Morrow County pastor has different angle on prolific walleye surge (VIDEO)

MOUNT GILEAD –Experts are puzzled and anglers are ecstatic as Lake Erie is teeming with walleye. Last year Lake Erie fisheries reported an astounding two million walleye that were caught; nearly five times the harvest in 2011. One Mount Gilead pastor sees the explosion of walleye as answered prayer and a call to action.

“Anytime wildlife comes back to life like the walleye we see in Lake Erie, it is a blessing from GOD. A lot of factors have to come together for something like this to happen,” says Reverend Steve Brenneman Senior Pastor of Awakening Christian Center. “The Bible makes it very clear that GOD created the fish and that He has called us to rule over the fish of the sea.”

Brenneman formerly served as Morrow County Sheriff for twelve years before becoming pastor of his church located at 6790 County Road 121, outside Mount Gilead, Ohio.

According to the Ohio Department of Wildlife, Lake Erie is home to fifty-percent of the fish in the Great Lakes and sports fishing is an $800 million industry to eight counties along Lake Erie. Interestingly, Ohio’s portion of Lake Erie supports nearly seven thousand jobs annually.

The sheriff-turned-pastor has several family members who fish in Lake Erie, and sees a stark contrast from what Lake Erie used to be when several decades prior it was contaminated and eating fish was prohibited.

“There used to be an all-you-can-eat fish fry our local community had a long time ago until it was discontinued when water conditions deteriorated. Today with the resurgence of walleye harvests, the western basin of Lake Erie is reclaiming its title as the ‘Walleye Capital of the World‘ and people come from all over to fish.”

The rebound of the Lake Erie walleye remains an enigma.

What sets the 2019 harvest apart from other years is how widespread the flourishing walleye schools are in Lake Erie. In recent weeks, good walleye fishing was reported off every port along the Ohio shoreline, from Toledo to Conneaut.

“We can’t put our finger on the exact mechanisms,” says fisheries biologist supervisor Eric Weimer at the Division of Wildlife’s Sandusky Fisheries Research Unit in Sandusky.

As one of the pastors who led a clergy press conference declaring 2019 as the “Year of the Bible,” Brenneman warns the church about not living a watered-down version of Christianity.

“We are to be good stewards with the blessings GOD gives us and be engaged in the Great Commission. Scriptures tells us that what happens in the physical realm is what is happening in the spiritual realm. Christ has called us to be “fishers of men.” As abundant walleye harvests are being seen in our lake in the physical, so an abundant harvest of souls should be seen for the fishers of men. The Church needs to be busy telling the world the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven.”

View the WEWS News Channel Five video below discussing the 2019 Lake Erie Walleye.