About 20 boats launched off the coast, giving fishermen the chance to experience one of Ohio\u2019s most popular outdoor activities while highlighting the importance of the state\u2019s fish population.<\/p>\n
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Gov. Mike DeWine participated in the event for the final time as governor<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople come here from all over because they want to catch walleye,\u201d DeWine said. \u201cI like to eat perch. I like to eat walleye, but it\u2019s the walleye that I think has really attracted so many people to come here and so it\u2019s just very, very important.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources says fishing brings billions of dollars into the state each year through tourism.<\/p>\n
“What we like to see is they\u2019re spending their tourism dollars here and they\u2019re staying in our hotels and eating in the restaurants and getting to know Ohio and seeing one of the greatest natural resources we have, which is Lake Erie, and there\u2019s so much more to do there,\u201d said Mary Mertz, director of the ODNR.<\/p>\n
Fishing conditions were challenging Tuesday, with poor weather in recent days and a rising mayfly population impacting the bite.\u00a0<\/p>\n
DeWine said the event has always been about more than just catching fish.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a fun experience for them,\u201d DeWine said. \u201cIt\u2019s also, frankly, an opportunity to be together as a family, and if you look at fishing, you look at sailing, you look at all the different things that people do along Lake Erie, so much of it is family related.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s event also marked a transition, as it was DeWine\u2019s final year as governor and Mertz\u2019s last year leading ODNR.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed it very much. I\u2019ve enjoyed being governor. I\u2019ve enjoyed doing these Fish Ohios. It is a fun activity,\u201d DeWine said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve enjoyed it every single year. I won\u2019t be surprised if there\u2019s not sometime in the future that (DeWine) and I go fishing together after all this is over,\u201d Mertz said.<\/p>\n
DeWine said he’s talked to both Vivek Ramaswamy and Amy Acton, the candidates to replace him in November’s general election, and he’s hoping they can display as much enthusiasm for the event as he did for seven years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anglers took to the water in Port Clinton for the 46th annual event highlighting fishing, tourism and family…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137],"class_list":["post-226603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}