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By Louie Stout
So what’s the latest on the new boat ramp at Eagle Lake in Cass County, Mich.?
Not much, other than the Eagle Lake Improvement Association continues to pour money into legal fees and appeal court rulings while the DNR lets everything drag on.
It’s been 10 years since the Michigan DNR announced it wanted to build a boat ramp and parking area on the east side of Eagle Lake Road, north of the channel that connects Eagle with the Juno Chain. That land has remained idle ever since then.
“It is a shame that the general public (anglers, boaters, kayakers, etc.) has not been able to realize any benefit to a great project,” said Darrin Schaap, owner of Clear H2o Tackle located near the lake. “The state of Michigan and the DNR has allowed a very small part of the population (Eagle Lake Improvement Association) to fight and ultimately halt the project. At what point will state government realize that enough is enough, and that the greater good for the many should take precedence over people trying to privatize a natural resource?”
The lake association has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees over the past 10 years and appears determined to spend more. It has lost cases in Cass County Circuit Court and in a DNR Administrative Judge hearing, yet the association filed another suit in the Michigan Court of Appeals last June.
Although the ramp project has passed all of the governmental environmental tests, the lake group claims that the parking area and ramp is impacting wetlands, will introduce more invasive species to the lake, and inhibits the public’s opportunity to utilize the beach area along the road.
- Details
By Louie Stout
Pine and Stone Lake should see quite a few keeper walleye within a couple of years.
Indiana DNR District Fisheries Biologist Tom Bacula did a survey of the two LaPorte County lakes last fall to evaluate the success of lake association and DNR stockings. Indiana had a surplus of walleye fingerlings in 2021 and 2022 and put them in the two lakes last year.
The fish stocked earlier in the year ranged from 5 to 8 inches in length – a good size for excellent survival.
Bacula said he and his crew saw enough of the Indiana fish for the stocking to be considered successful.
- Details
By Louie Stout
Tagged Walleye
St. Joseph River Biologist Dar Deegan’s tagging program is providing insight into how walleyes move around in the river.
Deegan began a tagging program in 1998 to track the history, movements and growth of walleyes stocked by the Indiana DNR and the Michiana Walleye Club.
Although not all of that data has been analyzed and the project is ongoing, it’s providing interesting clues about walleyes in the river.
It also confirms what most anglers have suspected.
“We’re finding walleye have a significant migratory pattern,” Deegan says. “Very early in the year they move upriver around the dams, but then move downriver to settle into the impounded sections, especially like the Maggie’s Landing area, during summer months.”
The walleyes were 12 inchers or larger at the time of tagging, picked up during fish surveys conducted by his crew over the years. The yellow tags, located on the upper back of the fish, include an identification and phone number stamped into them. The length at the time of capture is recorded along with where it was caught and a scale sample is taken to evaluate the age of the fish.
- Details
By Louie Stout
Much to the chagrin of avid ice anglers, the winter has been pretty darn mild.
What does that mean for our lakes come spring? Will it impact fish in those lakes?
We posed that to northern Indiana and southern Michigan fisheries biologists.
Call it wishful thinking, but one might think that predators fed better through the winter and should show signs of accelerated growth and weight.
Indiana biologist Matt Horsley said it might happen, but unlikely.
“Ice or no ice, fish activity is based upon water temperatures and less about ice cover,” he said. “During winter, temps below ice remain around 37 degrees, and lakes have been hovering at or just above that.”