Key to better fishing is to improve water quality
Results of 2007 Youghiogheny River Reservoir study announced Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission Area 8 Fisheries Manager Rick Lorson met with members of the Yough Walleye Association last Thursday evening to explain the newly released 2007 biologists report for the Youghiogheny River Reservoir.
For years the Association has been working to improve the walleye fishery through state and club stockings.
Lorson has long been an opponent of stocking walleye at the reservoir, believing that it would not have much effect on the fishery.
However, members of the Association feel the walleye population could be better.
Lorson explained that it can be better, but stocking is not the answer. The answer lies in improved water quality at the impoundment, particularly raising the alkalinity concentration, which has remained consistently low – less than 20 parts per million.
To put it bluntly, he explained that the lake is infertile.
To raise the alkalinity would be a costly project, but it could be accomplished by adding limestone or liquid phosphorous to the lake.
The latter would be more feasible, but it would require a joint effort with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the lake, and the state of Maryland in which part of the lake lies.
Lorson’s talk focused mainly on walleye at the Yough.
He noted that the key to walleye survival is the first winter, whether they are stocked or home grown. The fry have to make it through the first winter to get over the hump, so to speak.
For years anglers blamed alewives for reduced walleye success, but Lorson announced that the number of alewives are lower than they have ever been, and they are being replaced by other forage fish such as emerald shiners and fathead minnows.
During the 2007 survey, walleye ranged in age from five to 14 years old, including a large number of 13- and 14-year-old fish.
To that Lorson said, “Harvest is not really a problem. If harvest was taking the fish out, they would not be nearly that long.
“There were three-year-old fish 14 to 19 inches long and 11-year-old fish 16 inches to 22 inches long. That is another sign that fish are surviving for a long time in the Yough, and harvest is not a significant problem.”
Lorson then pointed out that from 1982 through 2007 when the various studies were done at the Yough, populations were up in times of improved water conditions and down in times of poorer water conditions.
Over the years concern was that forage fish were responsible for the “walleye decline.” Lorson said that was not the case for in the 2007 survey numbers of all species were higher than they had ever been before.
Lorson was pleased with the number of largemouth bass caught in the trap nets and collected on night electrofishing runs.
The nets yielded 27 smallmouths in the 9- to 20-inch range with 48 percent being greater than 12 inches and 22 percent greater than 15 inches.
The black crappie catch of 43 in the nets was the largest ever, but Lorson noted that the number was “not a lot” but relative because the lake is tough to get an accurate panfish sampling on.
Previous year crappie catches were “well below that,” according to Lorson.
Five crappies were over 10 inches long with the longest being 14 inches. Lorson was not impressed with the average size.
Crappie, bluegill and rock bass populations were all improved in the 2007 survey.
Lorson explained that the Yough drawdowns are based on water quality in the Casselman River, which was heavily polluted with mine drainage for many decades. With the Casselman now improved, the Yough no longer has to be drawn down the way it used to, which caused many walleye kills in the past.
The drawdowns in June and July release cold water from the base of the dam and bring warmer water into the lake from the Maryland side, thus improving conditions for the warmwater species such as rock bass and bluegills.
Lorson said, “A mature walleye lays 300,000 eggs, so it doesn’t take a lot of walleye to repopulate a lake if conditions are right.”
He said that in the future the fishery at the Yough will be managed for walleye, black bass and panfish, noting that trout haven’t been stocked there for a number of years for they weren’t enhancing the fishery.
The Fish and Boat Commission will continue to stock walleye through the year 2014 to bolster the population at the Yough.
Annual releases of 115,000 are planned.
Previous walleye stockings at the Yough included fry, small fingerlings and large fingerlings. “Today we stock very few fry and no large fingerlings,” Lorson said. ” In over a dozen and a half waters where we stock walleye, we found that the best survival rates is when we stock small fingerlings.”
Lorson said that the Corps of Engineers is asked to keep the water level in the willows if at all possible during the spawn, and club members noted that it has been doing that for the past couple of years. “Because the fish have spawned all the way to Maryland, we don’t want to leave the eggs high and dry on the banks up there,” he said.
