There Are No Fish In Michigan

[Gerry Zagorski]

Just got back from 10 days in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. I made a few halfhearted attempts to fish but came up empty. The great lakes shore fishery is tough this time of year since the water warmed up and the fish are all out in the deep and the coastlines are shallow and waste deep 100 yards out.

They are into their Whitefish up there and the tribes pretty much have the Commercial Market cornered. Every restaurant you go to has Whitefish and Perch on the menu and if the tribes don't fish, you won't get it.

Did not see a lot of people fishing there, it seemed like I was the only one. Last stop we made was in Frankfort MI on Lake Michigan and as luck would have it, they had a Salmon Tournament going on and I met and talked to a few fishermen there https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fr...qpbl?entry=ttu

This time of year until early October the Salmon run is on and the fish are coming in from Lake Michigan into the bays and rivers making them pretty easy to target...Most people troll for them at the mouth of and in the inlet and some jig... We saw several fish come clear out of the water.

The guys I spoke to and spent some time with had a boat and most of the action is apparently an hour or two before and after sunset and sundown. They usually fish the mornings, come back in and relax and head out again the evenings. They typically get 5-10 Salmon each time they head out, The average fish is in the teens with an occasional 25 plus pound fish.

Nice people up there for sure.... They invited me out fishing the following day but we had to leave for the airport first thing in the AM I did however get an invite for this time next year. Pretty tempting and I would bet this would be right up the alley for many of you here on the site.

[Wilson]

That was my experience as well.
Real nice people. Do you check out the locks on the Canadian border?

[Gerry Zagorski]

Originally Posted by Wilson

That was my experience as well.
Real nice people. Do you check out the locks on the Canadian border?

The Soo Locks was on the list but too much other stuff to do and it was a bit out of the way from our other stops. I heard it's cool though.

[Wilson]

Originally Posted by Gerry Zagorski

The Soo Locks was on the list but too much other stuff to do and it was a bit out of the way from our other stops. I heard it's cool though.

We took the tourist boat ride that goes through the locks.
It was an unique experience to say the least. I saw a solo fisherman in a small row boat land a very nice Salmon in Lake Huron. That was the only fish of substance I saw the whole week!

Did you at least make the Mac Woods sand dune ride?

[Gerry Zagorski]

Originally Posted by Wilson

We took the tourist boat ride that goes through the locks.
It was an unique experience to say the least. I saw a solo fisherman in a small row boat land a very nice Salmon in Lake Huron. That was the only fish of substance I saw the whole week!

Did you at least make the Mac Woods sand dune ride?

Missed that one.... We did get to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park though

[bulletbob]

The giant, massive glacial lakes are not as productive as people think.. The fishing can be world class but it can also go into huge long term slumps, where very few fish are caught for weeks on end. take it from someone that lived in NY and NJ and fished extensively in both states.. Yes, there are big fish in the giant lakes[ great lakes, finger lakes etc.. however, they often don't come easy,, They can be tough to find, impossible to catch at times etc..Also, they are often commercially fished.. Even the finger lakes and several of the big upstate lakes ,,legal or not.. There are many restaurants here that serve bullhead, or yellow perch dinners.. Those fish are caught by pin hookers and sold. Not sure if its still going on, but I recall years ago that many stores close to lake ontario were selling frozen yellow perch, crappies, walleyes,bullheads etc.. I mean LOTS of those "game" fish were stacked deep in freezers, with pretty high prices on them so someone was catching them.. Someone was buying/eating them as well... Lots of pin hookers up here, and even some of the very big lakes have had their perch populations decimated by commercial pin hookers.. Trout and salmon not so much, they don't seem to have the demand as white fleshed fish.... At least not in my area... Even the largest lakes can be grossly over fished, I have witnessed it myself.. just as with salt water, the fish are NOT everywhere. They have , temps, habitat, feed that they prefer and key on, and sadly modern fishermen know when where and how, and will take a lot of fish out, even from the largest lakes.. These are not inexhaustible fisheries, just because of "big water".. same as the ocean really.. Fish are always there... Until they aren't... bob

[Gerry Zagorski]

Most of what I've read about the Whitefish decline in the Great Lakes attributes it to recruitment issues, not over fishing and points to the decline being caused by invasive Zebra and Quaggas Mussels. They started showing up in the early 90s and since they are filter feeders, they compete for the same plankton that juvenile Whitefish feed on to mature.

