About a month ago, WDNR issued a news note they had received a couple of adipose clipped/coded wire tagged Lake Huron fish that were caught off of Racine.

 

I was at detour last Friday and Saturday, there were 3 boats of us fishing and nobody landed or had a king on, nothing but pinks and a few lake trout. Its hard to believe 3 boats trolling for a that many hours could not get a rip. Now last year on the same weekend we caught a mixed bag of young kings and mature cohos.

 

The fish are going into Lake Michigan to feed.

Something like 10% of the clipped kings recovered in Lake Michigan were stocked in Lake Huron

Even Indiana gets fish from Lake Huron, last I heard 5% of the fish that Indiana recovered were from Huron

What's more likely, there's a conspiracy to not stock all the fish at Nunn's Creek, or that they were stocked and swam right over into Lake Michigan, where all the remaining alewives are?

 

Another thought is that they went to Lake Michigan you would think that some of them would have returned by August. Believe me when you mark cluster after cluster of bait on the bottom the food is not the problem here. When the salmon crashed in Lake Huron, the salmon in the straits area were plentiful and very large. On the positive side I expect some very good smelt dipping to take place in the spring.

 

I have not been able to get numbers or locations for Ontario. I have been able to get a little information that the Blue Jay hatchery raises and plants Chinook in Northern Lake Huron. If those fish go to Lake Michigan you wold think that they would be an easy target in July and August in the Straits area. Thus it would provide better salmon fishing or more salmon willing to bite.

 

Lake Huron still produces plenty of kings besides the ones that are planted. Huron is a nursery for these fish and once they get so big, it seems like most head over to Michigan to eat ales and get big before they return to spawn. I fish northern Huron and still do pretty good on kings, but most of those fish are juvies. We don't start getting big kings in #'s till mid August and this year they are later than normal.

It's true that the bait is returning and we have been marking huge clouds of it. Almost all the fish we have been catching are full of smelt. The kings we get are fat and sassy, they are just young. I don't know why they can't stay and finish out on these smelt. One thing I do notice is that these bait balls are usually on or near bottom. In the old days when the bait was alewives, they were almost always up high. Maybe the kings swim right over all these smelt searching for alewives.

 

The mdnr fish stock shows that the kings planted in 2011 have a adipose tag so they are not clipping. 250,000 fish is a lot of fish to tag. Maybe they will show up soon.

 

We caught 2 that were fin clipped in Fairport this year in August. They had to be just released from earlier this year. That was just the one day that we were fishing.

 

The mdnr fish stock shows that the kings planted in 2011 have a adipose tag so they are not clipping. 250,000 fish is a lot of fish to tag. Maybe they will show up soon.

They have an adipose CLIP and a coded wire tag in the snout.

Every Chinook planted since 2011 in Lakes Michigan/Huron have a clip and a tag.

They have tagging trailer machines that can clip and tag something like 8,000 fish per hour.

 

The fish are going into Lake Michigan to feed.

Something like 10% of the clipped kings recovered in Lake Michigan were stocked in Lake Huron

Even Indiana gets fish from Lake Huron, last I heard 5% of the fish that Indiana recovered were from Huron

What's more likely, there's a conspiracy to not stock all the fish at Nunn's Creek, or that they were stocked and swam right over into Lake Michigan, where all the remaining alewives are?

Yow!, Considering the proportion of stocked vs nat repro fish coming out of Huron.

 

We caught 2 that were fin clipped in Fairport this year in August. They had to be just released from earlier this year. That was just the one day that we were fishing.

Had to be very small fish I would think if stocked this year ?

 

Does anyone have any idea on how many Chinook are planted in North Lake Huron by MNR Ontario?

 

Zero. http://www.glfc.org/fishstocking/exresults.php?sp=CHS&la=HU&agy=OMNR&s=300

They only stock Lake Ontario. Last stocking by OMNR of kings in Lake Huron was 2002 according to the database

 

Pretty much all the kings near St. Ignace are gonna be Lk. Michigan fish. Been that way for a while actually. There's still a few Huron fish lingering around there, but not enough to count on any numbers coming out of there.

