish every year and deliver them to the Lake Erie tributaries each spring.”
After being released, the 7 to 9 inch fish will spend several years in Lake Erie before returning to the tributaries where they were initially released to spawn and provide excellent fishing opportunity for anglers in Ontario and the four Lake Erie states.
“We really value the wild strains from Michigan and Wisconsin,” explained Hartman. “So we get as many of the eggs from wild strains of steelhead as possible. Our catch rates have been exceptional, especially if you compare them to west coast fisheries. We really have some of the best steelhead fishing in the nation and people come from all over the U.S. to fish here.”
He said ODW staff have been working on creel surveys to learn more about who is fishing Ohio streams, where they come from and more about their experiences, tackle and other information to help biologists manage Lake Erie’s fish.
A few interesting trawl catches this year
“This summer they did catch a burbot which we don’t see very often,” said Gorman. “Every few years we’ll find one so that was a nice find.”
Gorman said her staff also came across a small lake sturgeon this year.
“There were 60 young sturgeon released in the Cuyahoga in October, so yeah, that should be really exciting. They were all tagged,” she said. “We don’t really have a sense of how long they’re going to be in the river, how quickly they’ll move to the lake.”
The release is the first in the state’s plan to stock up to 1,500 lake sturgeon each year in the Cuyahoga over the next 25 years. The slow-growing, bottom-feeding fish can grow to more than six feet in length and live longer than a century.
Hartman said this year’s trawls included two baitfish surprises.
“We caught a lot of trout perch which is a small baitfish that most people have never seen. And in the Western Basin there were a lot of those and silver chubs, which have been at a much lower abundance previously,” Hartman said. “I’ve seen perch anglers posting pictures of adult silver chubs they caught when perch angling so we’re definitely seeming more incidental catches.”
Despite the low walleye numbers, Hartman said the future is bright.
“I have an optimistic view of this result,” Hartman said. “What you’ll notice in 2025 is you won’t catch as many short fish, or throwbacks. But when we had a giant hatch in 2003, fishing in 2005 through 2008 was absolutely incredible in the numbers.”
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Featured image: A cooler filled with fresh walleye is the most popular goal for Lake Erie charter customers. Provided by James Proffitt.
