Anglers heading to Pymatuning Reservoir for early-season walleyes should see some smaller sizes this spring because a new stocking program appears to be working.

That's the word from Ohio Department of Natural Resources fish biologist Matt Wolfe, who has partnered with Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission personnel to fix a stocking mortality problem on the 17,088-acre impoundment that spans both states.

Wolfe will update anglers as one of the featured speakers at the Allegheny Sport, Travel and Outdoor Show at the new Monroeville Convention Center that runs Wednesday through Sunday.

"It's looking good, real good," Wolfe said of changes the agencies made in their approach to spring walleye stockings. Since 2000, fry planted each April quickly died for reasons experts still can't explain. In 2008 and 2009, the agencies decided to add more than 500,000 fingerlings to the stocking mix, and they showed up in big numbers in young-of-year surveys.

"We were ecstatic," said Wolfe, who, with his Pennsylvania colleagues, last fall caught and released 90 first-year walleyes per hour -- three times the acceptable average. In 2007, they'd caught none.

Fry are grown to 1/4 to 1/2-inch in length. Fingerlings are 1 to 2 inches.

"Fingerlings and fry are completely different animals," said Wolfe. "Fingerlings are old enough to begin foraging on other fish, whereas fry eat only zooplankton and are much more vulnerable to predators."

Wolfe was unwilling, though, to pin fry mortality on predation, instead surmising there were multiple causes.

"Lakes are complex systems," he said. "The problem could have been a combination of things, including water temperature and competition with alewife for food. We're not prepared to blame any one thing."

Wolfe said efforts to nail a cause aren't as critical as finding a way to ensure survival of stocked fish. He's confident the agencies have done that. "What's important to us is that the fingerling approach seems to be succeeding," he said. "We're giving anglers hope."

Ohio and Pennsylvania jointly stocked 586,000 fingerlings in May of 2008 and 727,000 last May, using fish raised at Pennsylvania's Linesville hatchery. Wolfe said about 350,000 fingerlings are earmarked for Pymatuning again this year.

"At an optimal size of 1 1/2 inches long, there's a limit to what a hatchery can produce before the fingerlings start eating each other," he said.

Last year, the two agencies stocked the usual number of fry -- four million -- and will decide this week whether to continue the fry stockings.

Pymatuning Reservoir is jointly managed by Ohio and Pennsylvania, and there's no closed season on walleyes during the March-to-May spawn. The lake is an early spring favorite with anglers who wade the shallows at dusk and cast jigs and minnows. In summer, when water gets warm, trolling the deeper water takes over.

"2009 was the first year in a long time that the wading bite was good," said Wolfe. "When survival was poor, it wasn't good. But keep in mind waders usually catch small fish, anyway. Young and dumb walleyes come in to forage more frequently than the bigger, older, laid back fish."

Walleyes may have less to forage on this year, which could be a bonus for anglers, Wolfe said.

"The kind of harsh winter we're having may mean a lot less gizzard shad this spring. Shad are fragile and a lot of them will perish. That could make walleyes hungrier for what's on the end of your hook."

Allegheny Sport, Travel and Outdoor Show includes the following speakers:

• Kentucky muskie guide Crash Mullins on basic tactics for catching the freshwater king;

• Captain Vince Pierleoni, of Olcott, New York, on trolling for salmon on the Niagara River and targeting spring brown trout on Lake Ontario;

• Ken Hammel, of Parishville, New York, and owner of Mountain Hollow Game Calls, on how to call in spring gobblers;

• Rich Kerlin, of Aliquippa-based Kerlin Kanine Training, on tips for teaching pointers, retrievers and flushing dogs to hunt;

• Murrysville-based Bob Kirschner, manufacturer of Silver Bullet scented deer lure, on how to attract big bucks.

The show, now in its 25th year, also features hundreds of outfitters from as far as Maine and Colorado, equipment vendors and exhibitors, such as Odie Sudbeck, who will display trophy whitetail deer antlers from his Topeka, Kan., antler museum.

Snakes on Stage and the Snake Hut will showcase live boa constrictors, pythons and kingsnakes. For children, the expo includes indoor pony rides, a petting zoo and a trout fishing pond that raises money for the Allegheny County Sportsmen's League's annual Kids' Day outing.

Admission is $9 for adults, free to kids 12 and under. Parking is free. For more, visit www.sportandtravel.com.

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