Michigan’s 2022 lake sturgeon fishing season on Black Lake in Cheboygan County will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 5. All anglers must register online by Feb. 4 to participate in the fishing season.

The harvest limit for the 2022 season on Black Lake is six lake sturgeon. To prevent overfishing, Department of Natural Resources officials will close the season when one of two scenarios occurs:

1. The sixth fish is harvested.
2. Five fish have been harvested at the end of any fishing day.

Fishing hours are 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day of the season. The season will end either at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 9, or when one of the above scenarios is met, at which point anglers will be notified via text message and on the ice by DNR personnel that they must immediately stop fishing for lake sturgeon. Read more

The growing popularity of fishing has been well documented in the last two years and one of the fastest growing segments, even before the pandemic, was kayak fishing. There are many reasons for the increased interest, including the lower cost versus purchasing a boat and motor as well as the chance to fish smaller waters and access areas that boats cannot get to.

Two kayak fanatics are the host of The Kayak Fishing Show with Jim Sammons, a show beginning its 13th season on television, and a YouTube personality with nearly 430,000 subscribers, Gene “Flukemaster” Jensen. Both have spent thousands of hours fishing from a kayak and have learned how to stay efficient on the water.

Jim Sammons Host of The Kayak Fishing Show

Accessible, But Out of the Way

Sammons has a long-running show dedicated to kayak fishing, but his love for fishing from a kayak spans decades. When he started his journey, the lifelong surfer began taking longboards off the coast of San Diego to fish for calico bass before adapting to the kayaks that were available in the early 1990s.

He’s seen the popularity of kayak fishing grow and the availability of accessories tailor made for the style advance—a significant improvement over the days when he and other kayak anglers had to custom make their own rod holders, mounts, and tackle storage. Even with the advances in gear and kayaks, Sammons has kept the same mantra for fishing gear storage.

“I want things to be accessible but out of the way and that’s something I preached when I was guiding kayak trips and still live it to this day,” he says. “The truth of the matter is kayak anglers are gear junkies and we tend to bring way too much stuff with us, and I’m no different. The key is to have everything organized and out of the way when you are casting, fighting fish, and landing them.”

Sammons has a place for everything on his kayak and has boxes made up for the target species he’s after, whether it is freshwater bass, inshore species like redfish, calico and spotted bay bass, or tuna further offshore. That includes line selection and ensuring he has everything he needs for a day on the water. Read more

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Nashville, Tenn. – Gov. Bill Lee and fishing icon Bill Dance today announced a new initiative to improve and enhance Tennessee lakes, increase visitation and honor Dance’s legacy with the creation of Bill Dance Signature Lakes. TWRA and the State of Tennessee will invest $15 million in improvements both above and below the water at 18 lakes which bear fishing legend Dance’s stamp of approval. Tennesseans will benefit from increased stocking, habitat and fisheries management, as well as improved access for fishing and boating. The collaborative effort between Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Tennessee State Parks and Tennessee Department of Tourist Development seeks to solidify Tennessee as the heart of fishing in the southeast and drive economic activity across the state.

Tennessee is home to half-a-million acres of lakes and 1.7 million people who fish according to the American Sportfishing Association. Bill Dance Signature Lakes touches 39 counties including 22 at-risk or economically distressed counties, and is an important step in helping those communities create new revenue streams through increased visitation. Fishing generates $1.2 billion in economic impact annually and supports 7,480 jobs across the state.

This initiative to improve public facilities and habitat at lakes across Tennessee comes at an important time as many of the state’s lakeside communities were devastated by severe weather over the weekend.

“Bill Dance is a tremendous advocate for our Tennessee rural communities and we are thrilled to partner with him,” said Gov. Lee. “The Bill Dance Signature Lakes highlights the importance of lakeside tourism with premier fishing opportunities and we believe this project is especially important as communities recover from the recent storms.” Read more

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources-owned Little Mud Dam on Backus Creek and Denton Creek Dam on Denton Creek, both in Roscommon County, are scheduled for removal this winter and next spring.

