Freshwater Fishing News

Prior to the 19th century, the Great Lakes supported incredible numbers of wild Atlantic salmon. Overfishing, disease, parasitic lampreys, habitat loss, and other factors decimated the species. Present day Atlantic salmon restoration projects continue in the Great Lakes, although success has been limited.

Three species of non-native Pacific salmon are found in the Great Lakes. Chinook and coho salmon have been stocked in lakes Michigan, Huron, Ontario, Erie and Superior. Pink salmon are found throughout the Great Lakes.

Chinook salmon have been stocked in the Great Lakes for over a century. The species has failed to find suitable spawning habitat, so continuous stocking is necessary to maintain Chinook populations. Adult Chinook salmon in the Great Lakes feed heavily on alewives.

Coho, or silver salmon have been stocked in lakes Michigan and Superior since 1966 and are considered to be an essential component of the Great Lakes “put-and-take” sport fishing industry.

Mature coho salmon prey on alewives, smelt, and other forage fish. In Lake Michigan, cohos attain an average weight of five to six pounds, occasionally reaching weights of 10 pounds or more. In Lake Superior individuals are typically smaller in size due to less abundant food supplies.

Coho salmon spawn successfully in Lake Superior tributaries and have developed self-sustaining populations in the waterway. They reproduce naturally in parts of Lake Michigan, but their general population must be sustained with hatchery-reared fish.

In 1956, about 21,000 pink salmon were introduced to a tributary of Lake Superior. Although the species took decades to establish itself, self sustaining populations of pink salmon are now found in all of the Great Lakes. Pink salmon are caught using trolled rigs and have become a sport fish in the region.

In May, the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee (ACRCC)  released its 2011 Asian Carp Monitoring and Rapid Response Plan (MRRP), outlining an aggressive set of actions to track and remove Asian carp in the Upper Illinois River and the Chicago Area Waterway System (CAWS) to prevent this invasive species from establishing in the Great Lakes.

In 2010, Federal and state partners executed an aggressive, coordinated Asian carp monitoring and sampling strategy, dedicating more than 16,000 hours to surveying and removing Asian carp in more than 200 miles of Illinois waterway. On-the-ground actions ranged from cutting-edge scientific analysis of water samples for Asian carp DNA to intensive use of traditional fishing methods such as electrofishing and netting.

These actions were part of a comprehensive, multi-tiered Asian Carp Control Strategy Framework first released in May 2010. The 2011 MRRP summarizes the monitoring results from 2010, continues and intensifies these monitoring and sampling actions to take advantage of new technology, tools and understanding of this invasive species, and outlines a strategy for rapid response in the event an Asian carp is found above the barrier system in the CAWS.

The 2011 MRRP, which represents an estimated $7 million Federal investment, is designed with the flexibility to respond to new threats.

The ACRCC is led by the White House Council on Environmental Quality and includes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation and all eight Great Lakes states, as well as the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, and the City of Chicago.

For more information on the 2011 MRRP, 2010 actions, or to view the entire 2011 Asian Carp Control Strategy Framework, visit: www.asiancarp.org

source: Illinois DNR

For anglers needing up to date information about freshwater fishing in Lake Michigan and the surrounding areas of Indiana, the state provides a detailed fishing report website.

The website provides weekly reports on fishing conditions and success on Lake Michigan. Also included are updates about fishing tributaries in northwest Indiana as well as many of the state’s other public waters. Weekly updates are also available on a voice fishing hotline, (219) 874-0009.

The website recaps the previous week’s fishing activities and success as well as general information about the Lake Michigan fishery. Data comes from creel surveys done at the various ports along Indiana’s shoreline, as well as from shore and stream anglers.

“Indiana has historically had the earliest and some of the best spring fishing around Lake Michigan,” said Brian Breidert, DNR fisheries biologist for the area. “Spring fishing can change on a moment’s notice as can weather, so investigating conditions before you travel is key to success.”

Each spring as Lake Michigan warms after ice-out, catches of coho salmon, brown trout and the occasional lake whitefish ring in Indiana’s fishing season. As the waters continue to warm, forage fish such as alewife move into the shallow end of the lake, attracting chinook salmon, steelhead and lake trout.

