Tournament News Powered By Lake Drive Marine
Friday, June 12, 2026
Friday, June 12, 2026
Thursday, June 11, 2026
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By DAVID FIELDER, MDNR Fisheries research biologist
Walleye is now the most harvested species in the Michigan waters of the Great Lakes, followed by yellow perch. These findings are part of the 2025 Statewide Angler Survey Program (also known as “creel survey”) estimates recently announced by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Division.
This trend has been developing due to shifts in the food web of Lake Huron (and to a lesser extent, Lake Michigan) with the invasion of dreissenid mussels, which are members of the family of small, freshwater, aquatic, bivalve mollusks.
Alewives disappeared from most of Lake Huron in 2003, after zebra and quagga mussels became established in the lake, where they consume much of the phytoplankton that is the base of the food chain. Since salmon and trout depend on alewives for food, their populations in Lake Huron have greatly contracted.
These changes have been beneficial to some species, however. In the absence of alewives, which prey on the eggs and fry (young fish) of other species, some native fish species have seen substantial improvements in reproduction in Lake Huron, including lake trout and walleye.
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By Louie Stout
The next best thing to catching walleyes might be saugeye, a species that appears to be doing quite well in Cedar Lake in northwest Indiana.
Fingerlings were stocked there last year, and according to District Fisheries Biologist Courtney Weldon, they’re doing quite well. She and other fisheries folks surveyed the Lake County fishery, located southwest of Crown Point, Ind., last fall and found an abundance of young saugeye.
Saugeye is a hybrid cross between a walleye and a sauger. There is no size limit, but the bag limit is 6.
“They went in measuring about an inch and half (76,675 of them) last spring and the ones we saw in the fall averaged 10.3 inches,” she said. “We saw a great return (survival).”
That didn’t seem to be the case for 3,163 surplus walleyes that were stocked in the fall of 2024.
“We never saw one of those fish,” she said. “It was shocking, but we did capture four older walleyes that were not fish we planted.”
However, she noted, the lake is very difficult for biologists to electro-fish because there is no weed edge on the 1,750-acre lake. Cedar has a maximum depth of 16 feet and averages about 8 feet deep. Also, the walleyes could have been in deeper water when they were there. She plans to go back again this fall to re-survey the lake.
She says the saugeye results could lead to more stocking. The lake has an abundance of forage for them to eat.
“Saugeye can tolerate the shallower and hotter water found in that body of water,” sha said.
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MDNR Report
Planning to fish the Muskegon River this spring? Be on the lookout for Michigan DNR personnel collecting walleye eggs below Croton Dam in Newaygo County. Egg collections with electrofishing boats will start as early as the week of March 23 and conclude by April 17.
Four days of egg collections are planned this spring. The date those collections will begin depends on water temperatures and the presence of ripe fish (fish that are ready to spawn); the schedule may change based on conditions.
The egg-take zone runs from Croton Dam downstream to the Pine Street Access Site, so anglers who wish to avoid the walleye collection activities should fish downstream from the Pine Street Access Site. Anyone fishing near the egg-collection zone should use caution when fishing near the electrofishing boats. For safety, anyone wading will be asked to exit the water when electrofishing boats approach.
Electrofishing usually begins at Croton Dam each day at 8 a.m. and proceeds downstream to the Pine Street Access Site. If more eggs are needed, additional collections may occur downstream to the Thornapple Avenue (High Rollway) Access Site.
The DNR plans to collect approximately 35.4 million walleye eggs from the Muskegon River this year. Some of the fry (fish that have just hatched) from these eggs will be directly placed in waters throughout the Lower Peninsula and some will be sent to rearing ponds. Walleye fry transferred to ponds will be raised to fingerling size (approximately 1.5 to 2.5 inches) and stocked in late spring or early summer in lakes and rivers throughout the state. A smaller number of fish will be reared through the summer months in select ponds and stocked as fall fingerlings (approximately 6 to 8 inches).
Lake Michigan and many inland lake walleye populations in the Lower Peninsula depend on the fingerlings produced from Muskegon River eggs. The number of spawning walleye in the Muskegon River has been estimated at 40,000 to 50,000 fish. DNR crews will collect milt (sperm) and eggs from approximately 520 adult fish on-site this spring. These fish are immediately returned to the river — except for 60 fish, which will be collected for routine, annual health and disease surveillance testing at Michigan State University.
The Muskegon River has the largest run of walleye in the Lake Michigan watershed, south of Green Bay, and its adult walleye population is primarily stocked fish. These walleyes contribute to populations in other areas, based on fish tags that are returned to the DNR by anglers. Walleye from the Muskegon River have been recaptured in Lake Macatawa, Spring Lake and Pigeon Lake (Ottawa County), Manistee Lake (Kalkaska County) and the Grand, Kalamazoo, Pere Marquette and White rivers.
Learn more about how the DNR manages walleye at Michigan.gov/Walleye.
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By Louie Stout
Northern Indiana waters, including the St. Joseph River in South Bend, received a quality walleye stocking in October.
Those fish came from a commercial fish rearing company and were purchased by the Michiana Walleye Club and the Indiana DNR.
Indiana also used commercial hatchery fish to stock Clear Lake in Steuben County, Sylvan Lake and Winona Lake at 10 fish per acre.
More walleyes will be stocked in northern Indiana lakes in the coming days. Those fish were raised by the DNR at their Fawn River Fish Hatchery.
Indiana biologist Matt Horsley said that 11,760 fall finglering walleyes purchased from Gollon Bait and Fish Farm in Wisconsin went into the St. Joe. The purchased walleyes were in good shape and ran 7 to 11 inches.
Indiana and the walleye club stock the river every other year. On years when Indiana doesn’t stock, Michigan stocks it’s portion of the river up and downstream from the Hoosier state.
The DNR pays for its portion of the river stocking with funds it receives from I&M Electric for potential fish loses.
Previous river stockings have been made at Maggie’s Landing, but this year they were planted upstream near County Line Road.
“Survival of previous stockings at Maggie’s has been dropping so we decided to try stocking farther upstream where there is more vegetation to offer the young fish more protection from predation,” said Horsley. “I will go survey the river next fall to evaluate overall survival of this year’s stocking.”
Those walleyes that Indiana raised at Fawn River will help supplement other northern Indiana lakes. Those lakes scheduled to get those fish –dependent upon the supply – include Pretty, Wall, Loon, Big Turkey, Stone and Pine, Maxinkuckee, Dewart, Fish, Crooked and George lakes.
Horsely and the DNR are dependent upon angler feedback regarding walleye successes throughout the season.
“I love getting info from anglers about whether they are catching walleyes – or not,” he said. “That’s just one of the ways we evaluate the fisheries to determine if we need to look at different options.”
You can contact him by email at mhorsley@dnr.in.gov or by phone, 269 829 6241.