Ohio Walleye Run is Happening

[Hawks Feather]

Today was review and testing day for the Hunter Education class and the game warden stopped in to talk to the class.  He said that he was at the Walleye Run at 6:00 a.m. this morning and was going back after the testing was completed.  While the kids were getting ready to start there test the two of us were talking and I asked him about how things were going.  Due to the rains the fishing has not been all that great the last few days but that is should improve in the next few.  I told him that I had never fished there during the run because of the people and asked him about how many were there.  The estimate for Saturday was between 4,000 and 5,000 people fishing, another 500 or so selling along the shore, and around 75 boats on the water. I said that sounded pretty crowded for a two mile stretch of river and he said that they were all in a mile and a quarter.  At that area the river might be 75 yards wide (at the most) so you can only imagine what it is like there.  He said that in the past few weeks has checked people from about every state (including Alaska and Hawaii) and then Japan, China, Germany, France, Italy, Aftric, and several other countries.  And all of those people are there looking to catch Walleyes or profit from the run.

Jerry

[Dave]

Wow!
THat's insane (sounds like first day of trout season around here). Did he say if he wrote a lot of tickets?

[Hawks Feather]

He said that citations were about normal, but they had a ‘rare group’ that they stopped.  There were four or five and one guy had fish that had snag holes in fins â€" even if caught in the lip if there are fin tears you take a picture and return the fish.  One guy was still smoking a funny smelling hand rolled cigarette, and three were carrying half empty bottles of whiskey.  He said that it was the most light-hearted group that he has seen and even when they were cited they didn’t seem to mind.  They were all just having a REALLY good time.

The largest number of citations are for fish with snag holes in the fins.  Whenever you get one you should release it.  He said that he would be checking boats coming in from Lake Erie in the afternoons this week and the river during the early part of the day.

[FinsnFur]

I was gonna say here I come but I'm going to pass now lol
It gets kinda crazy here by the roller dams too during Walleye runs. I dont know if it gets as bad as you described there though. People are crazy