Lake Erie's Loss... We are saddened to report the passing of Ed Heubel, a founding member of the S.O.N.S. of Lake Erie and hatchery manager at their co-op nursery. Erie officers of the Fish and Boat Commission will always remember his colorful and heartfelt speeches and the enthusiasm he brought to the S.O.N.S. meetings. Ed would always razz us (in a way only he could) about the guaranteed-winning tickets he'd sell for that month's 50-50. His dedication to the Lake Erie Fishery was an inspiration to so many us and he will be missed. Steelhead... The fishing has been spotty. Exploratory runs are short-lived in the low & clear water conditions. Fly fishermen are having the greatest success using extremely small presentations. Anglers on the wall are hooking some in the mornings but the catch rate drops drastically when the sun gets high. If you are looking for alot of hookups and catching a limit... it would be better to wait for the fall rains and cooler temperatures. If you just want to get away and enjoy the weather along the stream then it is a perfect time. Wall anglers must remember that it is a violation to permit lines to interfere with boat traffic in any way. Channel depths require that bigger boats huig the east jetty wall while in the channel. Yellow Perch ... It just keeps getting better out of Walnut Creek. Limits were being taken in an hour with most fish running 12" - 16". The school is about 4 miles out and shows no sign of diminishing. Walnut Creek Cooking Demonstration ... A great success this past Sunday with 150+ people in attendance. Angler donated Perch along with the delicious baked goods brought by the women made for a real feast to wind down the boating season. Batter recipes were abundant and the camraderie was terrific. Thanks to all that helped make it a major success. Steelhead/Salmon Season violations 2000/2001... A rough count of West County district records this past Steelhead Season found the following violations that citations were written for: 16 Nursery Water, 34 Littering, 16 Snagging, 14 Netting, 14 Private Property, 20 No License, 16 Limits/Fishing Regs, 100 PFBC Property, 14 Boating Equipment, & 5 False Statements. These numbers do not reflect warnings that were given but only citations. (This effort was greatly due to the Deputies as WCO Bowser was off for heart surgery for 3 months) Reporting Violations... With a guesstimated total of 40,000+ steelhead anglers being patrolled by 3 full time officers assisted by 12 part-time deputies, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that not all violations are detected. Officers rely heavily on reports from sportsmen that observe slob behavior. To facilitate this reporting & detection, we take steps that have proven effective over the past seasons such as: * WCO's & deputies carrying cellphones * Officer placement at highly accessible/visible locations * Staggering of shifts * Utilization of PFBC facilities as communication/coordination centers * Implementation a "common areas" to saturate more officers into high violation areas I know that some anglers feel that if they hadn't been personally checked, that there must be no one out on patrol. When manpower permits, we will do individual license checks along the streams but violations seldom occur in the presence of a uniformed officer. We generally try to be as "non-intrusive" as possible to anglers by having roving patrols maintain surveillance of stream sections discreetly and allowing the high visibility officers to gather information on potential violations to dispatch them to. Contact phone numbers to report violations: WCO John Bowser 774-0928 (office) 881-5657 (cell) WCO Mark Kerr 796-1378 (office) 673-4650 (cell) WCO Tom Edwards 730-1165 (cell) Remember... these fish do not belong to the officers, we only try to make sure they are not taken unfairly so they will be there for the legal sportsmen to try for.
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