Pennsylvania’s limit for Lake Erie yellow perch will remain at 30 per day and the creel limit for walleye will still be six per day, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission said today.

Presentations on diving in Lake Erie, its shipwrecks and the War of 1812 are the highlights of the Great Lakes Seaway Trail Blue Byway Seminar April 13 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Clarion Conference Center and Marina in Dunkirk, N.Y.

The $50 admission includes lunch. Walk-ins, as space allows, are $65 each. Register online or call (315) 646-1000 Ext. 203. Preregistration is requested by April 10.

Freediver Sam Genco will talk about the variety of diving, snorkeling and freediving adventures available on Lake Erie, a central part of the Great Lakes Seaway Trail region along 518 miles of freshwater shoreline in New York and Pennsylvania. He is a U.S. Coast Guard-licensed captain and a former captain with Osprey Charters of Barcelona, N.Y.

Other presenters:

Erie Maritime Museum eucation pograms cordinator Linda Bolla will speak on “The Fabric of Time: Two Iconic Flags from the War of 1812,” and living history programming coordinator and U.S. Brig Niagara volunteer Ed Bolla will talk about the Battle of Lake Erie and the building of Perry’s Fleet at Erie;

Underwater explorer Jim Kennard on his discovery of the HMS Ontario, a 22-gun sloop that sank in Lake Ontario in 1780, and National Weather Service forecaster Robert Hamilton on historic weather conditions that influenced the wreck of the Ontario;

Historical archaeologist Dr. Douglas J. Pippin of the State University of New York at Oswego, with details on ship building at the British-held Fort Haldimand on Carleton Island in upstate New York;

New York Sea Grant Coastal Recreation and Tourism specialist Dave White on tools and apps for boaters, canoeists and kayakers based on the Great Lakes Observing System;

St. Lawrence River charter captain Jeff Garnsey on his grandfather, a rumrunner during Prohibition.

Learn about the state of Lake Erie during a free public meeting April 11 at 7 p.m. at the Southtowns Walleye Association club house, 5895 Southwestern Blvd., Hamburg, NY., about 90 minutes from Erie on Interstate 90.

The meeting is put on by New York Sea Grant, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, New York state Assemblyman Sean Ryan and the Southtowns Walleye Association.

Presentations will address the status of the warmwater fish community, with NYSDEC Lake Erie Unit leader Don Einhouse; status of the coldwater fish Ccmmunity, with NYSDEC Senior Fishery Biologist Jim Markham; the New Western New York Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management, with Dr. Christopher Pennuto of Buffalo State College; and a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service program update from fishery biologist Denise L. Clay.

For information, call New York Sea Grant Coastal Education Specialist Helen Domske at (716) 645-3610.

The allowable catch for walleye and yellow perch in Lake Erie has been set at lower totals than in 2012.

The Lake Erie Committee announced the total allowable catch after its meeting Thursday in Niagara Falls, N.Y. The committee includes fishery managers from Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Michigan and Ontario.

The recommended total allowable catch is 3.356 million walleye and 12.237 million pounds of yellow perch. Fishery managers said they decreased the TAC to “reflect fish hatches in recent years that have been weak.”

Total allowable catch represents the number or weight of fish recommended to be caught by sport and commercial fishers without putting the fisheries at risk.

The 2012 total allowable catch for walley was 3.487 million.

Ohio will be entitled to 1.715 million fish, Ontario to 1.445 million fish and Michigan 0.196 million fish. Limits in Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario are set separately by those jurisdictions because the majority of the walleye harvest occurs in western Lake Erie.

“Due to a series of poor year classes, the population in 2014 is expected to decliine, potentially leading to lower TACs in future years as the fish from the strong year classes age and the total size of the walleye stock decreases,” the Lake Erie Committee said in a news release. “The decreased TAC recommendation for 2013 reflects the committee’s goal to manage the lakewide fish stocks sustainably, recognizing stakeholder input.”

The yellow perch TAC is a 10 percent decrease from the 13.637 allocated in 2012. The committee said it believes “harvestable stocks are lower than last year; the TAC for 2013 reflects the committee’s consideration of the importance of relative stability of harvest.”

Pennsylvania will receive .949 million pounds of the allocation. Ontario will receive 5.969 million pounds, Ohio 4.896 million pounds, Michigan 0.164 million pounds and New York 0.259 million pounds.

The Lake Erie Committee works with the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, a Canadian and U.S. agency.

Erie County figures prominently into the fish that the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission says were the largest reported caught in Pennsylvania in 2012.

Anglers from Erie County and other northwestern Pennsylvania counties caught the first-, second- or third-largest fish in 11 different species categories last year. Lake Erie figured into more trophy catches than any other water, but Kinzua Dam, Justus Lake, Blue Jay Creek and Conewango Creek also made the list.

Erie’s Robert Einodshofer doubled up; he caught the state’s biggest known rock bass and the No. 3 northern pike, both out of Lake Erie.

Listed are only the leading catches by Erie-area anglers, or by anglers from out of the area who fished in northwestern Pennsylvania waters; the full list is here. The Fish and Boat Commission issues the list each year based on entries to its Angler Award program.

