Twill23

Help prevent what happened in Lake Huron!

I fish Huron as well and it is a bit more fishing than it is catching . I would hate to see michigan suffer the same fate. I hate to say it but thats why I think the biologists should be the guys making the decisions. public sentiment has a much better chance of screwing it up.

Agreed. I would much rather things be erred by the way of caution, than that of negative impact.

I have no idea. But with the sheer numbers, its no question that its putting a dent in the bait fish population. As far as the reproduction numbers being around 50%... They found that out in our lake, when we had WAY more salmon than we were supposed to, essentially wiping out our forage base.

I hate to say it. But this is exactly what happened with our side of the lake.. Some of the best fishing there had ever been preceded the crash of Lake Huron. I sure hope its not too late!

Nice job man!!

New Price! $25,500!

yup but it was rainin at the time no one wanted to go out there unless there was a fish dang lazy crew LOL!!

Fire em! lol.

LOL! This happens all too often! Big fish and smalllllll fish in the same area make it tough! 15minutes with stuff that isnt firing, that normally would be, is the rule. If it doesnt go, take the 1 minute to reset it!

I work in the seismic industry. There is a lot of issues with fracking, an to be completely honest a lot of it has to do with $$$.

There is a specific incident i pointed towards back a year or so ago that involved the town of dimmok PA. A lot of negative steam comes from fracking because of the lack of information people have about it.

Most people's main concern is their drinking water. Having things make their well water undrinkable. Unfortunately, with past experiences these issues have all been (in my PERSON experiences within the fracking industry) people who either did not own their mineral rights to their property, or were not paid what they wanted to for the use of their property. Many suits were filed and few were successful. People would complain about their water after fracking was done, without ANY prior tests to be done.

I personally try to stay away from the fracking talk, because what i do comes WELL before the whole fracking process. I work in Seismic. Gas and oil exploration.

Seismic work is really taking off in Michigan. Michigan actually has a decent supply of oil and natural gas in several parts of the lower peninsula.

We recently did 2 LARGE jobs in Northern Michigan, which new wells are being drilled from right now!

We also have done work around Dundee and Grayling, which have future plans to expand into much larger scale projects!

It is creating A TON of jobs in our state!!!

I have no opinion on the actual fracking because i choose not to. BUT just the job increases alone within the state of Michigan excite me!

I DO support major regulations regarding all drilling though!

Our short stuff was slow except for the coho. We were REALLY successful just north of holland on plugs on the short stuff the last day we were there for kings. It's not very common to run plugs this time of year in that area, But it is here, and it produces here, and it worked for us there! Also consider Silver Streak minis for your short stuff for coho.

No problem running 4 divers with what you have. Run 2 divers(low divers with a mag ring) on 1 or 1.5. The high divers will be set on 3. You can run these with a mag ring or not, it's your choice, and depends where the fish are. Braid runs ALOT like wire does. People love wire because of the "harmonics" as well as the fight. Also there is not much of an issue with sea fleas once they start popping up.

If you do choose to run them on 1 and 2, make sure your straight line trolling, putting them that close together COULD cause a bit of an issue. Especially if there is any type of current around

Lol yup! That's my baby!

Soon as i can walk again, we'll be back down there!

Hope to see you guys on the dock!

Fishing is absolutely dynamite right now. Get out there!!!

Made it down to Holland on Thursday the 19th. Got the boat all ready and got to watch her splash!

We'll make a long story short, so you can get to lookin at the pics!

We took 84fish in 5 trips. Friday Morning, Sunday(Morning?) Tuesday evening, and 2 trips on Wednesday(AM only being 3 hours dock to dock)

Water anywhere from 110-180 produced fish everyday.

Our hottest baits.

Short coppers: (100,150,200,250) Were really slow for us until we switched to plugs on wednesday. 3in Ghost was dynamite.

Riggers: Moonshines down anywhere from 55-110. 8in green paddles were also very effective.

