Introduction

The Bay of Quinte supports a large and economically important recreational fishery. Walleye have been the dominant species sought and harvested in the fishery since the early 1980s. This recreational fishery developed as the walleye population recovered following production of the large 1978 year-class of fish.

The size of the fishery grew throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, peaking in 1996 at over one million hours of angling effort. Total annual walleye harvest peaked earlier, in 1991, at about 220,000 fish.

A major feature of the Bay of Quinte walleye population is that large mature walleye migrate to Lake Ontario following spawning, in the Bay of Quinte, each spring to spend the summer months. Young walleye (e.g., age 1 to 4 yrs-old) reside in the Bay of Quinte year-round. This life history characteristic is important because it influences the size and age of walleye available for harvest in the recreational fishery.

There are two major components to the walleye angling fishery, the winter ice fishery and the open-water fishery.

The ice-fishery is the smaller of the two; traditionally comprising roughly 35% of the fishing effort and 15% of the walleye harvest on an annual basis. Much of the annual variation in fishing pressure and success during the ice-fishery is due to unpredictable ice conditions. Walleye of all sizes are harvested in the winter fishery.

The open-water fishery is larger and the harvest consists mainly of young immature fish. In contrast to the winter ice-fishery, the open-water fishery has shown a steady decline in walleye fishing success and harvest since 1991. The decline in the fishery parallels changes in the walleye population in response to dramatic shifts in the Bay of Quinte ecosystem (Chapter 10 in this report). These ecosystem changes include increased water clarity and aquatic vegetation, and have favored fish species such as yellow perch and centrarchids (bass and sunfish). To date, these changes have resulted in a decline in the abundance of young walleye—those residing year-round in the Bay of Quinte; thus the greatest impact has been on the open-water recreational fishery.

This chapter updates the results of ice and open-water recreational angling surveys conducted in 1999. The open-water angling survey was unique in that the entire season was surveyed (the last complete open-water survey was conducted in 1993), and also included a survey of the Picton Bay late fall "night" fishery.

Recreational angling surveys are conducted annually on the Bay of Quinte, from Trenton in the west to Glenora in the east (Fig. 1), during the walleye angling season (January 1 to February 28 and first Saturday in May to December 31). Angling effort is measured using aerial counts during ice fishing surveys, and a combination of aerial counts and on-water counts during open-water surveys. On-ice and on-water angler interviews provide information on catch/harvest rates and biological characteristics of the harvest. Hoyle (1998, 1999) reports detailed survey designs for ice and open-water surveys, respectively. In addition to the annual ice and open-water surveys, in 1999 an access survey was conducted at the Picton Bay harbor during late fall. Shore and boat fishermen were counted, interviewed and their catch sampled. Although, this local fishery occurs primarily at night, some of the angling effort observed in this survey overlapped with that of the regular open-water roving survey. Hence, results of the Picton Bay survey are reported separately. Separate reporting of results maintains the comparability of the open-water survey to previous years.

Ice Fishery

Ice angling effort was estimated to be 140,363 rod-hours (Table 1). The fishing pressure was slightly greater than the previous year but was down over 50% from the previous 5-yr average (Fig. 2). Low fishing pressure may have, as in the previous year, been partly related to poor ice conditions but poor ice conditions also occurred in 1995 when effort was considerably higher. This suggests that a real decline in angling effort may have occurred over the last two years. An estimated 23,293 walleye were caught of which 15,285 were harvested. The number of walleye harvested was more than double that of the previous year and similar to the previous 5-yr average (Fig. 3). Fishing success rate was also nearly double that of the previous year and among the highest recorded during past winter surveys (Fig. 4). For the first time since surveys began, ice fishing success rates surpassed those of open-water angling. The average walleye harvested during the ice fishery was 558 mm fork length and weighed 2.3 kg.

