[BottomBouncer]

There may be more reason on why Ohio's game fish, such as bass, walleye, crappie, etc. are not as big in Ohio as they are in surrounding areas.
The growing season each year, or when the weather is warm and fish are feeding the most is shorter in Ohio than say Kentucky or West Virginia. However, it is not shorter than Michigan, or even Canada. Yet, when you go up north you tend to get better fish populations and larger numbers of large fish which is what makes Canada so popular.

I'm not sure if any of you have ever considered this, but acid rain could be the cause of low or declining fish populations. Check these numbers out:

Natural rain acidity is 5.6 on the pH scale (7 being neutral, anything above 7 is a base, below is an acid)
A level of 5.0 affects fish reproduction.
4.5 is leathal to fish.
4.4 is the average for the northeastern part of the United States.

Ohio is completely covered by the area that is in the 4.6 average.

The areas outside the Indiana, Kentucky and W. Virginia borders area affected very little.

Just thought I'd share this with you......just a little deduction I made based on information in one of my classes.

 

[mrfish/OH]

Interesting

I always thought our acid producing coal plants were affecting NY. Weren't they about to sue us ?
That's probably one of the reasons for sure. Another one I think is we draw down the lakes alot in the winter for flood control. Thus we don't have the massive weed beds in Ohio lakes. Then we flood them in the spring. Can't be benificial for the fish as they would have to move all the time. In other words, their territories and habitats are always changing.

 

[BottomBouncer]

All the southern and mountain states out west don't have the coal burning plants like we do.....#1 problem!

 

[mrfish/OH]

Combination of things

I'm sure there's alot of things, along with the acid rain. Pollution from farms, municipalities( sewage) , increased fishing pressure. Drawdowns, weather patterns. Look at all the new construction, the water flows are altered from all that too.
It would make an interesting study to do an actual comparison for us & the surrounding states. Where does the water actually come from. Compare fisheries that have waste from towns, water run near farms, water in natural areas. What are the differences, in the fisheries, if any. The Ohio River is one of the better fisheries & gets the water from about 1/2 of the state. Has the largest wipers, stripers, alot of catfish. Plentiful enough for commercial fisherman to run nets, trotlines, etc. Thats all the time.
Interesting topic alright. What's worse, the farm run off with pesticides, herbacides, waste from livestock, or suburban water? Suburbs, cities get all that stuff off the roofs, oil, from the roads & parking lots, salt from the winter, industrial pollutants, lawn service, etc, etc.
Mountain states near here( W.VA) has a big problem with strip mining and the silt filling in what was productive trout steams are now "dead". I forget where I read this, but someone living there wrote that he's lived there all his life, and now the pristine creeks are destroyed where he is.

 

[BottomBouncer]

I think some of our primitive sewage systems NEED changed. I don't know how many of you are familiar with Greenlawn dam here in Columbus, but the tailwaters might was well be sewage. The place stinks.

This idea of dumping into the creeks and rivers is irresponcible. Granted it would cost millions, but it will cost more in the long run.

 

[Erie]

a couple of reasons ...

no# 1 ~ Ohio only has "One" Lake within it's borders & that's Lil' Nettle Lake in Williams County .. the rest are manmade impoundments/Res with most being overfished.

no# 2 ~ our hugh population puts unrealistic demands on our limited acreage of impounded water/fish resulting in a nearly Put n Take fisheri which req stocking.

PS .. New York State is a Granite base soil, while we are limestone base, which neutralizes acid .. NY/Pa get our prevailing winds & are a dumpin' ground for our unscrubed soft coal burnin' plants (at least in the past)

 

[Wise1]

Interesting stuff here.............especially aboutthe lack of natural lakes...........I did not know that, If Indeed I read that corretly

 

[cwcarper]

Erie, you beat me to it . I was going to say almost exactly what you just said. (Well, except for the Nettle Lake part. I didn't know it was the only natural lake. I just knew there weren't many.)

 

[MadCatter]

Lake Erie is a natural lake. as are the Portage Lakes. I have never given much thought to the size of fish in our lakes and streams, I would say one reason to me would be that Ohio is on a transition line temperature and Hill and flat land .. we are neither hot nor cold, and our lakes are made up different from north to south .. I would say that our weather might be a huge factor, in that we have a variety of waters that seem to be a boundy line for a lot of different species. Plus our fish get fished to death. I believe what holds Lake Erie back from having walleye in the 20lb class is Canadian commercial fishermen, they may also play a factor in the fact that Erie doesn't contain a large number of Jumbo perch...

