In May, October and November of 1968, 2,456 walleyes of various ages were captured, tagged and released in eastern Lake Erie to determine seasonal movement of walleyes in that basin and the degree to which they intermingled with fish of the central and western basins. From 1968 to 1971, 275 of the tagged fish were recovered. Walleyes tagged in the spring on spawning grounds near Barcelona (N.Y.) moved northeasterly along the shore soon after spawning and spent the summer near the Buffalo-Niagara River Inlet area. Later returns indicated that they then reversed their direction of travel in late summer and fall and followed the shoreline back toward the spawning grounds off Barcelona. Young fish, tagged in the fall, also showed this pattern the following year. Westward movement into the central basin was insignificant, and no recoveries were reported from Canadian waters. Therefore, it is concluded that walleye populations in the United States waters of eastern Lake Erie are geographically separate from those in the western basin and that their management should be based on this inference.
