Green Bay - 2007 class second largest in past 20 years

[Hamilton Reef]

A good year for bay perch
2007 class second largest in past 20 years

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/app ... 30714/1233

01/13/08 By Jim Lee Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers jlee77@earthlink.net

PESHTIGO — Green Bay's perch population continued on the comeback trail in 2007, which is welcome news for anglers who target this tasty panfish.

"Summer trawling surveys showed that 2007 produced a strong perch year class with the relative abundance of young-of-the-year ranking as the second highest in 20 years," said Tammie Paoli, Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologist.

Top perch honors belong to the class of 2003, a batch of fish heavily responsible for current angling success.

"With several strong year classes since 2003, yellow perch fishing on Green Bay should continue to be rewarding for several years," Paoli said.

The ice fishing harvest of perch has steadily increased since 2004.

"Ice anglers harvested twice as many yellow perch in 2007 than in 2006 even though the daily bag limit was 15 in both years," she said.

"The number harvested in winter 2006 equaled 64,857 while the number harvested in winter 2007 equaled 129,024. Fish from the 2003 year class comprised the majority (82 percent) of fish harvested under the ice and averaged 8.6 inches."

An increase in angling effort was largely responsible for the boost in harvest, according to Paoli, as the catch rate per hour remained relatively stable at approximately 0.63 fish per hour.

The department monitors the emerging perch situation through spring shoreline seining for evidence of newly hatched fry and late summer trawling for young-of-the-year fish to check survival rates.

"We rely on trawling to provide a good indicator of what's out there and what's coming," Paoli said.

Creel surveys, in which on-water anglers are interviewed, provide clues to the harvest.

"Data collected during the 2007 summer creel survey shows that 42 percent of the perch kept by anglers were age 4 (from the 2003 year class) and 39 percent were age 2 (from the 2005 year class," she said.

"Most of the perch were between 7 and 10 inches with an occasional fish in the 12- to 14-inch range. These larger fish were mainly age 7 or 9."

Paoli said the angler open water perch harvest more than doubled between 2005 and 2006, partly due to a change in the daily bag limit from 10 to 15.

"In addition to being able to keep more fish, anglers were more successful in 2006 and caught nearly twice as many yellow perch per hour as the previous year," she added.

The bay's perch fishery collapsed in the 1990s for unclear reasons. The situation led to restrictive angler and commercial fishing bag limits, a situation that has eased in recent years in response to the perch resurgence.

The sport fishing season for perch on Green Bay remains closed from March 15 to May 15 to protect the fish during spring spawning, which usually takes place from mid-April to mid-May, depending on water temperatures.

Late May, June and early July were productive months for perch anglers in 2007, as were September and October, according to Paoli. During late July and August, when water temperatures rose, fishing success fell off.

February provided the best ice fishing for perch in 2007, "probably because January was so warm that solid ice didn't form until February," Paoli said. The situation changed this winter with the arrival of cold weather in December, which allowed an early start to the ice fishing season.

Minnows continue to be the most popular perch bait used by Green Bay anglers, though other baits work well at times. In October and November, anglers were doing well in shallower water and near the mouth of rivers using minnows and crawlers, Paoli said.

Angler daily bag limits are likely to remain at 15 perch at least through the 2008 season because the total angling harvest keeps climbing as more people are successful fishing for perch, which encourages additional anglers to join the bay bandwagon, she said.

Paoli is cautiously optimistic about the bay's perch fishing fortunes.

"Right now, there is plenty of food available in the bay," she said. "There's a huge forage base (zooplankton and minnows) available to perch."

However, the recent perch revival largely has been attributed to several years of productive spawning conditions, a factor that remains out of human control.

"We've been studying perch on the bay for 30 years but we still can't predict the future," Paoli said. "There are so many functions we can't account for — the biggest being the impact of weather and water temperatures on spawning success."

Those are normal concerns that have affected local fish populations for centuries.

Several not-so-normal influences loom heavy on the perch horizon, including the continued emergence of exotic species and their potential impact on the bay ecosystem, along with the recent discovery of viral hemorrhagic septicemia (a wide-ranging, fish-killing disease) in the Great Lakes.

"It's too early to assess those impacts," Paoli said.

Perch anglers aren't waiting around for those questions to be answered. They're savoring the current situation.