SANDUSKY, Ohio — Ben Simon owns his own boat and doesn’t need to go out on a charter, but that didn’t keep him from joining the 44th annual Governor’s Fish Ohio Day.
“We’re fishing for walleye today," Simon said. "We each get assigned a boat with charter captains."
The event celebrates the contribution that the fishing industry makes to Ohio’s economy.
Fishing and all of the industry that supports that is up to a $6 billion contribution to Ohio’s economy,” said Eric Weimer, fisheries biologist researcher with the ODNR’s Division of Wildlife.
But before any fishing happens, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources helps determine how many fish people can actually catch and take home.
“The work we do in our offices are really centered on assessing abundance of adult fish, the amount of harvest each year, and the amount of young fish that are coming into the population so we make sure we don’t overharvest our Lake Erie fisheries,” Weimer said.
Those numbers help determine fishing regulations. The Division of Wildlife uses a gill net — one of several methods — to catch adult fish to determine their health and abundance.
They then dissect the fish to determine its age and eating habits
They remove the fish’s otolith, a part of the inner ear also known as ear stones, to determine a fish’s age. It’s similar to rings on a tree trunk.
The division also uses electrofishing to catch fish. It sends an electric current into the water, which temporarily stuns the fish so they can be caught with a net.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine took part in the annual event.
“It also brings people together who are from different disciplines doing different things, with the one thing in common: that they all love Lake Erie and they know how important (it is) to the state of Ohio,” DeWine said.
Simon, for his part, didn’t walk away empty handed.
He caught 12 fish and kept eight.
“Best part about it was going out on the boat," Simon said. "Very successful day."