Lake Erie phosphorus pollution causes blooms, and fishing problems -- Outdoors Notes

The Plain Dealer ^ | October 16, 2014 at 7:45 PM | D'Arcy Egan,

[BenLurkin]

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CLEVELAND, Ohio – The phosphorus-fueled harmful algal blooms, or HABs, around western Lake Erie are finally going away as water temperatures have fallen below the 60-degree mark in recent days. The phosphorus pollution causing the blooms, however, has also provoked changes in the fish populations of Lake Erie.

In this case, more fish swimming in Lake Erie is not always a good thing.

As if the ugly green slime wasn't enough to foil fishermen, the phosphorus-rich waters are too friendly to white perch, a species of fish most anglers wish would disappear. An invasive species thriving in the brackish waters of the East Coast, white perch cruised into Lake Erie through the Welland Canal a few decades ago.

Their numbers have been on the rise in recent years. They are now so plentiful Ohio commercial netters catch and sell them. Yellow perch and walleye fishermen curse the small, bait-stealing white perch all summer long.

White perch prosper in nutrient-rich water, unlike walleye, yellow perch and smallmouth bass. The phosphorus pollution that prompts the HABs and the noxious green slime in late summer and early fall has turned Lake Erie's Western Basin into eutrophic, or nutrient-rich waters more suited for white perch than the native favorites of fishermen.

[BenLurkin]

Northeast Ohio has become one of the country's premier areas for steelhead trout fishing, giving both Lake Erie anglers and river fishermen the chance to hook up with the silver bullets feasting on Lake Erie forage fish or moving up cold-water streams to spawn from fall through spring. The Holy Grail is the state record steelhead trout, a 21.3-pounder caught during the summer of 2010 by Jason Brooks (right) of Tallmadge while trolling about 17 miles north of Avon Lake with Parma's Joe Boewe. (D'Arcy Egan / The Plain Dealer)

[hinckley buzzard]

Lake Erie, once declared dead by green weenies, is the most prolific fishery of all the Great Lakes, with thriving commercial and sport fishing.

[Mike Darancette]

toss in a few million Silver Salmon fingerlings they will grow and feast on the perch.