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Home > Fish and Wildlife Service News >
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Anglers Catch Nearly 419,000 Lake Michigan Chinook In 2005Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources — 3/7/2006Anglers caught an estimated 418,918 chinook in 2005, the most since angler, or "creel," surveys started in 1969. That's 33 percent more than the five-year average. The surveys are conducted from mid-March through October. "In the nearly 40 years we have been stocking salmon and conducting creel surveys, 2005's total was the highest of all time," says Matt Coffaro, Department of Natural Resources fish expert for southeastern Wisconsin. "A person would be hard pressed to find better salmon fishing anywhere in North America!" He credits the fantastic fishing to a variety of factors, but says there are two major trends at work: DNR fish hatcheries are producing and stocking healthier fish that are surviving better, and the fish have been able to prey on the huge number of alewives hatched in 1998. "The number of fish they pulled in per hour was incredible," says Brad Eggold, DNR fisheries supervisor for southern Lake Michigan. "We had a higher harvest than in 1987, the previous high, yet only 60 percent the fishing pressure. If we had had the same fishing pressure in 2005 as in 1987, what would the harvest be? It would be off the charts!" In 2005, anglers spent an estimated 2.8 million hours of fishing, significantly down from the 4.8 million hours estimated in 1987 but up slightly from 2004. Charter fishing and fishing from boats in the open water increased, while shore and stream fishing were down. The phenomenal chinook fishing of 2005 marks the fourth consecutive summer of record setting fishing. Catch rates in each of those years were also very high and harvests were among the highest recorded. Based on the strength of the chinook harvest, the overall total catch in 2005 of all trout and salmon was estimated to be at its highest level since 1987. However, the fast and furious chinook fishing likely contributed to smaller harvests of coho and lake trout because more anglers were targeting chinook, Eggold says. Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan first began stocking nonnative trout and salmon in the late 1960s to control exploding populations of alewife, an exotic forage fish, and continued to do so because the "kings" became popular sportfishing quarry. The states agreed to reduce stocking in 1991, and then reduced it again starting in 1999, because the chinook population was outstripping the forage base and stressing the fish, in turn leaving them vulnerable to infection with bacterial kidney disease and other pathogens. That reduction in the number of fish hatcheries had to produce meant better conditions for fish at the hatchery: more room, better water quality and less competition. Thus, chinook raised at the Wild Rose State Fish Hatchery, where the majority of Wisconsin chinook are produced, were healthier, larger and less stressed when they were stocked. Also, Wisconsin and other states started taking steps to improve the health of all fish stocked in Lake Michigan, including testing fish they collect eggs from to reduce the likelihood of the next generation of salmon being infected with bacterial kidney disease. The healthier fish produced in the intervening years have been able to feed on a fairly substantial alewife year-class from 1998. Michigan is also documenting significant natural reproduction of chinook in their tributaries, adding to the total number of chinook in the lake. Biologists are now concerned that there may again be too many chinook for the available forage base, especially since the 1998 year-class of alewives is rapidly being depleted. They see signs of such a mismatch in the decrease in the average weight of chinook caught, which fell to 8.6 pounds in 2005, down from 9.8 pounds in 1995 and 13 pounds in 2001. Fishing contest information collected in 2005 also reflected a decrease in weight, Eggold says. In an effort to continue the fantastic fishing and to bring the forage base and chinook population in line, biologists from Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois have agreed to collectively decrease stocking again by 25 percent from 4.4 million fish. Wisconsin's share of the decrease is 21 percent, or about 300,000 fish. Michigan will stock 30 percent less fish, Illinois 17 percent and Indiana 12 percent. "Every time we've reduced stocking in the last 20 years our fishing has gotten better, and we hope that trend will continue," Eggold says. "Hopefully, 2006 is going to be another solid year." More information, including harvest totals for 2005 and dating back to 1986, go to the Lake Michigan pages on the DNR Web site and look under "Management Reports" and scroll to "Lake Michigan Sport Harvests." The first three documents report creel survey results from 2005 and past years. FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Brad Eggold (414) 382-7921; Matt Coffaro (414) 263-8614
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