Divers:11in paddles in any color seemed to work for us later in the week back 250. Over the weekend, divers back 140 with SS Mini's in mixed veggies seemed to really produce.

Deep Coppers: (300,450) Were on fire with 11in paddles. Our best was an 11in black with the uv tape. Green also worked.

Unfortunately, had a bid of a knee issue and had to come home today, but will be back,HOPEFULLY, next weekend sometime.

Great job!

There won't be a problem at all! It's a beautiful marina!

Whoopssss

SOLD!

Whoooops SOLD

Still for sale! Will also consider trades involving $$ and an 18-20' "walleye" boat!

Great deal

Nice job!

This will be my last post on this topic. This is considered a helpful and informative forum, not an argue and bash forum. I do not, however, believe people should be given incorrect information.

I would like to point out alewife ARE NOT predatory fish. They are distinctly classified as a "baitfish." Classifying them as a predatory fish would be like classifying grass as a predator because it absorbs nutrients from the ground. Yes alewife do feed on larva. But their MAIN forage is that of plankton.

Secondly, white perch are a feeder fish for walleye and lake trout. Hence the take off of the two species. White perch have also been prevalent since the 1960's during the peak of the alewife boom.

Thirdly, Asian carp have no natural predators in north america. Period. Trying to eradicate them by introducing another species is just not an option. Our native fish WILL NOT handle the issue. These fish reproduce much too fast, and grow MUCH too fast. They will achieve adult hood much too fast for any of our species of fish in the Great Lakes to feed on them. Big heads alone can grow up to 12 pounds per year!!!!

Again, our native species have NO CHANCE at controlling asian carp.

Currently there is only one proposed solution to eradicating the species if they do establish in our lakes, and this is trying to impede access to their spawning grounds. All species of asian carp are very particular about their spawning rituals. But if they become establish, that could turn into an extremely long cycle.

As far as turning towards browns and steelhead as a sustainable sport fishery, that is NOT an option without alewives. This is clearly pointed out with the crash of Lake Huron. Both species depend heavily on the alewife population in lake michigan(as they did in lake huron). Currently there has been a slight uptick in the numbers of both species in lake huron, but this is largly due to the large increase in the smelt population, which MAY be able to sustain a decent population of both species. That is yet to be seen.

I will again state that i believe that the alewife issue, and the invasion of asian carp are separate issues. Right now trying to sustain our alewife population is number one in keeping a strong salmon fishery. This of course is short term in the big picture.

For the longevity of our fishery, and ALL fisheries asian carp HAVE to be stopped from establishing within the great lakes.

Again i strongly support the cuts of salmon plants in upcoming years. In 2006 we received cuts in lake michigan. This may have been absolutely perfect timing. 2008 was an extremely bad year for adult kings, but numbers and size have since rebounded. Most around the lake, i believe, will agree.

I truly wish this type of effort, research, and thought was put into Lake Huron before the crash!

I know the carp are filter feeders and will take away the plankton from the alewives and other fish that depend on it.

My comment may not have been clear. It was about the salmon being a predator and eating the juvenile carp.

Sorry Mike,

I shouldn't have put your name in the direct heading. Nor directed the response towards you.

The post was more as a general information post.

I've spent a lot of time both in college as well as with local fishery biologist learning, and studying as much as I possibly could.

Unfortunately I was much apart of the suffrage that went along with the crash in Lake Huron.

It's terrifying to me personally that the extinction of our salmon fishery as we know it, is a very real possibility.

Again i apologize.

Are you suggesting introducing a predatory fish that will help control the population of an invasive species that grow up to 20+lbs and regularly reach the 10lb mark?

Again, I totally support the fact that the invasion of "asian carp" will totally extinguish the entire great lakes fishery. These fish do not only feed on plankton, they also feed on dead plant matter. If they are not prevented from entering and establishing within the great lakes it will be detrimental to ALL fisheries. Not just our beloved salmon.

