Pymie Eyes

This may sound strange but I keep a log of all the Eyes I catch at Pymie. I am a sport fisher. Last year I fished Pymie 23 times for eyes. I caught 143 of them. The largest 23", the smallest well let's just call it bait. My average fish length was 14.23". I kept 8 fish for the season. It's just me and my wife and she doesn't like to eat fish. So I will only keep a fish between 18" and 20" anything under or over that length I throw back. In the spring I caught a lot of sub legal fish. In the fall pretty much the same but caught most of my larger ones in the fall. What are your thoughts and guesses on Eye size this year. Do you think all those sub legal guys grew up or do you think as soon as they reach legal size they go into the meat hunters freezers?

That's why they're in the lake.  If it's legal it's going home unless it's over 20"+.

jmat it is sportsman like you that will help preserve our resources. i am a catch and release only fisherman and i fish pymatuning at least 150 days a year and have landed and released all of my fish. im not saying u cant keep fish god knows we all paid for them through fees but when guys tell me they caught hundreds of walleye and  other species and put in thier freezers only to throw away in the spring for fresh fish that just stinks if they are are so called expert fisherman shouldnt they be able to catch them at anytime and have fresh fish not frozen

Any fish i kept tasted real yummy :) except for the ones i traded to a buddy of mine for some canned elk mmm fair trade in my opinion

Put and take lake since time begain. I don't feel bad about keeping every legal one get, I never keep and eye thats 15 inches on the button because I want no warden hassles but 15.25 on the rope. I perfer 16-18 inch fish because I think they taste better but all eyes taste fine.Big fish are fillet (twice) so ther not real thick and all red meat trimed away.

My thoughts are that most of us throw back the sub 15 inchers but I would bet most Amish keep everything they catch.

I keep every legal one i catch, unless like said before it is 15 on the button.  I let them go.  Any thing other than them in the basket and then the freezer

Is there still ice on the lake?

I will be fishing on that lake somewhere this weekend.  Dont know where yet but definitely somewhere
 

Even tho they are calling for crappy weather took a ride to the lake today and the lake is really opened up!  From Snodgrass all the way to the Causeway is wide open fellas! Couldnt see past that and wasnt taking a ride to the Causeway  There is still like a huge sheet (at least 800 yrds long) of ice to the right of the Jamestown launch till the dam/outflow area but theres still open water on the outsides of the sheet of ice!  Wont be long now before it stays open!

We are getting dumped on with snow right now. It's been coming down good since last night. Took a ride past the spillway and its locked up all the way to the breaker wall, only directly in front of the chain was open and it wasn't much.

I'm breaking out the ice stuff again... Haha. Actually I was walking on the ice in the back part of the cove (where you would launch your canoe or kayak) just to see if it would hold and I know it's only 1-2' deep (from taking my kayak out 2 weeks ago there haha).

Hartstown swam is froze over again as of this morning on my way home from work. I think this just pushed back our wading by another 2-3 weeks, but Mother Nature has been cruel to us lately so she may make up for it with a week of 40's or 50's and get things started sooner.

Well i fished hard this weekend where i could find open water.  Lots of ice on the lake mostly skim but enough to be a pain in the arse.  No fish it is going to be a couple weeks now with the ice that is on the lake. 

I would have to assume the water temp is only 34-36. Did you spend any time in the shallows?

According to various WCO's, Pyme walleye fry have a < 1/10 of 1%  chance of a survival rate which is exactly the reason Ohio and PA stock them. Don't take my word for it. Ask any WCO there or go to the hatchery in Linesville and ask. CNR is fine, but one needs to keep it in context. CNR for wallyeye at Pyme isn't going to make a difference other than making some people feel good about upholding their personal fishing philosophy and I'm not "blasting" them for doing what makes them feel good. Just don't be judgemental [I'm not implying that anyone is] about anybody keeping their legal limit.
I fished Pyme with various people that I didn't know on Easter day. Total walleye was 8, one 15" and the rest were 20-22". This was all from shore and methods tried were vertical jigging, bladebaits, bait with float and stickbaits. 1/2 of the people were locals and the other half were not. 6 people with an average of 10 hours/ person = alot of effort with little return. This is an actual account of the day. I had heard from a WCO that other people at other spots on the lake did better.