Freshwater Fishing News

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

A mid-March fish kill of thousands of gizzard shad in the Milwaukee Harbor ship canals was caused by the fish virus viral hemorrhagic septicemia, or VHS, according to results released March 31 from the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Madison.

The finding represents the first time VHS has been detected in Wisconsin’s waters of Lake Michigan since 2008, and the first time gizzard shad have tested positive for VHS in Wisconsin, according to Sue Marcquenski, Department of Natural Resources fish health specialist.

VHS, which can infect several dozen different native fish species and cause them to bleed to death, does not affect humans. The first detection of the virus was in freshwater drum from the Lake Winnebago system in 2007, and also in Wisconsin’s waters of Lake Michigan that same year. The virus was first confirmed in Lake Superior in 2010 from samples of lake herring.

The Milwaukee Harbor canals fish kill started the week of March 14 and by March 18, involved several thousand fish. Dead and dying gizzard shad were collected and necropsied on March 22 and submitted to the Madison laboratory for testing, Marcquenski said.

DNR will be testing fish from 27 waters this spring as part of its surveillance program for VHS and also to assure that the disease is not present in those rivers that DNR relies on for water supplies for its hatcheries.

Infected fish shed the virus in their urine and reproductive fluids and the virus can survive in water for at least 14 days. Fish also can be infected when they eat an infected fish.

“The important message here is VHS is still out there and we have to be vigilant about cleaning our boats and not moving fish around,” says Al Kaas, DNR fish hatchery operations chief. These steps also will prevent the spread of other fish diseases and invasive species like zebra mussels and spiny water fleas.

Under statewide VHS rules:

-  Minnow harvesting of any kind is not allowed on any VHS affected waters: Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, the Mississippi River, Lake Winnebago, Fox River from Lake Winnebago to Green Bay, and all connecting waters upstream to the first barrier impassible to fish.

-  Anglers and boaters must drain all water from the fishing and boating equipment when leaving the lake or entering the state (except drinking water and a small amount of water to move minnows as described below).

- Anglers statewide may not move live fish or fish eggs away from any water except minnows they bought from a registered Wisconsin bait dealer and used under certain conditions. Such leftover minnows can be used again on the same water, or can be used elsewhere if the angler did not add lake or river water or other fish to their bait container.

For more information on the fish disease and how to prevent its spread visit the Wisconsin DNR VHS web page:

http://dnr.wi.gov/fish/vhs/

source: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Following the discovery of a Bighead Asian Carp on the wrong side of the electric barrier six miles from Lake Michigan, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) wrote to President Obama asking him to immediately appoint a federal Coordinated Response Commander for Asian carp.

The  appointment of  a Coordinated Response Commander would establish efforts to prevent the Asian carp from occupying Lake Michigan as a national priority. The commander would have the ability to coordinate the day-to-day efforts of the multiple federal, state and local agencies involved.  The letter was sent to the White House in June, 2010 and was signed by ten Senators whose states border the Great Lakes.

“Since 2003, we’ve been working at the federal level to keep this invasive species away from Lake Michigan. But the capture of a live fish on the wrong side of the electric barrier changes everything.  We have to redouble our efforts and do everything in our power to stop this invasive species from entering Lake Michigan,” said Durbin. “We have to go at this as if we were at war.  The viability of the Great Lakes is at stake.”

In the letter, Durbin and his colleagues write:

“[W]e write to you with a renewed sense of urgency, asking you to name a federal Coordinated Response Commander for Asian carp who can effectively marshal and organize these efforts to contain the spread of the carp. . . . We need the best and the brightest — scientists, engineers, and environmental experts — focused on this single goal.  That is why we are calling on you to immediately appoint a Coordinated Response Commander for Asian carp to fight this battle.  We need someone with the knowledge and skills to direct and coordinate multiple federal, state and private sector efforts.”

Durbin also discussed legislation he and Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) will introduce to require the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct an expedited study to determine how to physically separate the waterways that connect the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watersheds to prevent the passage of aquatic invasive species.  This “hydrological separation” — a complex feat of engineering — may be the best hope for a long-term solution for containing invasive species.

The bill will require that the study begin within 30 days of enactment and be completed within 18 months of enactment, with several reports due in the intervening months.  The study will examine other modes of transportation for shipping, and create engineering designs to move canal traffic from one water body to the other without transferring aquatic species, and it will detail the environmental benefits, costs and construction time estimates of each option.  It will also address flooding threats, Chicago wastewater, waterway safety operations and barge and recreational vessel traffic alternatives.

Michigan Sea Grant Extension, in partnership with fisheries agencies and stakeholder organizations, annually host public information workshops offering current research and information related to the regional status of Great Lakes fisheries. These workshops are open to the public, and provide valuable information for anglers, charter captains, resource professionals, and other interested stakeholders.

The following is a list of upcoming workshops:

Lake Huron

Port Huron
Wednesday, April 14
7:15 — 9:30 p.m.
Great Lakes Maritime Center 51 Water Street, Port Huron, MI 48060

Ubly
Thursday, April 15
6:30 — 9:00 p.m.
Ubly Fox Hunter’s Club 8780 S. Ubly Rd, Ubly, MI 48475

Alpena
Monday, April 19
6:30 — 9:00 p.m.
NOAA Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center 500 W. Fletcher St., Alpena, MI 49707

Tawas City
Wednesday, April 28
6:30 — 9:00 p.m.
Day’s Inn of Tawas 1020 U.S. 23, Tawas City, MI 48763

Cedarville
Monday, May 3
6:30 — 9:00 p.m.
Les Cheneaux Sportsman’s Club M-134, Cedarville, MI 49719 (Approx. 3-4 miles east of blinking light in Cedarville)

Lake Michigan

Muskegon
Muskegon Charter Boat Association Seminar Series
Thursday, April 1, 2010
5:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Bluffton Bay Marina, Lakeside Centre, 3040 Lakeshore Drive, Muskegon , MI 49441

South Haven
South Haven Regional Fishery Workshop
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Lake Michigan College, 125 Veterans Blvd., Room 141, South Haven, MI 49090

Grand Haven
Grand Haven Great Lakes Night
Thursday, June 3, 2010
6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Grand Haven Community Center, 421 Columbus St., Grand Haven, MI 49417

source: Michigan Sea Grant Extension