Saline River

[mtorzews]

Stopped of at the Saline River off of Michigan ave. in Saline for a couple hours Friday night. I didn't actually catch anything, but I hooked several and saw a bunch. This spot has a couple small water falls draining into pools then back to a decent looking river. I started poking around the river area first. It was loaded with sunfish(stunted) with only a few smaller bass. Also a couple of the deeper holes held large carp. I then moved up to the pool between the two waterfalls. Here I saw many large carp, and after switching to a lure the bass would follow, many bass. A small flatfish lure got the bass chasing, but a Pop-R topwater lure drew strikes. I hooked and losed 3 in 5 casts. The third broke my line leaving me without a producing lure. This could be a good learning spot as the pool makes watching the fish's reaction easy. There is plenty of open bank to cast a fly. The bass ran from 1-2 lbs. The only problem is the proximity of Michigan Ave. You'll hear and see trafic:<. Goodluck if you want to give it a shot!

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Michael T

[kroppe]

Michael,

Thanks for the report. My house is equidistant between the Huron and the Saline, and I have often wanted to fish the Saline. I have heard/read mixed reports about the health of the river/fishery. But if you have seen and hooked fish, then you can't argue with that.

On page 5 of Tom Hugglers _Fish Michigan: 50 Rivers_ he states that the Saline (trib of the River Raisin) is practically devoid of gamefish. Pretty harsh words.

I searched around for detailed info on the Saline or Raisin but couldn't find anything real interesting. There are some researchers at U-M's School of Natural Resources who specialize in the Raisin's watershed (Saline river is part of it). Also the Michigan DNR has a few bits and pieces, but nothing substantial.

At least if you are catching and releasing, you don't have to worry about your personal health in eating the fish, but you can still enjoy the recreation. I might try to scout the upper reaches - I'm not sure where the Saline headwaters are.

I think the Raisin and/or Saline could benefit from a campaign (grassroots or otherwise) to reinvigorate the recreational uses of these rivers, due to the size of the Raisin and geographical proximity to SE Michigan and NW Ohio population centers. Such a campaign might have a chance at flying. If you started with the UM Nat. Res. people you would have some willing ears.

[trout]

I would love to see more grass root groups on a local basis saving the creeks and habitat for the future of fishing.
Too many small creeks and rivers are being ignored and will be lost in the near future.