Hear the one about the fish that got away? They're going to Lake Michigan

I've heard for a while now that salmon fishing this year has been poor. This article from The Bay City Times helps identify the causes:

Schools of big chinook salmon are leaving Lake Huron, and new evidence shows the popular sport fish are swimming over to Lake Michigan. State fisheries experts believe a lack of the salmon's primary food source - small forage fish known as alewives - in Lake Huron is causing the fish to seek new waters.

Ten percent of all young salmon planted by the Michigan Department of Natural Re-sources have a tiny coded wire embedded in their snouts. By examining wires removed from adult salmon taken by fishermen, the DNR has learned up to half of the marked fish being caught at some Lake Michigan ports were originally stocked in Lake Huron.

The chinook that remain in the lake also are smaller on average than they were a few years ago, possible evidence they are working harder to find food, he said.

The DNR isn't sure what will happen next to Lake Huron's salmon fishery. Johnson said the agency has never seen so few alewives in the lake to feed the salmon. "This doesn't fit the cycles we've seen in the past. It's more dramatic," Johnson said. "We've never seen alewives in such low numbers, and chinooks won't stay around in places where there isn't food," Johnson said.

Fisheries experts believe three things combined to decimate alewife numbers: a boom in the salmon population a few years ago; two cold winters that may have killed many of the small fish; and competition for food from zebra mussels.

Since alewives have fared better in warmer Lake Michigan, the salmon from Lake Huron are seeking them out by swimming through the Straits of Mackinac, Johnson said. The distance isn't considered unusual because saltwater salmon swim for a thousand miles or more, he said.

Johnson said other forage fish, such as smelt or herring, may begin to replace the alewives in Lake Huron, and the salmon may adapt to make them a preferred food source.

The lack of alewives is also likely to help the natural reproduction of other sport fish, such as perch and walleye, Johnson said. Alewives are known to feed on perch and walleye fry, he said.

Read the whole article for more quotes from Barb Kinsman at Bunyan Town.