Fishing the Great Lakes; Top Fisheries News Stories



`Week of March 24, 1997 --->`

If JCAR's rule stands, Illinois will be the only Lake Michigan state to allow a commercial perch fishery.
The Joint Commitee acted upon a petition form Represenative Phil Novak , a south side native who long has been a sycophant to commercial interests, Senator Donne Trotter, who flipped aside concerns of anglers by saying "they can always take up golf" and Tom Ryder (who was the only commitee member to oppose the reversal.) State law forbids the DNR from trying to overturn JCAR's decision for 180 days.

Illinois Reverses Rule on Commercial Perch Fishing Ban

"Let the sport fishermen take up golf, said JCAR co-chair Senator Donne Trotter"

With no warning to the Sport fishing community the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) voted 8-1 to overturn the commercial fishing ban on yellow perch in the Illinois waters of Lake Michigan.

"We are not going to stand for this", said Jack Vadas, president of Perch America. "We're going right to the attorney general to ask for an investigation into this".

"We had been calling the DNR for a week prior to the meeting to ask them if anyone knew what was happening, they kept telling us they really didn't know", "well they did know because those same people gave testimony at the meeting".

The action of Trotter's committee jepardizes a tenuous agreement between Illinois and three other states to manage the perch fishery as a single entity.

Ohio Flooding May Have Effected 200,000 Steelhead trout Plants

"At one point, flood waters inside the hatchery had risen above the tops of the fish troughs that were protected by sealed covers. " Pike County, OHio

At stake is the state's supply of 200,000 steelhead trout scheduled for release March 31 through April 3 in four northeast Ohio tributaries of Lake Erie. In addition to the main hatchery building, flooding has affected numerous fish rearing ponds, a home, and about a half dozen outbuildings at the Kincaid facility.

"Fortunately, the steelhead trout were housed within the hatchery building itself and not outdoors in the rearing ponds. Flooding has breached the main building and some of the hatchery ponds, but spared others. We now have a critical 72-hour period to determine if efforts to save our trout supply will be successful," Isbell said Tuesday following his visit to the Kincaid hatchery.

Wildlife agency workers struggled throughout the weekend to keep a power generator running and pumps going to prevent the concrete troughs holding trout from flooding, thus causing a total loss of the fish. At one point, flood waters inside the hatchery had risen above the tops of the fish troughs that were protected by sealed covers.
Of concern in saving the trout was the significant influx of muddy, turbid flood waters entering the hatchery's water system. The Division of Wildlife also said it likely lost an unknown quantity of minnows used in feeding muskies reared in the hatchery's outdoor ponds and a number of broodstock muskies.

Heavy rains and flooding caused five deaths in Ohio, including one in Pike County.

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