I'd be all for paying for a walleye/sauger or call it the tooth stamp if it meant more stocking of walleye, esox, and sauger. Just dont know how they could enforce something like that. Probably a better idea to just to raise everyone's license $10 and put it toward that. Maybe sell coarse fish license(sheepshead, carp, kitties, redhorse, shad/mooneye etc) for cheap and a predator license(bass, walleye, pike, muskie, etc) for cheap, then a combo license would be double minus a few bucks. But again, not sure how you enforce that on anglers fishing at say the Allegheny or Ohio Rivers.
 
Only way PA F&G is going to improve walleye populations is throwing money at it.  I buy a trout stamp I use once or twice a year, until this year I paid for Erie and didn't really use it, this season I didn't get it knowing I can pay the $38 or whatever when/if my wife decides we are going to Erie this summer. 
 
 
 

The Yough Walleye Association stocks the Yough reservoir or used to with walleye (because the state doesn't think it is worth it,) perhaps we could create the Pymatuning Toothy Critter Association (PTCA), and make a deal with the PA fish and boat commission to use our donations for stocking more walleye fingerlings and Muskies? We could make a deal with the Lake Association to help with their Walleye tourney (They are in desperate need of help) for part of the take and buy more fingerlings with that money. I am already in enough clubs, who wants to be president of the PTCA?  I think BTDT should be president because of his entertaining posts here. all in favor?

NAY............ but thanks Roy. lol


I am nowhere near the years spent fishing Pymie as some who post on these boards.

I know only the information of which I have read regarding the days of old, when
catching the fish of gold, is said to have been much better.

I do find the info involving the "net catches" provided by Marco to be very interesting. That information in itself, says Walleye do exist and thrive in the waters of Pymie.

Also, I have spoken to several seasoned Walleye anglers who tell me thier catches remain constant with some very healthy fish.

Heck these guys even went to extra effort with trying to teach me thier methods. Bless thier hearts, such a waste of thier valuable time.

Perhaps, instead of calling for more money, be it through volunteers (bless thier hearts(and thank you)) or fee increases, a simple change in regulations should be tried for a few years.

Might a closed season in the Spring; a slot limit or; designated nursery waters, make a signigifant change?

Yeah I dont know how walleye populations are at Pymatuming, I dont fish there that often, walleye fishing on the Beaver/Ohio River has pretty much been same for me for over a decade. I just wish walleye bred naturally as easy as sauger do. Catch a ton of sauger, probably 3 to 1 sauger/walleye ratio and in certain spots even higher ratio of saugers. I do think something changed in the areas I fish the most after that train derailed and burned for a week in the river though, the first 24-48 hours after it derailed the water was actually on fire or looked like it as the ethanol burned. It happened in between 10th St dam and New Brighton dam, I definitely think it affected the smallmouth population(it was probably badly polluted when they hit the spawning beds that first season from the accident and the rail construction on the rail bridge) at 10th St and maybe the walleye/sauger populations at NB dam but it's hard to tell because below that dam is connected directly to the Ohio and conditions change a lot year to year.  Shenango not that I go there necessarily targeting walleye but I usually catch a few, along with a lot of other species. I wish I lived closer to the Shenango Dam, one of my favorite places to fish. 

Looch your read makes for some interesting thought.

Sauger, Walleye or, Saugeye.

The following was taken from a article written in the LAKE SCIENTIST.

"Throughout the 1960s and 70s, walleye were stocked with little success in turbid, structure-deficient reservoirs. In the late 70s, it was discovered that saugeye not only survive better than walleye in reservoir habitats, they also grow faster and are more easily caught by anglers. A phenomenon known as “hybrid vigor” can most likely explain the hybrid’s aggressive feeding"

For additional reading click the following link.

http://www.lakescientist....ke-facts/fish/saugeye/

I've been readin' this thread with interest. I would never suggest to the commission that we need another stamp to increase a species population. Most of that increased cost would never make it to the hatchery, let alone the lake of choice. I can't quote the exact figures, but in a Pennsylvania Angler & Boater at the years' beginning, they published the total income and total expenditures for the commission for the previous year. It was something like $111 million in income, with very little left after expenditures. At the time, because they had a breakdown of various expenditures, I figured out that fully 69% of that $111 million went to administration. In other words, we're buyin' conservation officers, their benefits, and their cushy retirements with our license money. If you voluntarily give them more money in licensing and stamps, they'll all get raises and we'll get squat!
Last fall, two of my boys participated in Musky stocking on the Allegheny River. This was done in cooperation of the Three Rivers Musky Club and the Commission. The boys put 14,000 eight to ten inch muskies into pool #4 between Freeport and Tarentum. An additional equal load went to Pool #3 from Tarentum to Acmetonia, and the same at Pool #7 above Kittanning up to Mosgrove. Even with the size of those muskies, the commission driver said less than 1% would survive to legal limit. If you spend a ton just to put fry in a lake, you'll get nothing in return. Just MHO!

well 40" is legal, catching a legal muskie is pretty rare and you are talking about a 9-10 year old fish. I wonder how big of a percentage make it to the 30-35 inch that seem to be most prevalent at least where I fish. In a natural setting pike yearlings eat muskie fry(and all the other predators they have to avoid, these fish run the gauntlet to make it even a few years) simply because they spawn earlier and I'm sure that's why muskie stocking programs are needed in NW PA waters that hold pike+muskie.
 
I really dont have a problem with giving them an extra $10 for a pymatuming stamp or my mythical statewide mythical tooth stamp  if I know they are gonna tackle the issue. I already buy a trout stamp for my wife and I that I dont use a and when we do we release 95% of them for some other kid to catch, 5-6 voluntary licenses for kids and grandkids so the little dudes have a license on their hat like grandpa, and I used to get Erie stamps I barely used. 2 year registrations on a couple kayaks and my jonboat. I dont mind it, especially if they would even put in 25% of the effort toward walleye that they do trout. We do go to Pymatuming a couple times a year but I usually dont get much serious me-only-no-kids fishing time
 
I'd be all for supporting private ventures too that want to tackle the issue in a smart way. I dont see it happening though for walleye. 
 
BTDT, thanks for article!

I have to agree with Emitch another stamp would guarantee little as far as more fish. Seems we are getting less and less fish stocked for our buck. I'm not talking Trout that's a whole different ball game. That program really sucks up the dollars for 10" fish.
 
Just for basic info facts Pymy is loaded with Muskies in that 35"- 40" range. Just have to put your time in but they are there in very good numbers. Walleye ? Who knows what happened.
 
Wonder why they are testing water flows on Pymy ?   

I guess crappies are more important than walleyes are on Pymatuning lake. Voting to drop the limit to twenty but refusing to have a closed season on the walleyes makes very little sense, if you're a walleye fisherman. Reducing the limit won't do much to help as guys will double and even triple dip daily. Adding a stamp fee will only line pockets with raises as we all know they will. Just shut it down for six weeks in the spring like every other PA lake for a few years and see what happens for the fishing. If they can protect the panfish, why not protect the gamefish?

Mosquito and Berlin produce walleye in numbers and get pounded. I'd say Pa. and Ohio should stock Pymy with some ridiculous numbers of fingerlings. Not like there no hatchery close by, the lake could easily turn around. Another thing I would do is remove as many carp as humanly possible. Netting,bow fishing tournaments,whatever it takes. That many carp can't be a good thing.