Fishing Becomes Big Draw for Three Rivers School Kids

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Published: 27 November 2022

By Louie Stout

Team Captain Carrie Balk with Kale Parr (left) and Collin Balk

Three Rivers High School Principal/Three Rivers Bass Fishing Team Captain Carrie Balk poses with Kale Parr (left) and team partner Collin Balk after they won the Michigan TBF Junior State Championship.
It was the school's first year as a bass fishing team.

Not all kids want to sit around and play video games, says Carrie Balk, Three Rivers High School principal.

She found out first hand. When her son Collin approached her last year about starting a Three Rivers High School fishing club, she decided to investigate the possibilities.

“I sent out a survey to gauge students’ interest and heard back from more than 90 kids,” said Balk. “That’s three times as many that are on our football team so I decided I better look into it.”

Not only was the Three Rivers Wildcats Bass Fishing Team formed, but 40-some kids stayed active throughout the summer.

If that weren’t enough, son Collin and buddy Kale Parr won The Bass Federation Junior Division State Championship at Wampler’s Lake. That earned them a spot in The Bass Federation Junior World championship at Kentucky Lake where they finished fourth.

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Michigan Proposes 54% Increase in King Salmon Stockings; Plans Public Meeting

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Published: 14 September 2022

MDNR Report

Lake Michigan Chinook

After decades of fish stocking decreases to balance the alewife and Chinook salmon populations, the Michigan DNR is seeing good indicators that a modest stocking increase may be warranted in Lake Michigan.

To discuss this proposal and receive public feedback, the DNR will host a virtual meeting Monday, Sept. 19, from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

“We have seen several years of good Chinook salmon growth and have a slight increase in the alewife biomass, or abundance of those fish,” said Jay Wesley, the DNR's Lake Michigan basin coordinator. “Although the alewife biomass is a fraction of what it was historically, we have a good 2021-year class and have seen up to six-year classes of alewives in our fisheries surveys – that means there are up to six different age groups in the current population of alewife." 

A "year class" refers to all of the fish of any species hatched, either through natural reproduction or through fish-rearing efforts, during that year's spawning period. 

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