By Frank Sargeant
Frankmako1@gmail.com

“I’ll switch to an electric outboard when they pry my cold, dead fingers from the throttle of my Merc 250 . . . “

If that’s your attitude when it comes to opting for electric power for your boat—and it is for a lot of us—let’s remember that it was not all that long ago when we felt the same way about switching from two-stroke outboards to four-stroke outboards. (I know, you whippersnappers don’t even remember two-stroke outboards—trust me, it was not that long ago.)

We know the arguments against electric motors—starting with there are as of now ZERO fast charging stations at marinas and boat docks around the nation.

And that as of now, they are VERY expensive compared to equivalent gas outboards when you add in the astronomical cost of multiple high-output lithium-ion batteries. And you can’t get anything north of 180 horsepower right now—not a good option if you’re running twin 600 Merc’s at present.

That said, there is probably an electric outboard in your future. Read more

Feb. 10, 2023
Contact: Acting Lt. Jeff Rabbers, 269-207-6976

Anglers taking advantage of winter ice fishing should keep a close watch on ice conditions, as unseasonable weather may prompt shanty removal prior to the seasonal dates required by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

“Throughout most of the Lower Peninsula, Mother Nature unfortunately didn’t cooperate with us this year,” said acting Lt. Jeff Rabbers, DNR Law Enforcement Division. “As disappointing as it is that many anglers must cut their season short, safety is the DNR’s main priority. We want to make sure that everyone has ample opportunity to remove their shanties before conditions become unsafe.”

People venturing onto ice should use extreme caution as temperatures begin to rise or fluctuate. The repeated thawing and refreezing of ice weakens its strength, decreasing its ability to support the additional weight of people, snowmobiles, ORVs and shanties. Deteriorating ice, water currents and high winds increase the probability of pressure cracks, which can leave anglers and others stranded on ice floes or at risk of falling through the ice.

Shanty owners whose structures fall through the ice are subject to penalties of up to 30 days in jail, fines up to $500, or both. If a shanty is removed by a government agency, the court can require the owner to reimburse that agency for up to three times the cost of removal.

Learn more at Michigan.gov/IceSafety.

Removal dates

Daily use of ice shanties is permitted anywhere in Michigan if ice conditions allow and if the shanties are removed from the ice at the end of each day.

Seasonal removal dates begin with Lake St. Clair, located northeast of Detroit. This year, shanties must be removed from Lake St. Clair before sunset Sunday, Feb. 26. Read more

Feb. 7, 2023
Contact: Neal Godby, 231-340-2621 or Sierra Williams, 517-230-8788

After only 65 minutes of fishing, this year’s sturgeon season on Black Lake (in Cheboygan and Presque Isle counties) ended at 9:05 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 4. The season, which included spearing and hook-and-line fishing, was scheduled to run Feb. 4-8, or until the harvest quota of six lake sturgeon had been reached.

Anglers initially were allocated a season quota of seven sturgeon, but the Michigan Department of Natural Resources set the harvest limit at six fish. This action helps accommodate the expected number of anglers and anticipates the possibility of near-simultaneous harvest of more than one fish.

There were 630 registered anglers this year, including a good number of supervised youth. According to the DNR, the harvested sturgeon ranged in size from 32 inches to 55.5 inches long and 6.4 pounds to 35.5 pounds.

Black Lake Sturgeon

• The first fish was a 49-inch male that weighed 30 pounds.
• Fish number two was a 55.5-inch female that weighed 35.5 pounds.
• Fish three was a 54.3-inch male that checked in at 32 pounds.
• Fish four was a 32-inch immature fish that weighed 6.4 pounds.
• The fifth fish was a 54-inch male that weighed 34 pounds.
• The sixth fish was a 39-inch male that weighed 11.8 pounds. Read more

The DNR Division of Fish & Wildlife stocked roughly 4,500 brown trout into northern Indiana streams in early January.

Most fish ranged between 8 to 14 inches at the time of release. Indiana obtained the trout from Illinois last year when they were approximately 3 inches long. Mixsawbah State Fish Hatchery in Walkerton raised the trout until they were close to an average of 10 inches long.

The six streams stocked included Pigeon River (Steuben/LaGrange counties), Solomon Creek (Elkhart County), Little Elkhart River (LaGrange/Elkhart counties), Rowe Eden Ditch (LaGrange/Elkhart counties), Cobus Creek (Elkhart County), and Little Kankakee River (LaPorte County). Read more

Carp believe they ought to rule the world, and they are very good at making it happen.

Those who have been smacked in the head by a jumping silver carp are not enthusiastic about these invasives becoming the national bird of America.