[bulletbob]

Zebra Mussels, Spiny Fleas ,Quagga Mussels and Round Gobies, all within the span of a few years. Not to mention Lampreys. No one around here cares much what has happened to these once wonderful lakes.. Much of upstate NY, is trollers.. thats pretty much all they do, and are the only ones the state DEC even thinks about.. The sawbellies[alewives] are doing ok so the stocked trout grow and get fat quick, and the downrigger guys catch them with thier rigger rods, leadcore, wire lines, and even Seth Green rigs.. No one including the NYSDEC cares as long as the tourists come to troll the big lakes.. they don't have to worry if the fish can reproduce, because they just milk the breeders, and grow them big enough to be stocked.. Warm water fisheries can go to hell here and no one gives a crap, as long as the salmonids can fatter up on greasy nasty Alewives..its so bad here that when Skaneateles Lake started producing nice Walleyes, the state decided it wanted them dead because they would eat the food of the damn stocked rainbows.... Management goes hand in hand with the crazy things nature has done with these immense glacial lakes... They are a shadow of what they were 30 or so years ago, but as long as the stocked trout grow up ok, and the rigger guys can catch them its all good... here is the official NY walleye regulation from a lake where they started thriving alongside Rainbow Trout... The rest of the state has an 18 inch limit, with a few bodies getting a 15 inch limit and either 5 or 3 a day depending on water body..
These lakes have seen better days, thats for certain..


36556Skaneateles Lake - NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation
A new regulation to limit the growth of the walleye population in Skaneateles Lake will begin on April 1, 2022. No daily possession limit, 12-inch minimum size limit, open year-round.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Originally Posted by bulletbob

Zebra Mussels, Spiny Fleas ,Quagga Mussels and Round Gobies, all within the span of a few years. Not to mention Lampreys. No one around here cares much what has happened to these once wonderful lakes.. Much of upstate NY, is trollers.. thats pretty much all they do, and are the only ones the state DEC even thinks about.. The sawbellies[alewives] are doing ok so the stocked trout grow and get fat quick, and the downrigger guys catch them with thier rigger rods, leadcore, wire lines, and even Seth Green rigs.. No one including the NYSDEC cares as long as the tourists come to troll the big lakes.. they don't have to worry if the fish can reproduce, because they just milk the breeders, and grow them big enough to be stocked.. Warm water fisheries can go to hell here and no one gives a crap, as long as the salmonids can fatter up on greasy nasty Alewives..its so bad here that when Skaneateles Lake started producing nice Walleyes, the state decided it wanted them dead because they would eat the food of the damn stocked rainbows.... Management goes hand in hand with the crazy things nature has done with these immense glacial lakes... They are a shadow of what they were 30 or so years ago, but as long as the stocked trout grow up ok, and the rigger guys can catch them its all good... here is the official NY walleye regulation from a lake where they started thriving alongside Rainbow Trout... The rest of the state has an 18 inch limit, with a few bodies getting a 15 inch limit and either 5 or 3 a day depending on water body..
These lakes have seen better days, thats for certain..


36556Skaneateles Lake - NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation
A new regulation to limit the growth of the walleye population in Skaneateles Lake will begin on April 1, 2022. No daily possession limit, 12-inch minimum size limit, open year-round.

Funny you mention the Gobies... Fished on Lake Erie for smallmouth back in the spring. We caught several of them on the small minnows we were bottom drifting, they look like Muppets. Anyhow, I wanted to try some Ned rigs and was about to put one on and the Captain hands me a soft plastic stick bait that has a round head like a Gobie and it was game on. He said they ignored the Gobies for quite a while when they first appeared in the area but now they've developed a taste for them...

[bulletbob]

Originally Posted by Gerry Zagorski

Funny you mention the Gobies... Fished on Lake Erie for smallmouth back in the spring. We caught several of them on the small minnows we were bottom drifting, they look like Muppets. Anyhow, I wanted to try some Ned rigs and was about to put one on and the Captain hands me a soft plastic stick bait that has a round head like a Gobie and it was game on. He said they ignored the Gobies for quite a while when they first appeared in the area but now they've developed a taste for them...

Yes.. Exactly as you described Gerry.. Bass are getting huge because of the "new" forage right next to them.. Now they don't have to suspend 75 feet down in 300 feet of water because thats where the sawbellies are most of the time.. Problem is this.. for every goby a SMB eats, a Goby will eat 10,000 bass eggs or new hatched fry.. the bass are getting REAL big on Gobies,, the bad thing is there are a LOT fewer bass to be caught... Same with perch/sunnies/rock bass /LMB... The eggs and fry are severely depredated by the ravenous hordes of gobies... oh and by the way, You are NOT allowed to catch a Goby, and put it on the hook as bait, ever where they exist by the hundreds of millions in the Great and finger lakes.. gobies are getting eaten by everything now, Lakers and bass love them, but the "new" food source they provide, is not remotely close to making up for the damage they have done.. the have outcompeted all sorts of small native darters and sculpins that have been native here forever, and I think some are either extinct or close to extinct... you NJ guys DO NOT want these accursed little monsters in your lakes, believe me.. ... bob