By Etta Pettijohn

Confirming the public’s right to access streams that flow through private property, the New Mexico Supreme Court (NMSC) earlier this month determined a state wildlife agency rule allowing landowners to restrict such right of entry is unconstitutional.

Several western states are seeking courts’ opinions on the public’s right to float or wade through navigable streams that flow through private property. In New Mexico, the court has confirmed recreationists’ rights to use “non-navigational” streams, providing the user doesn’t trespass public land surrounding the body of water.

In 2015 legislators, by a one-vote margin, amended the New Mexico trespass law, barring the public from wading in streams running through private property without written permission from the landowner. Three months later the state Fish and Game Commission (NMFGC) established a rule allowing landowners to certify these streambeds as “non-navigable,” declare them as private property and fence the public out.

Three New Mexico Attorney Generals have over time concurred that a 1945 NMSC decision in “State Game Commission vs. Red River Cattle Co.” allows the public to utilize streams and streambeds where they run through private property, providing they don’t trespass onto adjoining private land. Read more

Learn various strategies and techniques for chasing Michigan’s “chrome torpedoes” from the DNR Outdoor Skills Academy’s pro-staff with upcoming steelhead fishing clinics March 19-20 and April 2-3 at Mitchell State Park in Cadillac.

This two-day clinic will run 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. to noon Sunday. The classroom portion will be at the park’s Carl T. Johnson Hunting and Fishing Center, and then Sunday morning the class will hit the water for instructors to show students how to fish and what to look for on the beautiful Manistee River.

Feel free to bring your own gear, if possible, or if you’re new to steelheading, some equipment is available on a first-come, first-served basis. The Tuesday prior to the class, we will have a Zoom meeting to go over gear and how to rig. Read more

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources reminds anglers that ice shanty removal dates are quickly approaching – starting with Lake St. Clair this Sunday – and to always use extreme caution when on the ice.

Regardless of the set removal dates, changing ice conditions could require the removal of fishing shanties before those dates. This is a possibility every year, because all shanties must be removed once ice can no longer safely support them.

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.

Lower Peninsula

Ice shanties on Lake St. Clair, located northeast of Detroit, must be removed before sunset Sunday, Feb. 20. Read more

As spring draws closer, Michigan anglers are encouraged to purchase a 2022 fishing license when they go on sale Tuesday, March 1. The new license season begins April 1, and the 2022 fishing licenses are valid through March 31, 2023. Licenses can be purchased at Michigan.gov/DNRLicenses. By purchasing a fishing license online, anglers will have the opportunity to sign up for auto-renewal through the DNR eLicense system. Read more

Anglers are advised to not fish immediately below the Sanford Dam in Midland County due to construction work occurring on the dam, which has the potential to change water currents, destabilize the ice and alter water conditions.

The Sanford Dam is located on the Tittabawassee River approximately 11 miles upstream of Midland. Construction is being organized by the Four Lakes Task Force to stabilize the dam after the damage caused by the May 2020 flood and dam breach. The stabilized dam will be safer and send less sediment downstream. The stabilization project will continue through June 2022. When Sanford Dam is fully rebuilt, there will be another construction period during which anglers could be advised of dangerous conditions. Read more

File this one under the more we know, the less we wish we knew.

A three-year study by Florida International University (FIU) and Bonefish & Tarpon Trust (BTT) has discovered pharmaceutical contaminants in the blood and other tissues of bonefish in Biscayne Bay and the Florida Keys.

Since the study began in 2018, FIU scientists and BTT research associates, in partnership with Sweden’s Umeå University and the University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), have sampled 93 fish in South Florida, finding an average of seven pharmaceuticals per bonefish.

One bonefish had an incredible 17 pharmaceuticals in its system! 

The list includes blood pressure medications, antidepressants, prostate treatment medications, antibiotics and pain relievers. Researchers also found pharmaceuticals in bonefish prey—crabs, shrimp and fish—suggesting that many of Florida’s valuable fisheries are exposed, not only the bonefish fishery.

While the amount of the drugs is minimal in most cases, and the level needed to cause harm to the fish is not known at this point, the fact that they are there, and widespread, and that multiple prescription drugs are involved indicates that southeast Florida and the Keys have sewage treatment and waste disposal issues.

According to the USGS, drugs get into U.S. sewage systems both because prescriptions consumed are not fully utilized in the human system and so go into the waste system, and also because most of us flush unused pills down the drain. While treatment gets rid of many of the harmful components of sewage, it evidently does not get rid of the remnant drugs. Read more

2022 Black Lake sturgeon season wraps within 36 minutes; results announced

After only 36 minutes of fishing, this year’s sturgeon season on Black Lake (in Cheboygan and Presque Isle counties) ended at 8:36 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 5. The season, which included spearing and hook-and-line fishing, was scheduled to run Feb. 5-9, or until the harvest limit 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 anticipate the possibility of near-simultaneous harvest of more than one fish.

There were 565 registered anglers, including a good number of supervised youth. According to the DNR, five sturgeon harvested were male and one was a female, ranging from 46 to 62 inches long and 23 to 67 pounds in weight.

• • • The first fish was a 59.5-inch female that weighed 48 pounds.
    • Fish number two, the largest fish, was a 62-inch male that weighed 67 pounds.
    • Fish three was a 47-inch male that checked in at 25 pounds.
    • Fish four was a 57-inch male that weighed 45 pounds.
    • The fifth fish was a 46-inch male that weighed 23 pounds.
    • The sixth fish was a 56-inch male that weighed 35 pounds.

  Read more

Northern Michigan University, in partnership with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, has received a Consumers Energy Foundation grant of $70,000 to support efforts to bring back the Arctic grayling to Michigan waters.

Combined with support from the Henry E. and Consuelo S. Wenger Foundation, the Consumers Energy Foundation grant will fund an evaluation of several types of chambers for rearing Arctic grayling eggs in Michigan streams. Remote site incubator designs successfully used to rear eggs in Montana streams work well there, but their successful operation is less certain in Michigan streams. This project will evaluate alternative approaches to the RSI design in lab and stream environments to determine which will be most efficient and reliable for Michigan’s stream environments. .

“This is the second contribution we have received from the Consumers Energy Foundation since we started our initiative to bring Arctic grayling back to Michigan,” said DNR Fisheries Division Chief Jim Dexter. “With their partnership we are able to get closer to meeting our goals and seeing success.” Read more