Open-water Fishery

 Open-water angling effort was estimated to be 374,128 angler-hours (Table 1, Fig. 2). Angling effort has declined for three consecutive years to its lowest level since 1990. Walleye catch was estimated at 47,562 fish of which 33,575 were harvested. The number of walleye harvested was down 35% from last year and has now declined for three consecutive years to its lowest level since 1979 (Fig. 3). Walleye angling success (0.127 and 0.090 walleye caught and harvested-per-rod-hour, respectively, in 1999) has been declining since 1991 (Fig. 4). As fishing success declines, CUE and HUE appear to be converging (Fig. 4), indicating that walleye release rates are also declining—anglers are keeping a higher percentage of their catch. The average walleye harvested during the open-water fishery was 430 mm fork length and weighed 0.96 kg. This is an unusually large mean size, and is consistent with the observation that recruitment of small, young fish has declined (see Chapter 3 in this report). Total open-water walleye harvest by weight (32,165 kg) was, for the first time, less than that of the winter ice fishery (35,156 kg), and has now declined over 75% from its peak in 1993 (132,560 kg). Prior to 1999, the last complete open-water survey was conducted in 1993. For the years 1994 through 1998, survey results from selected time-periods within the open-water season were extrapolated to the entire season based on the seasonal pattern of fishing effort and success. The 1999 survey now allows re-calculation of the 1994 to 1998 results based on interpolation between the two complete survey years, 1993 and 1999. The updated results are presented in Table 2. To examine changes in the Bay of Quinte recreational fishery, a summary of 1993 and 1999 catch statistics is presented in Table 3. Total fishing pressure (all anglers) has dropped 41% from 644,477 to 379,012 angler hours while walleye catch, harvest and success rates have declined from 70 to 80%. In spite of these results, the Bay of Quinte fishery remains a walleye fishery, with 99% of observed fishing pressure being targeted toward walleye. Other species in the fishery are, for the most part, caught incidentally by walleye anglers, and some notable changes have occurred between 1993 and 1999. In general, the Centrarchid family of fish is much more prominent in the anglers catch; sunfish, smallmouth bass, and largemouth bass have all increased. Yellow perch catches have dramatically increased. And, although the catch of northern pike increased only slightly, this was accomplished with much less total fishing pressure. These trends in catches are consistent with a changing ecosystem. Increased water clarity and aquatic vegetation favored these species. The other observation of note is that round gobies were observed in the angler survey in 1999, the first year that gobies were known to have invaded the Quinte area.

 Picton Bay late fall fishery

 Picton Bay shore and boat anglers caught 1,010 walleye of which 572 were harvested during the last three weeks of November and first week of December. Nearly 6,000 hours of fishing effort occurred during this time. Over 80% of the participants in this fishery originated from outside the Quinte area. Boat anglers caught the vast majority of the walleye (988 fish). The average walleye harvested was 590 mm fork length and weighed 2.5 kg. This is a much larger average size of fish than that caught during the rest of the open-water fishery, and reflects the movement of large, mature fish back to the Bay of Quinte from Lake Ontario in the fall.

The Picton Bay fishery represents one of several small, seasonal angling fisheries not adequately covered by the annual open-water angling survey. This small fishery was thought to be one of the larger of these small fisheries, and although it may be becoming increasingly important relative to the open-water fishery as a whole, it still only represented 2% (by number) and 4% (by weight) of the measured 1999 open-water walleye harvest.

Management Implications

Fish community objectives for Lake Ontario (Stewart et al. 1999) proposed that walleye fisheries be maintained at early 1990s catch rates. The current Bay of Quinte walleye fishery now falls far short of this objective. Although alternative species appear to be increasing in abundance, anglers have yet to target species other than walleye. Nonetheless, catches of species such as bass and pike will likely continue to increase in the future. Promotion of other species and a review of harvest regulations may be prudent at this time.

Assessment and Research Needs

 Changes in the Bay of Quinte recreational fishery relate largely to broad ecosystem changes brought about by efforts to control pollution and, especially, more recently accelerated by dreissenid mussel invasion. Aquatic vegetation increased tremendously in the mid-1990s but has not been recently surveyed. The density of dreissenid mussels has not been surveyed since 1997. Assessment of the extent to which ecosystem change continues would benefit from a re-survey of aquatic vegetation and mussel densities. The extent to which round gobies, an exotic species first detected in 1999, will become an influence on the Bay of Quinte ecosystem, and thus the recreational fishery, is not known. Largemouth bass, which increased dramatically in anglers’ catches between 1993 and 1999, are not adequately assessed in index netting programs. Independent indices of abundance and biological attributes (e.g., year-class strength) of bass and goby populations would be useful. Changes in the Bay of Quinte ecosystem have reduced the potential sustainable yield of walleye. Efforts need to be made to refine estimates of the sustainable level of walleye exploitation. To this end, it is vital to continue to estimate walleye harvest from all fisheries and update estimates of walleye population size.

HOYLE, J. A. 1998. Bay of Quinte ice angling survey, 1999. Lake Ontario Management Unit, Internal Report, LOA 98.09. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Picton, Ontario.

HOYLE, J. A. 1999. Bay of Quinte open-water angling survey, 1999. Lake Ontario Management Unit, Internal Report, LOA 99.02. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Picton, Ontario.

STEWART, T. J., R. E. LANGE, S. D. ORSATTI, C. P. SCHNEIDER, A. MATHERS, M. E. DANIELS. 1999. Fish-community objectives for Lake Ontario. Great Lakes Fish. Comm. Spec. Pub. 99-1. 56 p.