collapsed walleye fishery...

[bulletbob]

I understand this is a NJ forum, but I also know some NJ guys here do fish NY and Pa waters as well for various species... Since moving away from my very beloved salt water fishing in 1991, I adapted by learning how to fish for what was available locally... First and foremost on that list was Walleye, and I had a good fishery for several years in the susquehanna river.. They were there in cool water months mostly.. Oct through ice in, and then for a few weeks in May early June after the closed season for their spawn, which closes in March and opens in May...It was always there for me, and I always caught fish.. Then about 2008-2010, I noticed I caught less of them every year... Went from say 4 to 8 fish on a good November 3 hours late afternoon to evening session, to 1 or 2 fish every 2 sessions.. Then one fish every 5 casting sessions.. Then 2 or 3 an entire season, until now when I caught 1 walleye all last year, and 1 all of this year... No one has answers why these fish just vanished... SMB are still here, as are Cats, Muskies, Carp etc... NY DEC doesn't seem very interested at all.. After me bugging them for years they finally did a survey on the abundance of fish in the river in fall of 2022.. They said "yep" we didn't see many Walleyes in the river.. very few in fact, but hey the few we did see were good sized.. I guess that was supposed to make me feel better.. They won't do anything anywhere, unless its trout or salmon related, and ONLY in tourist zones[Great Lakes/Fingers/Catskills streams].... The Flathead catfish which eat everything have now made it into the NY section of the river, so I'm sure that isn't helping, but these fish have been in a steep decline for 15 years, long before Flatheads were even close to NY.... It has really affected my fishing life not having my main species, especially since the only FW fish I eat besides Perch and Sunnies is Walleye.... I really thought the NYS DEC would have at least a few theories on how a once thriving fishery could totally collapse, but not a peep, and when asked said , "yeah theres just not many in there".. I was hoping they could do better, but I guess not... anyway, maybe some guys here would like to speculate, or have seen something similar in other fresh water fisheries... Breaks my heart, but not much I can do really- other than discuss it..... bob

[AndrewT]

Looks like they stopped stocking in 2008.

https://www.fishandboat.com/Fishing/...hannaRiver.pdf

[bulletbob]

Originally Posted by AndrewT

Looks like they stopped stocking in 2008.

https://www.fishandboat.com/Fishing/...hannaRiver.pdf

right around the time I saw the steep decline actually, but that is Pa.- I imagine some of those fish do come up into the NY section of the river..
I have seen a few anecdotal reports of slow fishing in Pa. as well, but not like the total collapse we have here in NY.. even up here though there are some guys that know where a few can be found, and still catch some, but i and others that have fished here for decades and always did well simply have stopped catching Walleyes period, and the DEC has said they were scarce as well, , just didn't know why.

One thing i can say for sure- years ago, the bottom was absolutely covered with small non legal walleyes... I always called the "Spikes".. skinny 9-10 inch fish.. seriously, on any given morning or evening, you would catch 50 in an hour standing on the same rock, until you got bored and just left... Even when keeper size fish [15 in. +] were around in good numbers, on many trips, the Spikes were still there among the keepers.. they were there all year long too, unlike the legal size fish which were always tough to catch in July and August... They just didn't bite, but man those spikes sure did... Now the small juvenile fish are totally non existent.. They just don't seem to exist in the susquehanna any longer... If anyone reading this post can shed any more light on this I would really appreciate it... I just can't find any real information about it, and if the state fisheries biologists don't know why, I' m not sure anyone does... maybe the Pa fisheries guys would be more responsive.... bob

[Broad Bill]

https://www.fox43.com/article/news/l...d-7d1c77722b76

My guess would be the same factors that have annihilated the smallmouth fishery which is basically pollution and bacterial infections from agricultural and urban run off. Look at the smallmouth in the link. Combine that with probably warmer water temperatures and the Susquehanna is a sick river system. I read one article which attributed the smallmouth decline to largemouth bass virus which they didn't think smallmouth could contract. If these fish, which share the same habitat and forage as walleye, are succumbing to water quality issues in the Susquehanna, I would bet there's a high degree of probability the same is happening with the walleye population. And if all this means young of the year are dying or fish are becoming infertile, then you're looking at the beginning of the end which Bob from your post sounds like exactly what's happening. We're turning these major ecosystems into cesspools and then we wonder why fish that are dependent on colder temperatures and clean water quality are disappearing.

[bulletbob]

BB.. I read a lot of those stories oh, 7 - 8 years ago... They were all true of course, but that was more of a problem around harrisburg in central pa... from what I gather The SMB situation there has improved somewhat ... We never saw that in NY state at all.. never had a lack of SMB, and we never saw the lesions and ghastly deformations the SMB in central Pa exhibited ...Years ago the susquehanna was basically and open sewer, back in the 70's-80's, yet the river was infested with walleyes during that time... I will say this,,, When I moved here I was absolutely floored at the condition of the susquhanna compared to the delaware.. The delaware is so much more clear, and "fishy looking".. the susky is a shallow mud bog over much of its length... The water looks like a mixture of 1/3 black coffee, 1/3 pea soup, and 1/3 milk from Late May until about late October, and when it rained for a day, the river is unfishable for a week or two at time..Its more rocky and clearer in Pa than in NY... In NY it flows through Binghamton, Vestal , and Owego and their treatment plants, and before and after that it flows through dairy farms and corn and soy fields that are fertilized with slurry from the dairy farms... So yeah, not ideal,,, However, its always been this way, and never seemed to bother the Walleyes much... There are also still Muskies as well, but personally I don't fish for them, just takes too much effort,and I prefer higher percentage stuff...I'd like to see the walleyes recover in my lifetime, but at 69, I have my doubts... Such a shame really.. It was such a good fishery until about 2006 or so, when I first started seeing declines... I dunno, if SMB can spawn and survive there as well as Pike and Musky, I can't see why Walleye can't.. but then, i'm not a biologist... i would have figured they would know better than me.. sad to say, they didn't.... bob

[IrishHokie]

While looking for a Canadian fishing lodge trip, I saw this article about the collapse of the walleye population in Golden Lake near Toronto. Walleye eggs were being eaten by rainbow smelts. They are trying a solution by stocking 1 inch fingerlings which will not be eaten by these smelts.
Amazing the interactions that occur. Here is the article
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...gain-1.6931448