Who has been following the state of Lake Michigan Salmon fishery.

[SUPERTRAMP]

Recently I have seen a lot of chat on the MSSFA site about the decline of Salmon Plants in Lake Michigan. Well guy's its happening to us like it did to the Lake Huron fishery. The good thing is that we still have a huge number of Lake Trout and the Steelhead may keep us from falling off the map. However the Salmon will no longer be a go to fishery. Sad but its gonna happen guys. What are your feelings on establishing Creel limits and closed seasons for Salmon? West coast fisheries are and have been under those regulations for many years trying to bring back their fisheries.

They have finally succeeded in restoring the Sockeye fishery to the Yakima river after over 50 years of no runs at all they now have a sustainable Sockeye run and the Yakama Indian nation is now able to fish in their historic dip net manner. We have always had very liberal limits, and no closed season. If we want a King Salmon fishery, I believe we need to limit catches and close the spring season for King salmon,until the middle of May.

[ekbelt]

Closing the salmon season until mid May or reducing the creel limit is making the assumption that the forage base can currently support what is out there. The jury is still out on that... there are still too many predators (lakers included) to keep a sustainable alewive population.

We might have to knock it down even more to allow the alewives to survive....... it's a slippery slope every way you look at it.

[Boltman]

I'll have to ponder that, because with what I've read about the egg harvest for salmon it didn't go so well. But I believe wisconsin had a great salmon return to weirs . Maybe raising the limits to 5 per week , might work boy I'm going to catch hell for that.

Boltman

[whatadeal]

Currently getting my captain's license,and one of the guys in the class actually works on the dnr boat. He states it was a poor class of alewive this past year that led to our numbers. Personally, I don't buy it.

[hear fishy fishy]

The alewives have many predators big and small. Plankton reduction from mussels are the biggest problem, but more salmon equal less alewives so closing the season would not be a good idea in my opinion. Managing a moving target is not easy but without the bottom of the food chain the top will collapse.

[Dr Hook]

The alewives have many predators big and small. Plankton reduction from mussels are the biggest problem, but more salmon equal less alewives so closing the season would not be a good idea in my opinion. Managing a moving target is not easy but without the bottom of the food chain the top will collapse.

I'd tend to agree with that assessment. The problem with the west coast fishery was lack of spawning habitat not lack of food as in our neck of the woods.

[EdB]

The latest data and info will be presented here in Ludington at the Seagrant Seminar:

http://www.miseagrant.umich.edu/news/2014/12/08/2015-ludington-regional-fishery-workshop/

I went last year, it was very informative.

[Boltman]

This sounds really interesting , I think we're going we may learn something ...

Boltman

[sjk984]

Op if all that's left is lakers and steel. You will fall off the map just like Rogers city and port austin. Any one can go out of those cities and get lakers and steel head. But they both died with the salmon fishing

[sslopok]

Port Austin gets lots of traffic. They get guys fishin walleye when the green water from the bay migrates over. They also get a lot of pleasure boaters and salmon/trout fisherman. The real ghost towns are from Harriville north.

[sjk984]

Port austin was my main port from 94 thru 06'. Tell me it's not a ghost town. Hell they even turned the light in town off. It's a shadow of its pre collapse days. I still fish it a few times a year but it will never be the mainstay port it used to be.

[fishy1]

I read all the doom and gloom About the salmon fishery and demise of alewives but I know this year there was not shortage of alewives in different year classes at Ludington where I fish.

[elfish]

It appears that chinook stocking will continue to dwindle, however you can be happy that lake trout stocking will continue at 3 million plus per year unabated, with chances of an increase!

If we get really lucky, our lake trout populations can get even larger so we can get commercial gill nets at the south end of Lake Michigan just like the one's up north, and just like the brand new ones off Oscoda! Gill nets everywhere are great!

Both primary baitfish target is the alewife. One species, the chinook, only feeds on alewife for 2.5 years of their 3 year lives and die. The lake trout continue to forage on alewife for up to 30 years or more! You know, the alewives that don't exist anymore? Yes..those alewife.

Time to dust off those cowbells boys, Lake Trout are the new salmon in lake Michigan, consumption advisories and all.

[SUPERTRAMP]

There seems to be a lot of different opinions on this, I guess what is most important is that we work together to find a solution. Invasive, have been a fact in the great lakes since the St Lawrence SeaWay was opened, first it was Sea Lamprey, then Alewvives, then the Quagga and zebra mussels, then the round gobie, The fact is that Man himself has set it all up. Now we need to address the issue. Next on the agenda is the Asian Carp dilemma. My hope is that we get something in place soon, if we don't our sport fishery will disappear. For those that complain about the Lake Trout, that is the only native salmonid to the great lakes, all the others are imported.