 

[BottomBouncer]

I think those people up north need to commercial fish their own lakes and not the lakes shared with another country/several other states. Doesn't seem right to me?

 

[flathunter]

Commercial fishing, that is a bad word

 

[MISFIT]

i kinda agree with a lot of what Erie and MadCatter said,with one exception to both their statements.i don't know the number,but several of the portage lakes are not natural.they were built to supply the canal.

 

[finaddict]

Isn't Punderson a Natural Lake caused by the Glaciers.

 

[bob oh]

Nettles Lake in Williams Co. is the only natural lake inside Ohio's borders -- the Portage Lakes and all the rest are man made. That, and fishing pressure, are big reasons why Michigan (which has lakes up the wazoo) and especially Canada have better and bigger fish of certain species. you can see that by fishing the Michigan lakes near Detroit which will not yield like the lakes in the low populated regions of Michigan. I guess whether Lake Erie contains a lot of jumbo perch depends on what is classified as a jumbo. Tons of perch over 11" and a lot over 12" are caught from Huron to the PA border almost every fall. Probably more perch come out of Lake Erie than any other freshwater lake in the world.... both commercially and through sportsfishing....
And I agree, commercial fishing, especially gill nettingon Erie, SUCKS......

 

[BottomBouncer]

Stages pond near Circleville is natural and was caused by a glacier.

 

[mrfish/OH]

hey bob oh

You better find us some nice fish July 7th
I'm looking forward to sweating from something other than hard work ! I was just reading this post & got thinking about this summer's event coming up.

 

[Erie]

Jim ...

Like Lucky's S-Bass without doin' the arm thingy??

 

[bob oh]

Madcatter, I apologize, apparently there were some glacial formed small lakes in Ohio, including some in the Portage group, so my source was wrong. I am ordering a book from the state that is suppose to list all of the natural lakes in Ohio. I'll try to report back......

 

[Erie]

The state put the info out about Nettle Lake being the only natural lake within Ohio's borders many years ago .. maybe they use a acreage guide-line for there statement .. because I know of quite a few small wetland potholes & ponds around Ohio including the 3 small natural wet-land ponds under Indian Lake.

 

[bob oh]

WOW !!!!!!

Ray, this is wild I have always been told that Neetles was the only natural lake in Ohio, but this is quoted from a publication that I got from the Water Division of the Ohio DNR called "Natural Lakes in Ohio (Larger than 5 Acres)".

There are 110 natural lakes in Ohio larger than five acres, covering a total surface area of 4,658 acres. These lakes occur in 21 of Ohio's 88 counties. Summit County has the most lakes with 34, followed by Portage County with 16, and Geauga County with nine. Portage County has the largest area covered by natural lakes with 1,493 acres, followed by Summit County with 1,216 acres, and Stark County with 452 acres.

The 20 largest natural lakes in Ohio are:
1. Aurora Pond, Portage County, 345 acres; 2. Chippewa Lake, Medina County, 324 acres; 3. Turkeyfoot Lake, Summit County, 318 acres 4. Wingfoot Lake, Portage County 262 acres; 5. Congress Lake, Stark County, 200 acres; 6. Springfield Lake, Summit County, 200 acres; 7. Lake Hodgson, Portage County, 190 acres; 8. Lake Pippen, Portage County, 143 acres; 9. Meyers Lake, Stark County, 134 acres;10. Bass Lake, Geauga County, 128 acres;11. Odell Lake, Holmes County,107 acres;12. Punderson Lake, Geauga County 101 acres; 13. Summit Lake, Summit County, 100 acres;14. Nettle Lake, Williams County, 94 acres; 15. West Twin Lake, Portage County, 91 acres;16. Silver Lake, Summit County, 91 acres; 17. Sandy Lake, Portage County, 90 acres; 18. Sippo Lake, Stark County, 88 acres; 19. Muzzy Lake, Portage County, 82 acres; 20. Lake Nesmith, Summit County, 80 acres.

DRN e-mail the book to me....