There are no guarantees in fishing, but Dan Boileau predicts it’s going to be “a very good year” to catch walleye on the Detroit River.
Boileau, chair of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ Lake Erie/St. Clair Citizens Fishery Advisory Committee, said there was a strong recruitment, meaning a lot of fish hatched and survived their young life stage.
“Those small fish that have been kind of off limits to anglers are going to be of legal size this year, so they’re going to enter the targeted, catchable population,” Boileau said.
Detroit River walleye fishing is world class, said Jim Francis, Lake Erie Basin Coordinator for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The river is so crowded with boats during the early spring that anglers practically stand shoulder to shoulder.
Walleye make their way up the Detroit River from Lake Erie in the spring, typically starting during their spawning season when the water hits above 40 degrees in mid-March. The season on the river typically wraps up at the end of May, when the white bass start biting.
There is no closed season for walleye fishing on the Detroit River or Michigan’s Great Lakes waters, Francis said.
Detroit River walleye fishing ‘world class’
Fish surveys indicate there are 80 million walleye in Lake Erie this year, Francis said. Approximately 10-15% of those will travel up the Detroit River on the way to Lake St. Clair or even as far as Saginaw Bay.
“You look across (the Detroit River), it’s pretty narrow,” Francis said. “Think about 10 million fish swimming by and over a relatively short time period. … As soon as the ice is gone, I guarantee anglers will be out there.”
Lake Erie’s walleye population has been strong in recent years, Francis said. Biologists aren’t totally sure why. There are a lot of variables that could affect egg survival, such as water clarity or the amount of nutrients in the water.
Along with ice cover, those have changed over time because of climate change warming water temperatures, invasive mussels gobbling up plankton and making the water clearer and fluctuations in nutrient loading from farm runoff or water treatment plant overflows.
“It’s kind of a muddy test tube to try to sort it all out,” Francis said.
Lake Erie was nearly blanketed with ice early this month. Some anglers posit the year’s strong ice cover will be good for future fishing. Ice protects eggs from getting covered with sediment during rough weather, Boileau said.
“I agree ice cover is going to help recruitment this year, which bodes well for a couple of years down the road,” he said.
ckthompson@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Predictions for Detroit River walleye run: very good
Reporting by Carol Thompson, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
