"Fishing is a passion that can never fully be explained." Unknown

Welcome to

The Hook!

... the newsletter voice of LECBA

Ahoy Captain,

Can you believe it … here we are looking at November?

The damage caused by hurricane Helene and Milton have been devastating. I know some of us snowbirds unfortunately suffered damage to our winter getaways.

Personally, Susie and I were fortunate that we skated. The resort where we call home in the winter lost a few trees and lots of tree debris to clean up, but overall, no one or assets were lost, damaged or destroyed.

Prayers to all our fellow saltwater captains, freshwater guides, beach going friends, mountain and valley friends and families that were affected by these monster storms. Recovery will take time.

Most of you have your boats tucked away for their winter naps, plus you have all your maintenance planned to complete through the winter months. Those fish will be waiting for your call to come with the spring ice out.

Hopefully, we will have some ice this winter.

Take this time to take care of yourselves also.

Thanks to all of you that took time out of your schedules to attend the Captain’s Education Day at Stone Lab. We had a great turn out. I understand it was a good day and the trawls showed some interesting fishes. If you have any suggestions for next year’s program, please don’t hesitate to email your ideas to my email address pegvanvleet@gmail.com.

If you did not have time to attend, I encourage you to please try and attend next summer. This is a program that is put together to keep us Captains up to date on the science of Lake Erie.

As for me ... the best news I can share … I'm in 100% remission … thanks to my medical team at the James Center. Thanks to all of you for keeping all those positive thoughts and prayers. They all worked. For now, I have beat this monster!!

Stay safe wherever your travels may take you.

With that, I’ll close with, “Have a Happy Holiday season.”

Tight lines and signing off till next year.

Respectfully,

Captain Peg

Captain Peg VanVleet

Editor, The Hook

LECBA VP Environmental Issues for Lake Erie

937-414-6742

From the President

The Importance of LECBA Membership

by Captain Paul Pacholski

LECBA would like to thank you for your membership and financial support throughout the past. Your dues are an important and integral part for our continued involvement and commitment in fishery management and conservation issues. We remain committed to protecting our precious resources and keeping you informed for a better fishery.

With that being said, for those who are not members of LECBA or have not yet renewed we would like to remind you how important your membership is to us.

It is not time to relax in the face of harmful algal blooms and invasive species coming into our lake. More research is needed into the yellow perch population and into the movements of the walleye in algal bloom situations. We work with the ODNR and various universities by providing boats and expertise to aid them in their research.

We continue to make yearly trips to Washington DC to meet with Senators and Congressmen to keep Lake Erie front and center in their minds and legislation. We are making significant progress in these issues, but much more is needed. Last year’s hosting of Governor’s Day brought the governor along with Ohio State Senate and House of Representative members, giving us great opportunity to have one on one talks with the legislators.

Now is not the time to become complacent!! Your membership IS important and WE NEED your support!

We are the only organization out there protecting your interests.

We cannot do this work without your involvement. Please renew or join LECBA to protect and better Lake Erie.

Captain Paul Pacholski

75th Anniversary of ODNR

For 75 years, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR)has been leading the effort in Ohio to expand conservation and outdoor recreation.

In that time ODNR has designated 76 state parks, 147 state nature preserves, 24 state forests, 15 scenic rivers, more than 200 wildlife areas and so much more.

ODNR is celebrating accomplishments from across the decades including the reintroduction of Trumpeter Swans this year and the work we’ve done in the past, such as mapping the state’s geology and increasing Ohio’s tree cover.

2024 is not only a year of celebration for ODNR, but also a year where we continue this path of excellence and expand on our progress.