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Fishing (Official Thread)

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Ha! Felt like this early this morning.

fuck-these-6-fish-in-particular.jpg
 
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Yeah. Lake Erie was a dump for many years and became a toxic environment for fishing and man alike. Have you ever seen the pictures of people hanging out and swimming on Lake Erie's Cleveland shore? It must have been very ocean like before the industrial age poisoned it.
 
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stowfan said:
How many of you guys know the story of the Lake Erie Blue Pike?

http://ohioseagrant.osu.edu/discuss/index.php?topic=515.0

http://bagheera.com/inthewild/ext_blupike.htm
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Absolutely one of the great (true) legends of lake erie... Sad, obviously in some ways... but, the Blue Pike (and Stow I'm just rambling here not trying to educate you since you probably know more about it than I do) become sort of the almost realy loch ness Monster of the lake. They do have evidence (as your link mentions) that their DNA lives on in Walleye (the are all perciformes, as is the yellow perch). Some of the most interesting legends surrouding them is that there is a population in lakes in Minnesota - http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/volunteer/julaug08/blue_pike.html - and there are legends that continue that there is a secret lake with them up there somwhere... its fun stuff.

Having said that... Lake Trout, Lake Whitefish, Cisco and Burbot are all still out there lurking in the deep...
 
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Allow me my own rant, I one of the old timers on the board. When I was born in 1954, they were taking 26 million pounds a year of the Blue Pike from the eastern basin of Lake Erie. The fish rarely exceeded 3 pounds, so 10 million fish per year would be a good round number to work with.

The Blue Pike was declared extinct in 1984. It's almost like, how in the world could they let that happen? It's as if we shot the last Bison. Something that really has me shaking my head is, how we in the United States are always criticizing other countries for their lack of conservation, and we mess up like this.
 
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stowfan said:
Allow me my own rant, I one of the old timers on the board. When I was born in 1954, they were taking 26 million pounds a year of the Blue Pike from the eastern basin of Lake Erie. The fish rarely exceeded 3 pounds, so 10 million fish per year would be a good round number to work with.

The Blue Pike was declared extinct in 1984. It's almost like, how in the world could they let that happen? It's as if we shot the last Bison. Something that really has me shaking my head is, how we in the United States are always criticizing other countries for their lack of conservation, and we mess up like this.
Click to expand...

Rant away Brother... I was actually looking up Cisco and there was some stat that 48million pounds and we're talking about a smaller fish were harvested in 1916. (Now, how good records/surveys like that were in 1916 are well, yeah, but, lets say its plausible). But, at the same time there are cisco still in the lake, and even if they weren't, they wouldn't be extinct... the Blue Pike was a perfect storm... I think they really only spawed in Lake Erie, and not to disagree with you, but I think, Taos is probably closer to the problem... we can call it human greed, but, I think it was more likely the habitat collapsing than it was overfishing. And that's probably less defensible in some ways. And that's something we need to get a handle on again.

Now, of course, the funny thing is, the fishing was great in the 90's, again, and to be honest, its pretty darned good, now. I shake my head that I have to hear, or read - you want crazy, folks, spend some quality time on a fishing message board, talk about fucking lunatics, but, you know people act like the 90's and 10 or 12 walleye limits are the norm.... I mean, seriously... for those of you who don't fish, I mean, what do you think that is Stow, if you had 12 x 20 inch Walleye and you had to divide that into 6 oz filets. I mean that's 48 dinners, don't you think? Maybe 60. (Or probably more fish than one person should be eating in a year). Anywho... Beyond that what amazes me isn't the very real concern about the Walleye and Yellow Perch, as much as it is that this is a fishery in which Freshwater Drum, White Bass, white Perch and a few other things are "trash fish" -- Oh, yeah, look at all that otherwise commercially viable fish we're too good to eat.

The lake is gonna keep on changing, and really, geologically its only a few thousand years old... so... I don't know if we can view it as real stable anyway. I was born in Sandusky.... 40 years ago, and its changed a lot. I mean, you look at Taos's comments, and well, Taos, I invite you to cruise on out to the Western Basin on a clear early summer day... the water is crytsal clear and beautiful and blue. When I was a kid, it was a cess pool. Of course now, late in the summer the algae blooms can get messy... and 2 years ago, it was brutal. But, the interests there are farmers vs. the Lake... so, I think it'll get sorted out... hopefully sooner.

Now, of course part of the reason its clear is zebra mussels, and that's also partly why there aren't as many Walleye as there were 20 years ago... of course, now there are Gobies... and well, they like to eat Zebra Mussels, and Walleye have decided they like to eat the Gobies (and the Gobies and the small mouth like to eat each other). I imagine it will be different than it is now. And my guess is it will be better.

Speaking of overfishing... and 40 years ago... my step dad loves to tell this story about his old man, so, I guess one day when he was about 18 or 19, he came home from work and his Dad, brother, and Uncle came rolling back from the lake... "Hey, get a filet knife. We've got some work to do"

"How many you guys get?"

"900."

That's a lot of Perch. (Its a lot of freaking bait)

Edit- Was rereading this and I guess the limit was never 12 walleye... My memory is old and bad too... whateever, 2 people can catch 12 now... its a lot of fish. lol
 
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