Trending
ESCANABA – Walleye season will start Sunday on Little and Big Bays de Noc and the rest of Upper Peninsula waters. Over the years, the walleye population in the bays has been an issue of keen interest locally. The state of the walleye population has been ever changing due to issues with invasive species, water density and clarity, and fewer reproductions in the Little Bay de Noc and Big Bay de Noc waters, according to the Department of Natural Resources.
“This is something we’re trying to understand,” said Troy Zorn, a DNR fisheries research biologist out of Marquette. Zorn has been studying Little and Big Bays de Noc waters and has noticed a slight decline in the population of walleye.
With the introduction of invasive species such as zebra mussels and goby, a bottom dwelling fish that was invaded the Great Lakes along with zebra mussels in the 1990s, the walleye population has decreased. Contributing factors include changes in water clarity and density, causing there to be less food for the walleye to eat when they hatch. Water clarity has increased 65 percent between the early 1990s and 2010s in Big Bays de Noc. Because of this, the forage fish most commonly eaten by the walleye has declined by 62 percent.
Zorn, along with other fisheries biologists, have been stocking the bays with walleye for decades in an effort to maintain the fishing population. According to Zorn, in 2004 through 2009, 76 percent of the walleye that were in the bays were of natural reproduction.
“The main thing that supports the population is natural reproduction,” said Zorn. “The bay may not be as capable to reproduce.”
But with walleye on a slight decline, another fish has taken a rise – the smallmouth bass.
“There’s more bass fishing than 10 or 20 years ago,” said Zorn.
“The bay is changing. Slowly getting warmer over time. There’s less forage out there,” Zorn said. According to Zorn, these changes are not only happening in the Little and Big Bay de Noc, but also in all of Lake Michigan.
“It’s happening all throughout the lake,” said Zorn. “This is the lowest (density) levels we have seen since 1970.”
According to a fish community status assessment in Little Bay de Noc and Big Bay de Noc for an April 2016 report by Zorn and Darren Kramer, DNR natural resource manager in Escanaba, catches of walleye in the summer have reportedly declined. Angler reports show the average distance of the catch location from the tagging site of the walleye from the Rapid River access site of Little Bay de Noc has increased from less than five miles to more than 25 miles. In other words, the summer-caught walleye that used to come from Saunders Point (central Little Bay de Noc) now come from 10 miles south of Escanaba, which is outside of Little Bay de Noc. The cause of this increase is due to the changes that are happening to the bays ecosystems.
Zorn also indicated in the assessment the catch rate for walleye for 2015 in Little Bay de Noc was 3 percent and for Big Bay de Noc 1.1 percent. Further assessments of catch rates and the state of fish populations will be made in late summer of 2016.