A recent inspection of both dams found their water-control structures are in need of extensive upgrades. After evaluating the structures’ deficiencies and age, their future maintenance needs, the estimated cost of dam replacement and the surrounding wildlife habitat, the DNR has decided to remove the two dam structures and restore the waterways’ natural water flow.

“The Wildlife Division is responsible for many water-control structures similar to these dams. They can be very expensive to repair, replace and maintain over time,” said Keith Fisher, DNR wildlife biologist. “When we have an opportunity to restore habitat to its natural setting in addition to saving maintenance dollars for other projects, it is a win-win for all involved.”

Historically, both Backus Creek and Denton Creek were active waterways for beavers and were frequently obstructed by beaver dams. These natural dams created small floodings in the areas currently known as the Little Mud Lake Flooding and the Denton Creek Flooding. They provided excellent habitat for a variety of wetland wildlife species. However, as local beaver populations declined in the 1940s and 1950s, so did the wetland habitat and biodiversity.

A hunter is hospitalized after his boat sank on Webster Lake this morning.

At approximately 11:16 a.m., Kosciusko County Dispatch Center was contacted by a residential alarm company after they were alerted to an unauthorized residential entry to a home on Webster Lake.

Despite frigid temperatures and wind gusts forecast to reach up to 50 miles per hour, Trenton Stackhouse, 27, of Milford and Darick Stiles, 27, of Warsaw, set out to waterfowl hunt on Webster Lake near Epworth Forest.

After getting underway, the men quickly realized the conditions were too difficult to overcome.

The men attempted to gather their decoys and return to the boat ramp, when large waves overtook their jon boat and it began to sink. Read more

The Michigan departments of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy and Natural Resources confirmed a report of didymo, a nuisance freshwater alga, in a stretch of the Upper Manistee River in Kalkaska County. Also known as rock snot despite its coarse, woolly texture, didymo can grow into thick mats that cover the river bottom.

The Manistee River finding marks the first detection of didymo blooms in the Lower Peninsula. In 2015, extensive mats of didymo were found on the Michigan side of the St. Marys River near Sault Ste. Marie in the Upper Peninsula.

“Didymo can attach to fishing equipment, wading gear and other hard surfaces and be moved to new waterways,” said Bill Keiper, an aquatic biologist with EGLE’s Water Resources Division. “With each new detection, it becomes more important for people who fish, wade or boat to clean boats and equipment, including waders, after each use.”

Anglers who have encountered didymo-infested streams in the western or eastern U.S. know that rock snot is more than just a nuisance.

“Didymo has potential to be a nasty nuisance species in Michigan’s cold-water fisheries,” said Samuel Day, a water quality biologist with the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians. “Unlike the harmful algal blooms that plague areas of the Great Lakes due to warm temperatures and excess nutrients, didymo blooms form in cold, low-nutrient streams that most folks would generally consider pristine and great habitat for trout. Didymo can become a problem when it blooms, covering streambeds and reducing habitat for macroinvertebrates, which are important food for fish.” Read more

ELIOT, Maine (Dec. 3, 2021) — Lure color selection is always a hot topic when it comes to any type of fishing. In ice fishing, one that is different that can be extremely productive when nothing else is firing them up is a selection of glow-in-the-dark jigs. When you add that special glow to the best ice fishing jigs ever made – Al’s lures – it’s a special combination that is sure to rapidly fill your cooler with tasty winter fish filets.

“After listening to what ice anglers will do to draw attention to their lures under the ice, Al’s ice research team developed four glow-in-the-dark colors for our popular Goldfish, Lil’ 49er, and Helgy ice jigs,” said Mandy DeBuigne, who along with husband Jeff own Al’s Goldfish Lure Company. “The results have been phenomenal, and our customers love the product.” Read more