A new pilot program from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources now allows boaters to make slip-specific reservations in select Michigan state harbors during the 2017 season.The five facilities participating in the pilot project are:

• William G. Milliken State Harbor (Wayne County).
• Straits State Harbor (Cheboygan County).
• Grand Haven Marina (Ottawa County).
• Lake St. Clair Marina (Macomb County).
• Saint Clair Boat Harbor (St. Clair County).

Read more

Fall is harvest time in Michigan, and while most may be thinking of picking apples or plucking pumpkins, Michigan Department of Natural Resources fisheries crews are thinking about walleye.Specifically, they’re collecting the last of the walleye fingerlings that are raised in rearing ponds for stocking and getting the fish to where they want them to be.

For the most part, walleye are reared for a short period of time in ponds and stocked as spring fingerlings – most at less than 2 inches in length – in high densities. But fisheries biologists know that fall fingerlings can be stocked at much lower densities and produce better results than spring fingerlings. Read more

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and several partners released more than 7,800 juvenile lake sturgeon into various public waters across the state this summer and fall in an effort to rehabilitate this culturally significant fish species.

The juvenile fish were collected from the wild last spring and reared in streamside facilities until they reached at least seven inches or larger in size. Most fish were tagged prior to being released into their respective rivers to allow future evaluations of stocked fish. Read more

For some, catching a lake sturgeon is the thrill of a lifetime. For many…that thrill will never be experienced. But what if it could be – simply by making a trip to the St. Clair River?According to Mike Thomas, a DNR fisheries research biologist at the Lake St. Clair Fisheries Research Station, the St. Clair River is one of the only waters within the Great Lakes (and their connecting waters) where you have a very good chance of targeting and catching a lake sturgeon.

“When someone calls and indicates they’re interested in getting involved in lake sturgeon fishing, the north channel of the St. Clair River is the first place I tell them to go.” Read more

Many people agree that steelhead are one of the country’s top sport fish. The bulk of anglers take advantage of their spring spawning runs in March, April and May, but some rivers also have a fall run of steelhead when fish come into the rivers well before their normal spawning period and then hang out all winter. This means the next fishing opportunity is just around the corner.

Most parts of the state offer great waters to target steelhead on – and southeast Michigan is no different! Primarily you’ll find fall steelhead runs in the Huron and Clinton rivers, which both have lots of public access points along the stream. Read more

Next level Micro DVR-DT Underwater Viewing Systems unlock overlooked fishCrosslake, Minn. – Still so much we don’t know about what’s really happening beneath the surface.

Interesting to consider that beyond water and oxygen itself, perhaps the single most important fish-locating factor remains the least understood. Water temperature is so vital to fish that each species’ existence depends on an optimal range. Locate the ideal temperature at the right depth, and you’ll almost always land on gamefish gold.

But how to put these key pieces together and solve the puzzle? Read more

Youth and adult holding Chinook salmon on charter boatFollowing recommendations of the Lake Michigan Committee, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources will adjust Chinook salmon and lake trout stocking in 2017 and 2018 to relieve predation pressure on prey (alewives) in Lake Michigan.

This will be the fourth significant stocking adjustment to predator levels since 1999. The five-member Lake Michigan Committee is made up from all state management agencies that border Lake Michigan and the Chippewa-Ottawa Resource Authority. Recommendations from the committee represent the consensus of its members. Read more

Last week, the Michigan departments of Natural Resources, Environmental Quality and Agriculture and Rural Development jointly inspected the Grayling Fish Hatchery located on the East Branch of the Au Sable River in Crawford County.The inspection was conducted following the discovery in June of New Zealand mudsnails immediately upstream and New Zealand mudsnails downstream of the privately-operated hatchery. New Zealand mudsnails compete with native snails and other macroinvertebrates that trout may eat.

Inspection of the Grayling Hatchery followed a letter from the hatchery’s operator, which invited the three state agencies into the facility to conduct an inspection, and to review procedures the hatchery has instituted to reduce the risk of spreading the invasive snails.

In July, the DNR required risk reduction procedures to the hatchery owner in order for him to be able to stock fish in public waters. The owner independently also implemented additional risk reduction practices, including use of well water for fish transport. The inspection last week confirmed a source of well water is available to the hatchery for use in trucks transporting fish. Use of this specific source of well water ensures invasive snails are not leaving the property in river water.

With well water being used for fish transport, the remaining required practice to implement – which aligns with industry standard – is to hold fish for no more than 36 hours without food before transporting them. The 36-hour maximum no feed period is designed to minimize the possibility fish will feed on snails and move them elsewhere, even though snails are not a preferred food source for trout.

The on-site inspection also included surveys for New Zealand mudsnails within the facility. A small number of specimens presumed to be New Zealand mudsnails were collected from the walls of the hatchery’s raceways, where trout are reared for the purposes of stocking in other waters and harvesting for market.

Results of genetic testing are expected by the end of this week to confirm if those specimens are indeed New Zealand mudsnails. Read more