Lake Erie fishing called best in 40 years at Governor's Fish Ohio Day

PORT CLINTON - While dozens of state legislators from all around Ohio set out for a day of fishing Lake Erie for the 39th annual Governor’s Fish Ohio Day, it was actually two young girls who stole the show.

Bree and Lilly Obhof, daughters of Ohio Senate President Larry Obhof, R-Ashtabula, went perch fishing with their father, Lt. Governor Mary Taylor, Jim Zehringer, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, and others during Tuesday's event.

They out-fished them all, as Bree reeled in a total of 23 fish and Lilly caught 19.

“They pretty much dwarfed the rest of us, but we had a good time,” Zehringer said.

“We’re calling her the fishing queen,” Taylor said of Bree, “and Lilly is the fishing princess. She competed hard, but she didn’t quite catch up with her sister.”

Bree said next year she is going to try to catch 30 fish.

“We very much enjoyed spending our day on the lake, even though we didn’t catch our limit and even though I got beat by an 11-year-old,” Taylor said. “That’s the next generation. Getting them engaged in this wonderful lake will, over time, we hope, help make our job easier. The most important thing we can do is to protect this lake.”

“The event is all about learning about this great resource, the outstanding fishery, need and efforts to protect it,” Larry Fletcher, president of Lake Erie Shores and Islands, said of the Governor’s Fish Ohio Day.

In 2017, there was a total of $15.1 billion tourism-related economic impact, generating $1.9 billion in taxes, in the eight Ohio counties that border Lake Erie, which includes Ottawa, Lucas, Sandusky, Erie, Lorain, Cuyahoga, Lake and Ashtabula, according to Fletcher.

There were a total of 128,000 tourism-related jobs that year in those eight counties, Fletcher said.

“To me, that’s a testament to the power of that lake to drive tourism,” he said.

Fletcher’s boat with five anglers brought in more than a 100 perch.

“A lot of them we probably could have kept, but we thought, ‘Go back, grow up and we’ll see you again in a year or two,’” Fletcher said.

“The fishing’s been the best I’ve heard in 40 years,” Zehringer said. “I’ve been hearing numbers that are off the charts A couple weeks ago we went out in the central basin, and in one hour, we limited out.”

“I caught six fish. It was a great day. Any day on the lake is a great day,” Taylor said. “We have such a special natural resource, an asset for the state of Ohio in Lake Erie and I can’t think of a better day to be able to showcase how wonderful Lake Erie is.”

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