In my personal opinion, as well as hope: The carp are such efficient at what they do, they could end out eating themselves out of house and home. Again in my personal opinion the reason these fish are migrating north is because that phase is already starting to take place in southern areas. Whether it's sheer numbers and over population that has pushed them up river, or lack of food.(one species of asian carp is known to eat up to 3times it's body weight PER DAY) This could be an extremely long cycle. 10years? 20years? Your guess is as good as mine.

But merely giving up on preventing entrance is by far the wrong answer.

And yes, overpopulating of salmon WILL totally diminish the alewife population. It's already happened. For those who haven't totally seen the effect of it I encourage you to take a trip to the Salmon capital of Michigan. We have a few member's from the town of Roger's City who I think could chime in on what has happened to their town because of the crash.

I believe that most would agree, Lake Michigan has safely rebounded from the crash they suffered in relation to the kidney disease, which totally crippled king and coho fishing in the late 80's into the early 90's.

Reducing the number of plants is about risk reduction. Not everything can totally be controlled, and there will ALWAYS be new threats to our fishery.

These two issues have to be dealt with. Although they greatly rely on each other, they MUST both be addressed as separate issues.

In summary: "Asian carp" MUST BE prevented from establishing in our great lakes(and tributaries).

I urge everyone to support, and express opinions on what should be, and could be done.

The alewife population MUST BE CONTROLLED to sustain a productive salmon fishery.

On a positive note:

We're coming up on 10 years since the crash, and we're just getting into a slight rebound. Our secondary fishery is really starting to take off. IE:Walleye, Lake Trout(which has been phenomenal because of the abundance of golbies) Steel Head, and Atlantics.

Our smelt numbers have increased exponentially in the last 5 years. Several local areas are dipping limits of smelt for the first time in ages! Numbers in the DNR and Nation Fish and Wildlife survey nets show an extremely positive outlook on our fishery.

Salmon are open water fish. If I had to guess, the juvenile asian carp would not be found in the same waters as salmon.

Mike,

That isn't the issue. The issue is what the carp would do to our forage base. These asian carp feed on plankton. They feed at an astronomical rate compared to our common carp that are already plentiful in our lakes.

We already are fighting a battle with quagga and zebra muscles, which essentially do the same thing. The quagga muscles is what destroyed Lake Huron. They filtered the lake so efficiently that they totally wiped out the forage base to our alewives.

Adding another filter feeder to Lake Michigan could totally wipe out the forage base of alewives, essentially wiping out our salmon. Another issue with the "asian carp" is their reproductive cycle. These fish will spawn up to 3 times per year!!!

The main goal of cutting the salmon plants is to increase the number of alewives. With the phenomenal natural reproduction they're seeing for kings, they could become over populated. ((Which is one cause of Huron's crash)The number of natural reproducing kings were severely underestimated causing an unexpected amount of adult salmon in years leading to the crash)

Lake Michigan has been lucky enough to avoid the catastrophic crash by the way of quaggq muscles because of the lack of rock structure throughout the lake as compared to Lake Huron.

The issue with our alewives right now is not sheer numbers. But the numbers of adult alewives. Alewives have a 7year life cycle, but are not considered adult(reproducing) until the age of 4. Once these fish grow to the size they are, around the 4 year mark, they are the PERFECT target for our kings. Having an over abundance of kings can severely impact the number of reproducing alewives by over feeding, which will in-turn cause low spawning numbers. It turns into a vicious cycle.

Unfortunately, carp and alewives are completely different issues, but could essentially be detrimental to our fishery. Both of these issues have to be looked at, but on a separate basis.

Prevention of the carp entering the great lakes is by far the most important step.

The next step is sustaining a forage base for our kings. If there aren't alewives there aren't salmon. It's as simple as that.

Go with the bullet style! Pancakes have a terrible issue when fishing deep with any type of current around.