As in many recent years, the 2023 calendar was filled with plenty of good news on the wildlife and habitat front, an abundance of coverage of our world-class wealth of walleye, and accounts of great folks introducing our younger generation to the rewards of conservation, fishing, and hunting.
And unfortunately, the miscreants worked their way into the story as well — and we had an ecological disaster threaten some of our waterways.
It was just a few decades ago that anytime bald eagles were mentioned, the air was filled with concern and consternation. But Ohio continued its remarkable recovery from a low of just four bald eagle pairs about 40 years ago to the more than 800 nesting pairs that were counted in the early 2023 survey. This continues one of the greatest wildlife restoration efforts in history.
It was also early in 2023 when a train derailment in East Palestine, on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, threatened the lives of the residents of the area as deadly chemicals spilled into streams and toxic clouds loomed overhead. An estimated 50,000 fish were killed as the pollutants surged down streams near the crash site. The long-term impact on the ecosystems in the region remains a scary mystery.
Spring saw the arrival of thousands of migratory birds and the profound resurgence of The Biggest Week in American Birding festival after the pandemic had hindered the celebration in previous years. The colorful and melodic warblers arrived right on schedule and the throngs of birders from all over the globe who attended the festival were reminded once again of the priceless nature of good habitat.
We also saw judgment day finally arrive for the two men at the center of the walleye tournament cheating scandal. Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky, the pair who attempted to cheat their way to a big payday in a Lake Erie walleye fishing tournament in the fall of 2022 by stuffing lead weights inside fish, were sentenced in a Cleveland courtroom after changing their initial not-guilty pleas to guilty.
The duo received just 10 days in jail, along with a mandatory three-year suspension of their fishing privileges, payment of court costs and a $2,500 fine, and probation to follow their time in jail. The plea arrangement also called for the forfeiture of the Ranger Pro Fisherman boat and trailer that had been seized as evidence early in the investigation, but many of their fellow tournament fishermen cried foul, making the case that the pair had received a relative slap on their fishing wrists.
Cominsky’s legal problems were compounded later in the year when he was charged with eight wildlife crimes by Pennsylvania officials, all related to the illegal taking of white-tailed deer. He was charged with taking bucks outside of the hunting season and without a valid hunting license. That case is working its way through the courts.
The 99th running of the historic Mills Trophy Race was won by the powerhouse team aboard Flat Stanley, a Melges 32 owned by Terry McSweeney and Trey Sheehan. This was the sixth Mills Trophy win for the Flat Stanley group.
Wind Stalker and skipper Paul Goddard took first place on the President’s Course in the PHRF division, with Robert Bradley and B4 winning in the Jib & Main. Wildcat with Russ Atkinson and Will Taylor aboard won the Governor’s Course race.
The Mills Trophy Race, a night sailing adventure across western Lake Erie, will celebrate its centennial event in 2024. The 100th running of the Mills is expected to draw a huge field as sailors all around the region seek to be part of this historic event.
The walleye fishing feast on Lake Erie continued in 2023, with a seemingly unending parade of limit catches from the spring jig bite, through the early summer drifting and trolling phase, and on into the heart of summer. The phenomenal fishing on the big lake intensified in July and August as anglers enjoyed the best yellow perch fishing in many years, followed by a mild fall weather period that allowed the trollers and the rock hoppers to slay walleye into the start of winter.
The Lake Erie Walleye Fall Brawl tournament had more than 10,000 anglers competing, and Ryan Smith from the Cleveland suburb of Olmsted Falls won the event with a 12.54-pound walleye that he caught a little before midnight on the day after Thanksgiving.
Smith’s walleye brought him the top prize in the Brawl, a new Ranger 622 FS Pro fishing boat valued at $140,000. Smith also entered Lake Erie’s other big-money fall tournament, the Walleye Slam, and he finished at the top in that event, winning a Warrior V238 boat valued at $174,694. That 12-pound Lake Erie walleye was worth nearly $315,000.
The fall deer hunting season brought relatively mild weather and good overall success for Ohio hunters, with one of the highlights being a 17-point buck harvested with a crossbow by Upper Sandusky hunter Trisha Lucius, who was hunting on her own for the first time when she took the huge deer.
But the good news of the hunting season was marred by yet another instance of foolish and brazen poaching when a trophy-class 18-point deer was downed in the middle of the night in a normally quiet Rossford residential neighborhood. The criminal, who left the deer in a driveway, has not been arrested.
As the year drew nearer its close, more good news came from Travis Hartman, the Lake Erie Fisheries Program Administrator for the Ohio Division of Wildlife. Hartman, whose job description includes the critical task of shepherding that precious Lake Erie fishery, reported that 2023 brought yet another strong hatch of walleye, further reinforcing that huge cache of fish already residing in the lake.
Hartman shared the news that the walleye hatch index for the 2023 class was 132 fish per hectare (a standard measure of catch per area — a hectare is about 2.5 acres). This is significantly higher than the average of 56 young-of-year walleye per hectare.
This year’s hatch continued an incredible winning streak for the lake since four of the top five hatches in the last 36 years have taken place in just the past six years. As the fish from those four recent mega hatches continue to feed and grow, that should translate into exceptional fishing in the western end of the lake in 2024 and the years that follow.
First Published December 30, 2023, 4:00 p.m.
