Category: Fishing

DNR proposes increase to Chinook salmon stocking in Lake Michigan

After decades of fish stocking decreases to balance the alewife and Chinook salmon populations, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources is seeing good indicators that a modest stocking increase may be warranted in Lake Michigan.

To discuss this proposal and receive public feedback, the DNR will host a virtual meeting Monday, Sept. 19, from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

“We have seen several years of good Chinook salmon growth and have a slight increase in the alewife biomass, or abundance of those fish,” said Jay Wesley, the DNR’s Lake Michigan basin coordinator. “Although the alewife biomass is a fraction of what it was historically, we have a good 2021-year class and have seen up to six-year classes of alewives in our fisheries surveys – that means there are up to six different age groups in the current population of alewife.”

A “year class” refers to all of the fish of any species hatched, either through natural reproduction or through fish-rearing efforts, during that year’s spawning period.

Wesley said that a recently run predator-prey model also suggests that Lake Michigan has a good ratio of Chinook to alewife biomass, which is one of many indicators used to inform stocking decisions.

“The proposed 54% increase from 650,000 to 1 million spring fingerlings is a modest increase compared to the estimated 4.5 million wild Chinook salmon in Lake Michigan,” said Wesley. “It will allow us to increase numbers at sites like Charlevoix that contribute to the entire lake fishery and reinstate stocking sites like Ludington State Park and Fairport.”

Meeting details Read more

Fishing

3 Boating Safety Tips Just Right for Fall Boating

Annapolis, Md. – Fall boating season has arrived, and with it come different types of risks that cold water and air temperatures bring. Here are three boating safety tips from the BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water just right for leaf peeping season.

  1. A float plan is needed: A float plan is as simple as telling a responsible person where you will be going and when you’ll be back. With fewer other boats on the water (potential Good samaritans) after Labor Day, a float plan ensures rescuers will be notified if you ever fail to check back in after your outing. Additionally, leaving a note under your vehicle’s windshield wiper at the launch ramp can help trigger an alarm.
  2. Got a way back into the boat? Falls overboard may be ranked #5 on the 2021 U.S. Coast Guard’s list of the “Top Five Primary Accident Types” with 273 accidents, but they also led the most number of deaths (170 fatal), as well as more fatalities than all the other 4 top accident types combined (#1 collision with vessel-1226 accidents/31 fatal; #2 collision with fixed object- 508 accidents/43 fatal; #3 flooding/swamping-461 accidents/55 fatal; #4 grounding-308 accidents/23 fatal). Your boarding ladder should be functional and accessible as cold water can quickly sap strength. If your boat doesn’t have a built in-ladder, a compact emergency ladder or even a looped line attached to a cleat, pre-rigged with foothold loops every few inches and hung over the transom, can substitute.
  3. For life jackets, camo styling hides a danger: Dark green, tan and black camo patterns are remarkable at doing exactly as designed, blending you into your surroundings. However, that’s not a benefit if you happen to be floating in the water and rescuers are searching. If possible, make their job easier and wear a life jacket with high visibility. For smaller vessels and paddlers, leaf peeping season is also a really good time to secure the life jacket to your body – that includes using buckle snaps.

 

Fishing

New Mexico Supreme Court Rules in Support of Public Access to Public Waters

Decision confirms the public’s right to walk or wade streambeds that cross privately owned lands

SANTA FE, N.M. – The New Mexico Supreme Court has ruled again in support of public access to public waters in a Thursday decision that confirms the public’s right to walk or wade streambeds crossing privately owned lands.

The opinion ruling by the court follows its unanimous decision in March to strike down a regulation that allowed landowners to close access to streams flowing through their properties. The New Mexico Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, along with the New Mexico Wildlife Federation and the Adobe Whitewater Club of New Mexico, had filed suit in 2020 asking the court to nullify the regulation as unconstitutional. That decision overturned the so-called Non-Navigability Rule and also voided closures adopted previously on several New Mexico streams. Read more

Fishing

Michigan: Didymo algal blooms found in the Boardman River

Second river in Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula to experience nuisance didymo growth

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy has confirmed the presence of didymo (Didymosphenia geminata), a nuisance alga also known as rock snot, in a stretch of the Boardman River in Blair Township in Grand Traverse County.

Blooms of didymo, a microscopic diatom (single-celled alga), were detected on the Upper Manistee River in Kalkaska County in December 2021 and have been found in the St. Marys River in the Upper Peninsula since 2015.

Not a typical alga

Unlike the harmful algal blooms that plague areas of the Great Lakes and some inland lakes due to warm temperatures and excess nutrients, didymo blooms form in cold, low-nutrient streams generally considered pristine – the same streams prized for their sport fisheries. Read more

Fishing

Michigan: DNR’s Next Round of ARPA-Funded State Park Projects Totals More Than $108 Million

Those who regularly spend time in Michigan state parks, trails and waterways know there is a lot to love: beautiful, natural spaces, room to roam, historic sites and so much more. With the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ second round of infrastructure projects starting to take shape, there is even more to look forward to – courtesy of record-breaking federal funding.

