GREAT OUTDOORS: Crossing fingers for ice this winter

Like a broken record, the theme again this time of the year is not when, but if we will get fishable ice this winter. After a stretch of frigid weather in early December that forced the stoppage of the Miller Ferry almost a month earlier than last year, the lake looks mostly liquid for as far as the eye can see from Put-in-Bay. The below-average temperatures briefly allowed some ice fishing to begin at East Harbor and other small, local bodies of water. With a huge walleye population that ranges from double-digit trophies from the 2015 hatch to several exceptional hatches over the past few years that are a range of sizes, fishing success is almost assured if conditions allow ice to form. Walleyes are the main attraction for most anglers who live here and customers who come from all over the Midwest to sample our bounty. Walleyes can be caught almost at will 12 months of the year. Anglers in small fishing boats will once again ply the lake wherever ramps remain ice free or can be treated with salt and/or sand to allow safe launching near open water hotspots. Yellow perch can also be caught in good numbers when schools are located. With the slow action that perch provided most days last summer, my objective, like last year, is to load up on my favorite species to catch and eat. The perch dinner that I prepared for the Outdoor Writers of Ohio in April wiped out most of my supply that I caught the previous summer. When I have them, I share them at family fish fries and with landowners who allow me to hunt on their properties. Unlike last year, when A-N-J Bait brought over a loaded minnow truck on the last day the Miller Ferry ran and sold about 100 gallons of emerald shiners to islanders to dress their winter lures, many residents successfully found shiners schooling along the edges of the docks and were able to catch their own supply. Despite the huge population of walleyes and other predatory fish species now inhabiting the lake, emerald shiner numbers have noticeable rebounded in the past few years. Even though other wild shiner species and farm-raised golden shiners are often substituted when necessary, anglers and the targeted game fish species have a decided preference for the emerald shiners as bait. Depending on the season, wild-caught emerald shiners are used by anglers seeking yellow perch, walleyes, white bass and crappies. Some that are sold here are caught from local marinas, others from further east on Lake Erie, and when necessary, from out of state, namely Wisconsin. Yellow perch restoration There is a push from a group (savelakeerieperch.com) to force the Ohio Division of Wildlife (DOW) to take action to restore the perch population in the Central Basin. Their stated objective is to bring awareness to the perch crisis in the Central Basin of Lake Erie, the factors that created it and to suggest viable solutions. They believe that the primary cause of the decline in yellow perch populations is due to over-harvesting by the commercial fishing industry while populations were in decline and hatches were minimal. While their summary regarding the current status of the perch population using DOW reports is well presented, their conclusion that perch are being mismanaged underestimates chronically low larval perch survival rates caused by algal grazing by quagga mussels. This food web shunt is being seen throughout the lower four Great Lakes, affecting several species of commercial and game fish populations.