HARRISBURG, Pa. (April 15) – The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) announced today that the 2025 creel limit for Lake Erie Yellow Perch will remain at 30 per day and the creel limit for Walleye will stay at six per day.
The PFBC Lake Erie Research Unit evaluates the populations of Yellow Perch and Walleye in Lake Erie annually. If populations reach critically low levels, we have a process that reduces harvest and rebuilds the numbers of Yellow Perch and Walleye in the Lake. All jurisdictions on Lake Erie adhere to this system.
“The 2024 assessment showed that both Yellow Perch and Walleye populations in Pennsylvania waters of Lake Erie remain at levels that don’t necessitate regulation changes,” said Mark Haffley, the PFBC’s Lake Erie Unit Leader. “Based on this, the 2025 creel limits are being maintained at the standard limits.”
At its March 20 meeting, the Lake Erie Committee (LEC) allotted to Pennsylvania a Yellow Perch total allowable catch (TAC) of 377,000 pounds. The 2025 level includes a Yellow Perch TAC for Pennsylvania’s commercial trap net fishery of 100,000 pounds. Currently, Pennsylvania is a very small part of the total Yellow Perch harvest in Lake Erie. Yellow Perch harvest has averaged about 43,128 pounds over the last five years. In 2024, Pennsylvania only harvested 60,319 pounds (1.7%) of the 3.5 million pounds harvested lake-wide.
The Yellow Perch and Walleye populations in Lake Erie are maintained strictly by natural reproduction. Good “hatches” and survival of young fish are necessary to provide fish for sport and commercial fisheries. The Lake Erie Walleye hatches have been above average the last five years. The Yellow Perch hatches have been poor over the last five years. Both fisheries reflect these trends. Walleye fishing is excellent. Yellow Perch fishing remains below average. Sport fishing is very self-regulating. Anglers tend to fish for species based on the quality of the fishery. In 2024, 87% of Lake Erie boat anglers targeted Walleye; about 2% targeted Yellow Perch.
Based on a 2025 abundance estimate of 77.44 million Walleyes age two or older, the Walleye population has declined about 4.3% from 2024 and approximately a third (32%) of the Walleye abundance will be two-year-old fish, and only average about 14 inches in length. It takes two to three years for Lake Erie Walleye to fully grow to the 15” minimum size limit.
The PFBC’s objective is to keep harvest limits at conservative levels without being too restrictive to fisheries but also be able to act promptly if Walleye or Yellow Perch populations reach critically low levels. The PFBC adopted a regulation in 2012 which established flexible creel limits for Walleyes and Yellow Perch based on the annual quotas established by the LEC, which consists of fisheries managers from Pennsylvania; Ohio; New York; Michigan; and Ontario, Canada.
Under the regulation, the PFBC sets daily creel limits for these species by April 15 each year.
“Adaptive fishing regulations are based on the most recent fishery assessment results and are better aligned with the current status of the Yellow Perch and Walleye stocks,” Haffley added. “This regulatory flexibility gave fisheries managers the ability to change daily harvest limits prior to the onset of the summer boat fishing season on Lake Erie.”