A total of $250 million in federal relief funding was made available to the DNR to help address its long list of critical needs in Michigan state parks. These American Rescue Plan Act funds are part of a $4.8 billion infrastructure package signed in March 2022 as part of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Building Michigan Together Plan.

“Michigan’s beautiful, award-winning state parks are the backdrop of countless memories for millions of people every year,” said Gov. Whitmer. “In April, I was proud to work across the aisle and sign the Building Michigan Together Plan, which made the largest investment ever in our state and local parks. The plan will fund improvements, renovations and upgrades, ensuring our parks remain great places to visit and continue to support tens of thousands of jobs and countless local economies. Pure Michigan is anchored by our state parks, and I will work with anyone to keep investing in them and powering tourism and recreation small businesses across the state. Let’s keep working together to ensure our public parks can thrive for generations.” Read more

Fishing, Hunting

Research on the Rapidan WMA: Brook and Brown Trout Interactions Revealed

About the time tulip poplars, oaks, maples, and hickories are burnished the color of an ending season, brown trout and brook trout from Georgia to Maine turn their attention to a new beginning:  procreation.  The colorful flanks of these trout mirror the spectra of leaves that carpet the floor of the Appalachian Mountains. Brown trout sport a warm honey beneath black peppercorn spots all covered in a chrome sheen. Worm-like markings lay over the dark olive backs of brook trout, flanked with shades of yellow specks punctuated by drops of ox blood, each fish dotted in its own constellation.

Brook trout are native to streams that vein over Appalachia; brown trout are a European import, well established for decades. With shortening shadows and cooler temperatures, both species lay their eggs in gravelly redds where oxygen-rich water bathes through them the winter-long as they incubate.  Brown trout may have a competitive edge over the native brook trout, particularly at lower elevations where warmer water favors brown trout. Other interactions between the two species are not well understood.

To learn more about how brook trout fare over a long span of time in the presence of brown trout, biologists John Odenkirk and Mike Isel with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (VDWR) examined a large amount of data—nearly 25 years’ worth of information—on brook and brown trout in the Rapidan and Conway rivers of northern Virginia. Sport Fish Restoration dollars—federal excise taxes paid by fishing tackle manufacturers—funded their work. Odenkirk and Isel published their findings in the scientific Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, March 2022 issue. Read more

Fishing

Michigan Steelhead Survey

Steelhead survey – share your input

We are conducting a brief survey to learn more about steelhead anglers. The survey’s purpose is to gather input from anglers to better understand your priorities and experiences, particularly in Michigan. Your answers are important to us.

The survey should only take 10 minutes to complete, and your answers will remain anonymous.

Take survey 

Fishing

Michigan: Tour Black River sturgeon hatchery for free Aug. 20

Join the Department of Natural Resources, Michigan State University, Tower-Kleber Limited Partnership and Sturgeon for Tomorrow Saturday, Aug. 20, for free sturgeon hatchery tours at the Black River facility northwest of Onaway. Tours will run from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“Visitors will see three-month-old lake sturgeon currently in the hatchery and learn about early life history and how we can all play a role to keep this species healthy in our waters,” said Tim Cwalinski, Northern Lake Huron Unit supervisor with the DNR.

Researchers from the DNR and MSU will be on hand to talk about lake sturgeon biology, early life history and current research. Sturgeon for Tomorrow representatives will discuss restoration work to improve sturgeon spawning habitat, sturgeon conservation and outreach programming. Read more

Fishing

Fishing in a Custom Wooden Drift Boat

By Glen Wunderlich

Charter Member Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA)

Brad Reynolds is nuts about trout fishing.  After purchasing a used, fiberglass drift boat for $6,000, he had second thoughts when it began to delaminate and it needed new gelcoat in a short two years of use.  That’s when his thoughts turned to building his own boat from wood, which he states is warmer than fiberglass and quieter than aluminum.  The astounding results not only turns heads, but the custom vessel was produced for approximately one third the cost of other options.

In his spare time, Brad is employed by Sparrow Hospital in Lansing as a cardiovascular technician and also enjoys anything related to fly fishing including fly tying, and custom, split-bamboo rod building.  Yet, in his garage some 20 years ago, he found time to build his vision in one summer!  Although information indicated that one can build such a boat in 40 man-hours, it took him about five times that amount.

Brad Reynolds’ Dory

Says Brad: “As someone who over-estimates the technicalities of such projects, I researched the time investment, materials, epoxies and tools.  Everything I read said nothing of the fine carpentry skills and precise measurements required for boat building.  In fact, the reading was quite to the contrary.  As a boat constructed of a stitch-and-glue technique, most of the precise cuts are eliminated, because gaps are filled with epoxy, fillers and fiberglass cloth.”

The plans were from a professional boat builder, Jason Cajune, of Montana Boat Builders (www.Cajuneboats.com).  Brad chose the river dory (a flat-bottom boat with no keel) for its ease in rowing against current.  The oars are nine feet in length and are constructed of carbon fiber and counter-balanced with floating blades to keep the rowing comfortable.   “These boats will maintain their position in a river with very little effort, while allowing the angler post up for multiple shots toward a rising fish or structure” according to Brad.