Lorson’s biggest concern right now isn’t he water level, but the water temperature as the rise and fall in temperature since the eggs hatched can have an adverse affect on the year class.
In commenting on the alewives, Lorson said, “I did not have any concern about alewives from the git-go because the lake did not have a forage base when those first walleye were stocked” Lorson said. “At the time we stocked them (alewives) we didn’t have anything else. When they started showing up in 1990, we started seeing an increase in the growth rates off all species.”
He then noted that the Commission no longer stocks walleye in the rivers, including the Monongahela and the Ohio, relying on natural reproduction.
The question was raised as to what the club can do to improve the walleye population at the Yough. Lorson said that planting aquatic grasses and adding lime or phosphorus to the lake to improve the water quality will help, plus is should work with the Corp of Engineers at the lake to coordinate its projects with water releases from the dam.
The high pH is leeching mercury from the soil, putting walleye caught at the dam on the list of fishes that should be limited to two meals per month.
The overall fishery is good according to Lorson.
It was noted that anglers caught more walleye at the dam in the 1990s than they do now. To that Lorson said, “That is because they were hungrier then. There is more of a forage base now, making them harder to catch. There is more food there now than there has ever been.”
Members expressed concerns over missing year classes to which Lorson noted that there are missing year classes in both stocked and natural fisheries.
Would a slot limit help? “No,” Lorson said. “Fish just grow slower there because of the water. Selective harvest won’t really help the population.”
He then noted that 27- to 28-inch walleye, weighing as much as nine pounds were found during the 2007 survey, stating that it is just a slow-growing population. Walleye at the lake growing to 14 and 19 inches in three years is a slow growth rate, and Lorson pointed out that there were very few at the wide end of the range.
What it comes down to is that and increase in alkalinity would bring about a significant increase in all fish populations.
Will saugeye work at the lake? The answer was “no” with Lorson noting that the only lake where saugeye did better than walleye was Cross Creek Lake in Washington County. He said that he would not even consider stocking saugeye in the Yough.
Lorson said that with the fluctuation of walleye populations, you are only going to have really good fishing in one of every three years.
In explaining the discrepancy in the size and number of walleye caught by anglers at the Yough and the ones the biologists checked, Lorson said, “It is because the anglers are only seeing the more aggressive fish, while our studies take in all the fish in the area.”
Yough Walleye Association President Steve Popson said, “I thought the meeting went very well. Mr. Lorson gave us a good look at what’s going on at the Yough. Maybe it’s not necessarily the fish but the quality of the water that we will have to look at to decide what direction to go.
“Talking with Mr. Lorson here tonight, we now better understand what we need to do to improve the fishery, not just for one year, but for future years.
“Guys were confused as to how the lake can be considered infertile on one hand yet there is “natural wonderful” reproduction on the other. A lot of guys were confused by that statement by Lorson. I’m glad he did clear that up.”
Popson said that the stockings would continue with 115,000 small fingerlings to be stocked annually through 2014.
The club held its annual invitational at the lake recently.
Popson said, “They didn’t do too badly, considering we had three fronts come through in 24 hours. Ninety-six fish were caught with a total weight of just over 220 pounds. That was a little better than two pounds per fish.
“Five limits were taken. There were a couple of fours and some threes.
“The lunker weighed in at just over five pounds, which is not bad for the lake, plus a couple came in at 4 to 41/2 pounds.”
Sen. Richard A. Kasunic, D-Fayette, was instrumental in bringing the introductory session on the 2007 Yough report before local sportsmen.
Accompanying Lorson to the meeting were District 2 Commissioner Tom Shetterly, Waterways Conservation Officer Manager Gary Moore and Bureau of Policy, Planning and Communications Director Timothy D. Schaeffer.
Complete results of he 2007 Youghiogheny River Lake survey can be found on the Fish and Boat Commission’s web site at http://www.fish.state.pa.us.
Herald-Standard Outdoor Editor Rod Schoener can be contacted on line at rschoener@heraldstandard.com.