But we might as well hope to wipe out largemouth bass and bluegills as eliminate common or European carp, which are now more indigenous than many native species across North America. They’ve been here since being imported in the 1800’s, and they are never going away unless the continent dries up into another Sahara at some future twist in climate change.

The “war” that’s proposed is against relative newcomer carp species, the silver, bighead and black. We note without prejudice that these are all Chinese carp—just sayin’.

Love the cuisine, hate the carp . . . .

It’s possible that these carp can be controlled, though not eliminated. Researchers are finding their DNA in thousands of lakes and waterways attached to the Mississippi River, and no control method tried so far has shown promise of widespread success.

While most of the spread has been the result of pond-stocked fish escaping into waterways, there’s enough blame to go around among sportfishers, namely us, who inadvertently carry fertilized carp eggs or microscopic juveniles in our livewell water. Bass anglers who regularly visit multiple lakes are particularly likely to be part of this, as are crappie and walleye anglers who carry live minnows from lake to lake.

While some invasive species are relatively unobnoxious or even helpful—the gobies in the Great Lakes, for example, have actually proven to be a huge growth booster for smallmouths and walleyes—Asian carp have thus far proven to be pretty troublesome guests.

The silver carp is the most obnoxious of the group due to the habit of large schools flushing like a covey of quail when a boat runs through them. These fish may weigh from 5 to 50 pounds and they can jump 10 feet straight up.

You can imagine what would happen if you are driving your Ranger at 60 mph through the school—sort of like running into a concrete block dropped off an overpass, those who have had the experience report.

However, a new effort from Wildlife Forever and supported by AFTCO, which has proven itself a perennial champion of good things in fishing and conservation, shows promise of slowing the spread.

The plan is to expand the “War on Carp” education campaign, providing new tools and resources to educate the public in support of increased state and federal management. The idea for the “war” apparently came from Wade White, a board director for TVA, and the effort has generated considerable federal and state investment in carp removal and mitigation projects. Read more

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is partnering for a second year with MyCatch by Angler’s Atlas to conduct a statewide walleye fishing challenge starting May 1 through June 30. The Iowa Chapter of the American Fisheries Society has joined as a research partner for the 2023 challenge.

Anglers will have the chance to win weekly prizes while also contributing to fisheries research, helping improve walleye fishing in the state.

The Iowa Walleye Challenge uses the MyCatch mobile app to record the length of a fish. Participating anglers take a picture of the fish on a measuring device using the app. Once the fish is reviewed by the catch team and meets the rules, it automatically appears on a live leaderboard where anglers can see who is in the lead to win prizes.

Participating anglers are encouraged to report all the walleye they catch in May and June through the MyCatch mobile app. The mobile app maintains anonymous location data, so angler’s secret sports stay secret. DNR fisheries biologists will use the generalized lake and river catch data entered to assess and manage walleye populations across Iowa. Read more

A great number of species make a home in a restored wetland at the former Tidmarsh Farm. Bill Perry USFWS

Brook trout, alewife, warblers and wood ducks dwell where cranberries were once the commodity.

Like any commodity, cranberry production is subject to changes in the markets. Cranberries, a native plant that naturally grows in soggy bogs in the Northeast United States have been commercially farmed on large scale for a century and a half, perhaps longer. But farming the berry is not so economically viable anymore—and that has afforded opportunities to put federal excise taxes paid by fishing tackle manufacturers to work for conservation.

Using funds from National Coastal Wetland Grants derived from the Sport Fish Restoration Act, the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game’s Division of Ecological Restoration, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have engaged in a number of restoration projects in what had been known as the cranberry capital of the world. The group embarked on an endeavor to return a well-used farm into a mosaic of natural wildlife habitat. It’s the largest freshwater ecological restoration project yet to be accomplished in the northeastern United States.

The large Tidmarsh Farm located in Plymouth, Massachusetts, operated since the 1890s. The owners recently dedicated the farm not to development but to conservation, to restore the land to its soggy soils, forests, uplands, and open waters—for fish and wildlife and for people to enjoy.

Some 480 acres of farmland have been converted back to the natural maple-cypress woodlands, lowland bog, and miles of stream. The lands have been reshaped and contoured and revegetated with native trees as well as upland and wetland plants.

Gone are nine dams, dikes, and water control structures that formerly regulated flows and flooded the cranberry marshes on a seasonal basis. Their removal offers unfettered ocean-to-headwater access to upstream spawning habitat for alewife and blueback herring—fishes that spawn in freshwater and live the majority of their lives in salt water. They are a favored fare of striped bass while they too cruise the Atlantic Ocean.