European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 03, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Comeback for Lake Erie Hunting and a song Are permitted in wilderness areas totter 3, 1989 by Angus Phillips Washington Post lobbyist Jim free s Wile does t like him Raveling on weekends but to had a invitation recently irom rep Dennis Eckart. 0-Ohio, that was too Good to pass up even in i left her Luming when our friends called to ask what we were doing Over the said free she told them of Jim won t be Here. He s going fishing in cleveland1 " truth be known he was going even Larther to the suburban Coal port of Ashtabula. Whore the River runs so foul from a Century of Industrial pollution it s considered perilous just to come in Contact with the sediment fishing out of Ashtabula who s kidding whom she must have been shocked then when free came Homo wearing a big sportsman s Grin and lugging a cooler full of delectable walleyes in the 4-Lo 5-Pound class straight from the Depths of Lake Erie. Yes the same Lake Erie that was so polluted in caught fire at Cleveland 20 years ago. How times change these Days Erie s Cool water is clean enough to support an abundance of walleyes and a reproducing population of Steelhead Trout and Clear enough thai when Cap Mark Szekely deploys his trolling lures off the charter boat fishing Gizmo. You can watch the sinkers go Down Down Down on the Down Eggers. All the Way to 27 feel before they disappear. This then is a Story of the rebirth of Lake Erie where walleyes and Steelhead Are fueling a spor Lishing Booklet in the Hoard of the Industrial Midwest it s All happening last. Five years ago Szekely s was one of ust two or three serious fishing boats working Oul of Grimy Ashtabula he was catching a few 12 to 14 Inch walleyes in the shallows close to Shore. Then one Day he look a notion Loiry deeper water in the Central Basin t2 Miles offshore. Szekely remembers it Well. He was with an Amish Friend who had dreamed for years of catching a 5 Pound Walleye they headed North and put the trolling lines Over m 70 feet of water whose clarity startled them both he caught his 5-Pounder Nghil away said Szekely then i caught one. Then i caught a 7 Pounder we could t believe Back at the Dock no one else could either. But Szekely repealed the Success often enough that summer to launch a part time business Lor himself As a charter skipper and spawn a Fleet of rivals. Today scores of fishing boats Dock in Achl Abula and head out to the Central Basin every weekend to join hundreds More from up and Down the lakefront the line wailing for the Ashtabula drawbridge at 8 a m. Saturday looked like a big City downtown Street at Rush hour. That s a big change. Twenty four years ago. Then Interior Secretary Stewart Udall said environmental damage to Erie verged on the irreversible ii was stagnant oxygen depleted algae Laden Rife Wilh chemical poisons. Dead fish were All Over the said Lynn Pontius a nurse who grew up along the Ashtabula Shore. Just eight years later. State sen. Gordon Rockwell of Michigan could say we have reversed the condition of Lake and last weekend after a 20-year infusion of $8 billion in Federal and slate cleanup funds mostly to reduce phosphorus loadings from municipal sewage treatment plants around the Lake. Eckart could invite free and a Hall dozen other Well placed washingtonians including two of his colleagues in the House to go fishing and Send them Home singing the praises of Lake Erie. Now Eckart believes one Bright economic Hope Lor replacing the declining heavy Industry of his District is tourism of All things Wilh the emphasis on sport fishing. Hell get no argument Here i lugged Home a cooler Lull of fish too Aller a Day thai saw six of us catch our limit of 36 jumbo walleyes by Early afternoon plus Lour Sec Licad in the 6-Pound Range and a smattering of Freshwater Crumlish White Perch and one Small Coho Salmon. All were fit for the Lable unlike those from some Greal lakes neighbors Erie s game fish Are Safe to eat. And after commercial fishing Lor walleyes was closed at the beginning of this decade to conserve the Supply their numbers have increased to the Point a daily limit of six per person is almost the Rule for the charter Heel i know you won t believe said Szekely As we manned the rods wailing for the Walleye strikes that came with steady regularity bul this is a slow Day Lor True said Eckard. These Guys Are used to gelling the limit by noontime and heading even on blazing hoi saturday when the Sun seared us and the water stayed Flat Calm denying us the desired Walleye chop one or another of the nine trolling rods went Down often enough to keep us Alert. Only the Walleye Light left something to be desired. Greal lakes fishing tactics involve Small Bass Type lures carried deep on Light 10-Pound-test line by Down Eggers and other heavy gadgets. The idea is for the line to break free of All the weighty hardware when a fish strikes allowing the Angler to fight the fish on Light line in a sporting fashion. Bul by the time the walleyes had been dragged behind the moving boat then cranked up from 250 feet Back and 40 feet Down they wore Little More than dead weights. Just when you began to grumble about that though a Steelhead struck danced across the surface Tail walking like a miniature White Marlin. Silver bullets we Call Szekely said. Here on dreary Erie. Imagine the stars and stripes Page 15
