[SJC]

I have caught between 20 and 30 lake run browns so far this year out of Huron. I know others who have done similar. These fish are coming from a couple small upriver plants that are intended to be stream fish. I think one of the keys here is that these fish are planted way upriver. Miles from the lake. These fish go to the lake when they want to. I believe a lot of these fish migrate to the lake later in summer when the temp in the lower river gets warm. They get out instead of going up. By doing this, they avoid the early spring predator gauntlet. Also, one of the streams they are planted in has degraded so badly in some of the upper and middle stretches, I doubt it could support the plant, so some may have to go regardless of temp.
Also, outer Saginaw bay is perfect for browns. A variety of food, great nearshore structure, cool water almost always fairly close. I never quit catching lake runs. Even after they stopped planting them. I think there's some lessons here.

 

[SJC]

Creel starts April 1st and has since 1989. Most ports caught 2,000 to 4,000 browns a year while the clerk was working through the 1990s. It started to fall to just a few hundred around 2010 and some ports went below 100.

The thought that conditions were too poor in south and that we should move them north and increase the stocking of those northern ports. This is our last for the experiment before we re-evaluate.

We could consider having a port in south one near Manistee and one in UP and cut the rest.

I will follow up with creel and stocking numbers.


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So instead of figuring out how to make them work, you're going to cut them? I'd take 10,000 of these and I'd bet you the cost of raising them that I could get an acceptable return. It's obvious people want browns and I think they could work. I know there's dynamics here and you have more to worry about than just making them stick somewhere. I just hate to see browns written off forever after years of doing the same thing and claiming they can't work.