The combination of easily available updated information, improving weather, and variety and size of fish make Indiana’s Lake Michigan area a prime spring fishing destination, even for those who’ve never been there before.

The Lake Michigan Fishing Reports can be found at:

http://www.in.gov/apps/dnr/fishing/dnr_fishingreport

source: Indiana DNR

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is holding three public meetings during the month of March to discuss Lake Ontario fisheries. The annual “State of Lake Ontario” public meetings will be held in Niagara, Monroe and Oswego counties.

Lake Ontario and its embayments and tributaries support thriving populations of fish, including a variety of trout and salmon, bass, walleye, yellow perch and panfish. New York’s waters of Lake Ontario comprise over 2.7 million acres, and a 2007 statewide angler survey estimated over 2.6 million angler days expended on Lake Ontario and major tributaries. The estimated value of these fisheries exceeded $112 million to the local New York economy.

The meeting dates are as follows:

* Wednesday, March 2, 2011: 7 – 10 p.m.at the Oswego County BOCES, 179 County Route 64, Mexico, 13114 (Oswego County). The meeting is co-hosted by the Eastern Lake Ontario Salmon and Trout Association.

* Thursday, March 3, 2011: 6:30 – 9:30 p.m. at the Cornell Cooperative Extension Building, 4487 Lake Avenue, Lockport, 14094 (Niagara County). The meeting is co-hosted by Niagara County Cooperative Extension and the Niagara County Sportfishery Development Board.

* Monday, March 14, 2011: 7 – 10 p.m. at the Imaging Sciences Auditorium, in Chester F.
Carlson Building (76) on the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) campus, Rochester, 14623 (Monroe County). The meeting is co-hosted by RIT and the Monroe County Fishery Advisory Board.

DEC, United States Geological Survey, and Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources biologists will make a number of presentations, including updates on the status of trout and salmon fisheries, forage fish, lake trout, warmwater fish, and sea lamprey control. There will also be an update on the status of Lake Ontario Sportfishing Restoration Program projects. There will be ample time at the end of the scheduled program for the audience to interact with the presenters.

source: New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

A fish die-off involving the species gizzard shad occurring in southeast Michigan is a natural event due to harsh winter weather conditions and a large year-class, according to the state’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

The department received reports of fish die-offs in southern Michigan beginning shortly after the New Year. The reports are coming from the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River and Lake Erie.

Gizzard shad are native to the Great Lakes – with the exception of Lake Superior – but they are at the northern extent of their range. Severe winters limit the northern distribution of gizzard shad. Shad can be seen concentrated at warm water discharges of industrial plants.

Gizzard shad are an important forage fish, providing a high-energy food resource for predator species such as walleye, muskellunge, smallmouth bass and northern pike. Like many forage fish species, annual abundance of gizzard shad can vary drastically between years.

Shad are filter feeders, feeding on both zooplankton and phytoplankton, and can reach a size of 19 inches. However, most of the gizzard shad involved in the fish die-offs are five to six inches long. There was a very large hatch of shad this spring throughout the St. Clair system, resulting in large schools of these young shad. Anglers along Lake St. Clair have reported seeing large schools of these fish passing through their ice holes while perch fishing.

Annually, the DNRE gets reports of dead shad, but these usually involve larger fish and take place in late winter/early spring. Some shad do not have enough fat reserves to make it through the winter and usually run out of energy during this time. The die-offs are likely happening earlier and more frequently this year due to two factors – the combination of an exceptionally large year-class of shad this year and the early appearance of ice due to the cold fall.

“People get concerned when they see dead fish and want to be sure contamination is not the cause,” said Jim Francis, a DNRE Fisheries Division biologist stationed in southeast Michigan. “When fish are poisoned, you see a variety of species and size ranges of dead fish. Given that these fish kills have been only one species, five- to six-inch gizzard shad, the DNRE believes these are the result of temperature stress.”

Given the large number of young gizzard shad present and the fact that winter is only part way over, the public should expect to see more shad die-offs through the winter and into spring, Francis added.

For more information, visit www.michigan.gov/fishing

source: Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment