Lake Huron fisheries doing well overall

Booth Newspapers has a positive story about lake fishing -- lots of good news:

"We have very, very good reproduction of yellow perch from 2003 and 2004," she said [Tammy Newcomb, the Lake Huron fisheries coordinator for the Department of Natural Resources]. "We were hoping to see that 2003 year-class carry over -- it was something like 37 times greater than was previously ever recorded -- but we didn't see the carryover. This year also threw off a big crop of yellow perch, but they were small, too. So we're seeing good natural reproduction, which we haven't seen since the late 80s, but we haven't seen the big year-classes carry over. But this has been a mild winter, so we may see that 2004 year-class carry over. We're hoping.

"Walleyes are doing very well and they appear to be carrying over. Most of the data is from Saginaw Bay, but we've been hearing very good reports of walleye fishing up and down the coast."

What holds the most promise for the salmon fishery is the herring population. "Lake herring, a native species which were pretty much ousted by alewives, are increasing and expanding in the places where they are found," Newcomb said. "Our hope is those populations will continue to grow and will fill that niche where alewives used to. "Herring could provide a good forage base for salmon and they grow beyond the size that predators can use them, so that preserves the brood stock. They're good forage for lake trout, too."

Lake trout? Ever since officials have been treating the St. Marys River for lampreys, lakers have been on the comeback. "That lake trout fishery has been tremendous," Newcomb said.

As for salmon, there's evidence, by the number of fish returning to the weirs, that there are more fish out there than anglers are catching, Newcomb said, though she's at a loss to explain why. Chinook salmon are known to travel up to 50 miles a day in the ocean and it could be the big fish are just roaming out of traditional fishing territories.