TOPIC:

The Michigan City Charter Boat Association has called a meeting with the
DNR for 6 p.m., August 20 at 121 Skwiat Legion Ave. in Michigan City. All
Hoosier Coho Club members and concerned anglers are encouraged to attend.

Please try to make this meeting. Doesn't matter if your a newbie or an oldtimer. Hear for yourself the questions being asked of the DNR. The MC Charter Boat Association has asked for this meeting. These are fishermen that are on the water almost daily. They see first hand what is going on with this end of the lake. By just showing up you help send a message back thru the proper channels, you are also helping yourselves in the years to come with this fishery. If you love this fishery it is time for us to come together and help support all others that are willing to take steps like this. Hope to see you there!

I will be there

Jeff,

If you can make the meeting would you be kind enough to bring my hoodie order with you. I'll square up with you there.

Ed

Long haul for me after work to make it there in time, please someone post on here what was said!

Lickety-Split wrote:

Jeff,

If you can make the meeting would you be kind enough to bring my hoodie order with you. I'll square up with you there.

Ed

Sure will Ed - I will bring all of the hoodies there in case others want to do the same.

I won't be able to attend. Distance and also a conflict since I'm on the Newton County Soil and Water Conservations board. I did send Brian Breidert (DNR Lake Michigan biologist) a list of concerns to possibly discuss. Specifically, bird depredation on forage and game fish, mostly in Lake County. Lack of Skamania and king salmon runs now verses runs we had historically. Why are salmon stocking cuts a good strategy when the Feds are stocking ever increasing numbers of lake trout? Others,,,,,

I'll be there..

Thanks for wieghing in Capt. Mke,

There are so many items that need to be looked at and you hit on some major ones. As a charter captain the loss of the good summer runs of skamamia, has to be a big hit. Close fishing. Very exciting fishing. And everyone was happy. It is what dreams were made of. Were are they now? So, I know that you know all the history behind the breeding that got us the summer strain of skams. Alot of very good work took place. So I have a question, What would happen to the gene pool if the collection of sperm and eggs were collected but instead of early run skams, the late arrivals were used. Would that start moving the gene pool to a later arrival fish? Same question just a little different. What if the eggs and sperm were mixed at the hatchery. One parent is a skamania and the other is a late michigan parent?

I will be there too!!

From what I remember the "original" Skamania strain was created in Washington state by continually selecting the earliest run fish and then the earliest run of the offspring of those and the earliest run of the next generation for 16 generations. Without continually screening for early run fish, the strain will eventually revert back to "natural." I don't know what sort of "screening" is done by the Indiana DNR.
Before the St. Joe project and more recently, the lamprey barrier, getting breeding stock was a crap-shoot. It took a significant amount of manpower to gather the fish and some opportunities were missed. After the St. Joe project, I seem to remember the fish going up the fish ladders were used to collect parent stock. But they'd pick some from June, July, August and September instead of just the earliest. Don't quote me, but I think I remember this was the plan. Don't know why. Now, the lamprey weir on Trail Crick adds another opportunity to get parent-stock, but I don't know the degree that it's utilized.
I do know in those early years, when we were fishing for fish that originated from Washington-state parents reared in Indiana hatcheries, and in the next couple years when we were fishing for Skamanias not far removed from Washington Skammies, we'd have a terrific whack of fish show up in late June and depending on the weather and lake conditions, we'd have balls-out fishing for three to six weeks, midsummer.
I can remember many 12 for 20, 16 for 27, etc. catches and you would be fishing with 50 other boats on weekdays, twice that on weekends - and all the boats were catching fish! For many reasons, some unavoidable, some perhaps avoidable, it's not like that anymore.