With two years behind us with near-record catch rates for nearly all of Lake Erie's popular game fish species, 2009 looks to be another year of full creels and lunker fish. In fact, if past trends are any indication, many of the fish caught this year will make even the most seasoned Lake Erie fisherman whoop like a schoolboy who has just earned his first kiss.

Lake Erie anglers have been experiencing phenomenal success in recent years. Numbers are very good to fantastic for almost any species an angler chooses to pursue. Trophy-sized fish are abundant in Lake Erie, and anglers are taking Fish Ohio qualifiers with extraordinary regularity.

Large fish are being caught so regularly that many veteran anglers on Lake Erie are predicting that established records should start falling.

Here is a look at what is happening and how you can get in on the action.

WALLEYES
The big story on Lake Erie is the walleye, perhaps the most sought-after fish by sport anglers on Lake Erie in recent years. Walleyes have been surpassing most Buckeye State anglers' expectations from Toledo to the Pennsylvania border. Last May, a Lake Erie angler caught a monster walleye that was just a couple ounces shy of the state record. The fish was taken in the Sandusky Bay near the Bay Bridge.

Other anglers fishing a tournament in the area during the same time were also turning in amazing catches of bruiser 'eyes themselves. This trend became more the norm during most of May and through June for anglers throughout Lake Erie's fishery as walleyes in the mid 20-inch range became commonplace.

Jeff Tyson, an Ohio Division of Wildlife biologist supervisor, heads the Sandusky Fish Research Unit, one of the two fish research units monitoring Lake Erie.

Using information obtained through netting programs and creel reports, the research unit relies on population modeling. These models are used to determine regulations year to year that will best serve Ohio's Lake Erie anglers while protecting the long-term sustainability of the fishery.

The present bag limit of four walleyes per day from March 1 through April 30 and six walleyes per day from May 1 until the last day of February is one of those regulations. There is a 15-inch minimum size limit for walleyes on Lake Erie.

A good example of one of the programs being used is the radio-tracking program conducted last year and being continued this spring in the Sandusky River and Sandusky Bay. While walleye numbers may be good on Lake Erie as a whole, the production numbers for the Sandusky region have been falling in recent years, and radio-tracking may help provide answers as to why and how to correct it.