Look at what happened to the Soo. When Lk. Huron crashed, the Soo crashed. There hasn't been a good run in the Soo since 2007, even then it was rather weak. It's done. I don't even bother targeting them anymore.

 

Does anyone have any idea on how many Chinook are planted in North Lake Huron by MNR Ontario?

Robert, the amount of chinook that are naturally reproduced in LH is staggering. It's been stated LH receives approx 14 million smolts from nat repro, with the majority coming from the Canadian side.

 

I know for sure we still have "a lot" of kings around. The biggest trick is figuring out where and when they will be were... At the end of august me and a buddy lost (lines broke due to a faulty guide... same rod same set up(dipsy>flasher>meat rig) not one, but two VERY good kings just outside of the Les Cheneaux area. Only fish we hooked up that morning. In the same spot I caught a nice atlantic and pink. For the past few years the mouth of the local rivers and right in the rivers have been good. And not talking just of Nunns creek. So i do believe there is some possible good nat reproduction going on. Just need to figure out where these fish are going to..

 

Robert, Here is a link with info that may help you. I keep it in my favorites. This is what the DNR plants and where. You can do a search by location and date. I do this for the brook trout streams in the UP when I visit. Note here that not all Salmon plants are fin clipped as they have been using Tetracycline for years. That drug gets into the spinal column of fish and glows under UV lights. More cost effective and efficient. I did the search for the years you would have three and four year kings and it looks like your Nunns Creek has almost a quarter million planted both years.

http://www.michigandnr.com/fishstock/default.asp

 

Robert, Here is a link with info that may help you. I keep it in my favorites. This is what the DNR plants and where. You can do a search by location and date. I do this for the brook trout streams in the UP when I visit. Note here that not all Salmon plants are fin clipped as they have been using Tetracycline for years. That drug gets into the spinal column of fish and glows under UV lights. More cost effective and efficient. I did the search for the years you would have three and four year kings and it looks like your Nunns Creek has almost a quarter million planted both years.

http://www.michigandnr.com/fishstock/default.asp

Not my Nunns Creek. Form looking at St Martins Bay it does not look to favorable for too many salmon either as there are nets everywhere. From what I hear the tribal fishermen are disappointed also. I think they are going to throw in the towel pretty soon.

 

How about not naming unmentionable rivers! Amazing how many people can't follow simple rules.

 

How about not naming unmentionable rivers! Amazing how many people can't follow simple rules.

The original post named said unmentionable river 4 days ago. I know it's against the rules, but what's it hurting in this discussion?

 

I don't make the rules, just wish people would follow them. After all its not that hard to do.

 

After all if there's a salmon drought like what's being mentioned. Mentioning a tiny river to the masses like the one that's being talked about it is precisely the reason there's a list of mentonables in the first place!!!!

 

After all if there's a salmon drought like what's being mentioned. Mentioning a tiny river to the masses like the one that's being talked about it is precisely the reason there's a list of mentonables in the first place!!!!

Not trying to make lite of the whole situation, but if anybody were to read this and truly digest it, I don't think I'd be worrying too much about the masses flocking to said unmentionable! Besides, this isn't a fishing report, so I'm not certain if the rules apply regarding an unmentionable when considering the content of this thread

 

Not trying to make lite of the whole situation, but if anybody were to read this and truly digest it, I don't think I'd be worrying too much about the masses flocking to said unmentionable! Besides, this isn't a fishing report, so I'm not certain if the rules apply regarding an unmentionable when considering the content of this thread

Doesn't matter if it's a report waz, mentioning access points like what's happening in another thread on another page or talking about certain rivers and their stocking numbers on another is no different. It's not limited to a report. If it's OK to mention rivers or access points that aren't on the list, then what's the point of having a list in the first place? I guess I take it personally on certain rivers because I've seen the increase in pressure over the years where there never was any before and I've seen said locations get totally trashed. I like to see the pristine places stay that way.

 

Well, you don't have to worry about me going up there... I know where to catch them and the drive is much shorter!