An early preview from the 2026 qualitative walleye hatch summary that was presented to the Ohio Wildlife Council on Oct. 7 is more good news for the state of Lake Erie walleye fishing. Ohio’s trawl survey results in August found that the Division of Wildlife officials “ expect exceptional walleye fishing to continue for the foreseeable future.”
Of course, this qualitative prediction is only based on Ohio ’s August western basin survey and the final combined Ohio-Ontario western basin index will be part of a final news release in December, according to Travis Hartman, DOW ’s Lake Erie fisheries program administrator.
“ Ohio’s 2026 trawl survey results suggest that we will have another above average year class entering the fishery as 2-year-olds in 2028. In 2025 the Ohio angler walleye harvest rate was 0.93 fish per hour, a new record for 46 survey years, ” the summary document noted.
There are four categories to predict generally the future abundance of 2-year-old walleye: low, less than 10 million fish; moderate, 10 million to 20 million fish; large, more than 20 million fish; and exceptional, more than 20 million fish with potential to be extremely large…