The skin for his boat is made with 3/8-inch exterior-grade plywood; the bottom is ½-inch exterior ply with emphasis on waterproof glue.  (Another more expensive option is to use marine plywood for additional strength and a rich mahogany finish.)  Trim pieces were made of ash wood – a hardwood for wear and durability without the oils of oak, which can interfere with the epoxy and the bonding process.  The floor is treated with exterior enamel paint, which can be touched up easily. 

The boat was designed with an abundance of storage options for a grill, cooler and additional bags without cluttering the floor.

9-Foot Oars

The anchor rope travels in a race under the floor to keep the rope clear from predictable, unwanted results.  The bottom’s exterior has a Teflon additive to the finish coat to help the boat slide off river obstructions.

Most dories are not motorized because they cannot get on plane and push too much water to be efficient.  At the same time, the 400-pound boat requires no registration or license per Michigan boating laws, because it is16-feet in length and not motorized.

Brad estimates today’s cost depending on wood options and finishes would be between $1100 to $1350 plus the cost of a trailer and anchor – a far cry from the market price of a finished boat.

Brad estimates the vessel has logged over 1,000 hours on the waters of Michigan’s AuSable, Grand, Muskegon and Pere Marquette rivers and with its recent renovation is equipped to do it all again.

I’ll add this bit of personal experience to fishing in this type of boat:  With a most experienced guide and operator years ago, I was free to cast dry flies onto the surface of Utah’s world-famous Green River.  Guide, Lyle Waldron, knew the turns, rocks and holes and put me on them and it all added up to a fishing experience of a lifetime.  The design allows people to fish standing up – good for spotting and a pre-requisite for unencumbered casts.

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Turning a Trout Stream Right Side Up: Colorado’s Swan River

— Craig Springer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration

Jul 22, 2022
The same source of conservation funding—excise taxes paid by tackle manufacturers via the Sport Fish Restoration Act—that pays for scientific fisheries research and management, boat ramps, aquatic education, and fish population surveys has righted an upside-down trout stream.

Spoils of cobble clog Colorados Swan River prior to restoration. Photo Jim Guthrie

Colorado’s Swan River heads in the craggy and conifer-studded Rocky Mountains near a tourist mecca of Breckenridge. This was gold country. Dating to the 1890s, dredge barges plowing through the supine streamside meadows and the river proper inverted the river bottom and flood plain. Dredges sifted and separated the yellow metal from sands and gravels. Gone is the gold. Left behind was a most unusual spoil of sand, cobbles and rubble that once constituted trout habitat.  The long, meandering pile of spoils looked from a distance like massive gray welts where there was once been a silver river bending through a verdant valley at 9,600 feet above sea level.

The Swan River certainly continued to flow—percolating beneath the long welts—hidden for decades from life-giving sunlight and depriving caddis and midge and mayflies, and the Colorado River cutthroat trout and brook trout that eat them, of their habitats. The nearly 2.5 miles of hidden river were not accessible to anglers, either.

But that has changed. A partnership involving Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a litany of other organizations such as Summit County and White River National Forest are well into restoring trout habitat to the formerly hidden reach of river, reconnecting tributary streams to the main stem Swan as well.

A tree stump is trout habitat- Swan River – Amanda Horvath USFWS photo

After much planning and preparation, restoration started in earnest in 2016. Something this massive is taken on in smaller pieces.  Approximately a mile’s worth of the massive pile of stones have been removed and put to good use, and the natural stream channel revealed.  Stones comprising the former valley bottoms are used to shape and steer the river channel, to bend and curl stream flow across the valley floor as flowing water desires to do. The excess spoils have been extracted and reduced to base material for county roads and state highways.

Another 3,100-foot-long river section is presently under restoration with streamside and upland vegetation planting to secure the soils in place and provide eventual cooling shade over the water. Woody debris and boulders set in place direct and slow stream flows and make lairs for trout to hold and feed—and await an angler’s properly drifted elk-hair caddis.

Cutthroat trout USFWS – NCTC

The trout have returned. Fish population surveys by Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologists revealed that brook trout have taken to the newly renovated stream sections. In 2016, a fishery survey documented only a few hundred brook trout larger than six inches per mile of stream. Three years later the renovated Swan River sections contained more than 1,800 brook trout per mile of stream, six inches and bigger. Moreover, fish biologists discovered that the numbers of mottled sculpin, a curious looking finger-sized fish with broad fanning pectoral fins that hold it in place on the river bottom in fast waters, have proliferated. The sculpin’s presence in impressive numbers is indicative of quality fish habitat.

The Swan River restoration in not complete. There is more stone to remove and re-purpose instream and elsewhere. More streamside plantings to come. In the end, expect more habitat for anglers where there had been none for more than a century.

To learn more, visit Partner with a Payer.

 

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