The Michigan Department of Natural Resources reminds anglers to monitor their live bait purchases this holiday weekend and also to look for juvenile Asian carp during the entirety of the fishing season. The DNR is taking many steps to prevent adult Asian carp (bighead and silver) from entering the Great Lakes, but many people don’t realize that juvenile Asian carp pose a threat to the state’s waters, too.

Juvenile Asian carp can be confused with common baitfish – such as gizzard shad, emerald shiner, spottail shiner or golden shiner. Because bait often is transported across state lines, including from areas with breeding populations of Asian carp, it would be possible for juvenile Asian carp to make their way into the bait supply without anyone realizing it.   Read more

The Department of Natural Resources’ popular Master Angler program, which recognizes those who catch fish that exceed certain minimum standards, has undergone a major change for 2015.

Originally, Master Angler status was determined by the weight of the fish. But with catch-and-release fishing growing in popularity, in 1992 the program began recognizing anglers who released specimens by the length of the fish they caught.

Now, in a move to simplify the program in 2015, the DNR no longer will require weights for Master Angler consideration, even if the fish are kept. Weights, however, still will be used to determine state-record fish.

Michigan anglers submitted fewer trophy fish to the program in 2014 than they did in 2013, but they set five state records nonetheless. New state marks were established for black buffalo, brown bullhead, flathead catfish, quillback and white perch.

“Overall, the number of fish entered into the Master Angler program was down in 2014 from the previous year,” said Lynne Thoma, who runs the program for the DNR Fisheries Division. “It was down in both categories – catch-and-release and catch-and-keep. But we did have five new records. I think that’s the most new records ever.” Read more

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources reminds everyone that the annual Summer Free Fishing Weekend is set for Saturday, June 13, and Sunday, June 14. That weekend, residents and nonresidents can fish without a license, though all other fishing regulations still apply.

Michigan has celebrated the Summer Free Fishing Weekend annually since 1986 as a way to highlight the state’s vast water resources and high-quality fisheries. With more than 3,000 miles of Great Lakes shoreline, 11,000 inland lakes and tens of thousands of miles of rivers and streams, fishing and Michigan go hand in hand. Read more

As this year’s open-water fishing season gets under way, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources reminds anglers that fisheries personnel will be collecting data (about anglers’ fishing trips) at lakes, rivers and Great Lakes ports.

DNR creel clerks will be stationed at boat launches and piers, asking anglers questions as they return from their fishing trips. Information will be requested on trip length, target species and number and type of fish caught. In some cases, creel clerks may ask to measure or weigh fish and to take scale or other bony part samples for aging. These data are key information in managing the state’s fisheries resource. Read more

Steve VanDerLaan is a busy guy this time of year.

As the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ statewide fish-stocking biologist, it’s VanDerLaan’s job to get the annual hatchery production – in the vicinity of 18 million fish weighing 395 tons – out to the state’s lakes and streams during a roughly eight-week window.

He has plenty of help. Ed Eisch, who works out of the Platte River State Fish Hatchery and supervises the six-hatchery system, is in charge of raising the fish. Christian LeSage, a fisheries biologist who works out of Lansing, is in charge of allocating them. And a handful of workers load and drive the trucks. But VanDerLaan is in charge of getting them where they belong. Read more