One oddity: The state-record lake trout that Todd Young, of Nazareth, caught on Lake Erie in May 2012 is not included on the list of the year’s biggest lake trout.

Jack McGill tries his luck on the ice near Fry’s Landing on Misery Bay at Presque Isle State Park in Erie on Feb. 5. McGill, 60, of Fairview Township, caught the largest white perch in Pennsylvania in 2012. CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/Erie Times-News

Rock bass: No. 1 Robert Einodshofer, Erie, 1 pound 4 ounces, Lake Erie

Smallmouth bass: No. 2 Andrew Schell, Halifax, 7 pounds 9 ounces, Lake Erie

White bass: No. 1, Kathy Sisk, Warren, 2 pounds 9 ounces, Lake Erie

Bullhead catfish: No. 2, Ryan J. Norr, Guys Mills, 2 pounds 2 ounces, Justus Lake

Channel catfish: No. 2, David T. Bishoff, Erie, 17 pounds 7.5 ounces, Lake Erie

Freshwater drum: No. 1, Edward F. Sieminski, Youngsville, 14 pounds 2 ounces, Kinzua Dam tailwaters

Muskie: No. 1, Robert M. Sprankle, Mentcle, 44 pounds 4 ounces, Kinzua Dam

White perch: No. 1, Jack McGill, Fairview, 1 pound 11.5 ounces, Lake Erie

Yellow perch: No. 1, John B. Alexander, Erie, 2 pounds 8 ounces, Lake Erie

Northern pike: No. 3, Robert L. Einodshofer, Erie, 15 pounds, Lake Erie

Chinook salmon: No. 1, Gary Rohal, Verona, 14 pounds, Lake Erie

Coho salmon: No. 1, Mark D. Johnson, Hawk Run, 11 pounds, Lake Erie

Pink salmon: No. 1, Robert Schoeller, Erie, 4 pounds 8 ounces, Lake Erie

Steelhead: No. 1, Allan M. Povanda, Greensburg, 15 pounds 9 ounces, Lake Erie

Brook trout: No. 2, Scott Baldi, Erie, 4 pounds 2 ounces, Blue Jay Creek

Brown trout: No. 2, Melissa Rogowski, Erie, 14 pounds 5 ounces, Lake Erie

Golden palomino trout: No. 2, Cody Lyons, Bainbridge, 8 pounds 4 ounces, Conewango Creek

Lake trout: No. 1, Emma Pritchard, Rimersburg, 16 pounds 14 ounces, Lake Erie

Walleye: No. 3, Dennis M. Weaver, Nicktown, 11 pounds 12 ounces, Lake Erie

The B.A.S.S. Mid Atlantic Divisional Tournament in July on Presque Isle Bay and Lake Erie will feature takeoffs and weigh-ins at Perry Monument in Presque Isle State Park.

Details for the July 21-26 tournament were announced today. Erie was first announced as the tournament host in November.

The public is invited to all takeoffs and weigh-ins. Launches will start at 5:45 a.m. and weigh-ins will take place at 2 p.m. daily

There also will be a Junior Bassmaster divisional July 26.

The tournament features 12-person teams with two juniors and three alternates from each B.A.S.S. Nation state chapter. The top prize is a Skeeter TZX 180 Bass Boat with a Yamaha 150 motor valued at more than $35,000. The Carhartt Big Bass of the tournament will receive a $500 award; the $250 Livingston Lures Leader award goes to the day-two leader.

More than 100 anglers will take part from the region that includes Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey and Delaware. Winners will qualify for the B.A.S.S. Nation National Championship and Bassmaster Junior World Championship events.

The tournament will be streamed live  on www.bassmaster.com.

As part of the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Lake Erie, and Erie’s role in that victory, the Perry 200 Commemoration Commission is putting on a series of events in the coming year.

One is the Perry 200 Fishing Challenge on May 30 on Lake Erie. Put on in conjunction with S.O.N.S. of Lake Erie, it will feature multiple age divisions and prizes.

Full tournament information has not been released. For details, contact the Jefferson Educational Society at info@jeserie.org or call (814) 459-8000.

The 2013 Cabela’s Bassmaster Federation Nation Mid-Atlantic Divisional will take place on Lake Erie July 22-26, 2013, out of Presque Isle State Park.

The Cabela’s Bassmaster 2013 schedule was released Monday.

Teams form each state advance to regional divisionals. The top angler from each state advances to the Cabela’s Bassmaster Federation Nation Championship, which is scheduled to take place in October or November at a site to be determined.

Brook Tolbert, a waterways conservation officer in the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission’s Northwest Region, was presented an Outstanding Service Award Tuesday for his investigation into an illegal commercial fishing operation on Lake Erie in May 2011.

Contributed photo/Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission

The commission said search warrants led to the discovery of illegal gill net usage, unlicensed trap nets, improperly marked nets and the illegal catch of protected species. One illegal gill net stretched more than 3,000 feet.

The defendants were found guilty after a two-day trial.

If you love to fish for walleye on Lake Erie, you’ll love this video. If you’ve never fished for walleye on Lake Erie, you’ll love this video. Erie plays prominently. And did I mention walleye?