MDNR Sturgeon Survey - North Channel SCR

[Mike Thomas]

MDNR Sturgeon Survey – St. Clair River, North Channel

The Lake St. Clair Fisheries Research Station will be conducting the annual sturgeon survey in the North Channel of the St. Clair River near Algonac, Michigan beginning Tuesday, May 29th and continuing through June 15. We will be fishing setlines each of the following nights 5/29, 5/30, 5/31, 6/4, 6/5, 6/6, 6/7, 6/11, 6/12, 6/13, and 6/14. There will be no survey gear deployed from Friday afternoons (~3pm) through 9am Monday mornings. The lines are fished at various locations spread out between Deckers Landing and downtown Algonac (see red area on map below).

Each line is marked with two floats (30” or 15” diameter) and held in place by two large anchors, the floats are orange or white with reflective tape. The floats on a single setline are approximately 150 yards apart. We recommend anglers avoid fishing between the floats, since they could potentially snag their hooks on the survey gear. All lines are fished in depths of 20 feet of water or more, so the survey gear poses little threat to boat activity.

We have had some problems in past years with poachers tampering with our survey gear and presumably removing sturgeon from the lines. We are asking anglers fishing in the North Channel to keep an eye open for suspicious activity in the vicinity of the setlines. If you observe someone tampering with the survey equipment, please report it as soon as possible to the RAP line at 800-292-7800 or contact the St. Clair County Sheriff Office at (810) 794-5655.

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/500/medium/Setline_map_v1.jpg

Setline floats look like this:
http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/500/medium/Setline_float1.JPG

Thank you for your help. If you have questions you can contact me at the LSC Fisheries Research Station at 586-465-4771 or by e-mail at: thomasmv@michigan.gov


- Mike Thomas
Fisheries Research Biologist
MDNR Lake St. Clair Fisheries Research Station

['eyes and zee's]

Thanks for the information and the warning about the buoys, we will keep a close watch for them, and others trying to poach. Please keep us informed about the data and numbers collected from the survey, thanks.
Matt Ziolkowski

[Mike Thomas]

So far things have gone well. We've fished two nights and found no evidence of anyone tampering with the survey gear. We caught 13 sturgeon on Wednesday, ranging from 25 to 65 inches (80 pounds). Two of those 13 were fish we had caught, tagged, and released in surveys during previous years. Today we only caught 3 sturgeon. It seemed like they just weren't feeding last night. Thanks again to everyone for keeping their eyes and ears open for any kind of suspicious activity in the vicinity of the survey. - Mike.

[Robert Hoover]

I saw them yesterday .I also saw a big yaght that thought they were the channel markers !I was going by were the old hockey sticks use to cross their were i think three sets of them are red on the south side and white marker directly acrooss about 30yrds i was going between them when the yaght cut 90 and went to squezze right by me maybe putting 8 ' of room between us.:rant: dumb @$$.probally though it was marking shallow water.also seen the coasties patrolling around them quite a bit.Do they really have a problem with people tampering with that equipment? Thats horrible if they do.

[Mike Thomas]

Unfortunately, we have had a couple of the survey lines lifted each year. We have no way of knowing how many sturgeon were on the lines that were lifted, but the evidence was clear that someone had pulled the lines up, piled them in a boat, and then dumped them back into the water. We also had one of the floats stolen and it turned up in the back of a car pulled over in New Baltimore for speeding. Anyways, the more eyes and ears we have on the lookout, the better the chance we'll deter the poachers from messing around with the survey gear. Thanks. - Mike.

[Robert Hoover]

So is ther anyway i could ride with the dnr to pull the lines?Im really interested in these fish after finally getting one myself.

[Mike Thomas]

Send me an e-mail at thomasmv@michigan.gov

[Dialtone]

Is there a time of day that the DNR will pull them up? My friend owns a dock on the river and there are 4 of those 100 yards in front of it. I want to tell him when to go out and watch with binoculars.

[Mike Thomas]

We are usually starting to lift the lines around 9:30am, and done with the last one by about 11:30am.

So far (through June 7) we've captured 80 lake sturgeon. They have ranged from 2 pounds to 94 pounds in weight, and about 23 inches to 69 inches in length. 18 of the fish have been "recaptures" or fish that we had caught, tagged, and released in prior years. The number of recaptures is an indication that we are starting to get a good proportion of the population marked now and will allow us to make a better estimate of the number of individual lake sturgeon in the St. Clair population.

Maybe the best news is that so far, we have not seen any evidence that the survey lines have been handled by poachers. Thanks again to everybody for keeping their eyes/ears open when out on the North Channel. The survey continues for one more week, with the last lifts on Friday, June 15.

If there are any questions, I can be emailed at: thomasmv@michigan.gov

- Mike.