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Michigan Muskie Angler
If you're fishing for muskellunge this year, the Michigan DNR wants to hear from you.
The DNR is asking people who fish for muskie to help with its ongoing efforts to investigate these fish by reporting through the DNR's online muskellunge angler survey.
Since 2014, this survey has gathered information about muskie angler demographics and catch data, such as length of fish caught, angler effort, body of water fished and methods used. Fisheries managers have used this data to recommend fishing regulation changes to the Michigan Natural Resources Commission, evaluate the muskellunge stocking program and understand more about self-sustaining populations.
View the current survey and past survey data.
Whether their trip resulted in a catch or not, anglers can offer valuable information about their fishing experience. People may fill out one survey per person, per trip and are encouraged to complete a survey for each muskellunge fishing trip they make.
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Lloyd Tanner with Michigan state-record flathead catfish
While fishing with cut bait recently in Berrien County, Mich., an angler from Hobart, Indiana, caught a new state-record fish: a flathead catfish weighing in at 53.35 pounds and measuring 48 inches!
Lloyd Tanner was fishing the St. Joe River, a tributary of Lake Michigan, in the early-morning hours of Sunday, May 29, when he reeled in the record-breaker.
This fish beats the previous state-record flathead catfish – 52 pounds, 46.02 inches long – caught in 2014 by Dale Blakley, of Niles, out of Barron Lake in Cass County.
Tanner's fish was verified by Jay Wesley, Lake Michigan Basin coordinator with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
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DNR Staff with muskellunge.
Great Lakes muskellunge eggs were collected last month from the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair by the Michigan DNR.
These fish will be reared at Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery in Mattawan and Thompson State Fish Hatchery near Manistique and stocked in Michigan waters this fall.
In 2021, approximately 232,000 eggs were collected from the Detroit River. Those eggs produced nearly 30,000 fall fingerlings that were stocked in 19 inland lakes and rivers. No muskellunge are stocked in the Detroit River because the abundant Lake St. Clair-Detroit River muskellunge population is supported entirely by natural reproduction.
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Michigan Fisheries Habitat Grant Projects
Twelve fish habitat conservation projects in streams and lakes across the state will share close to $1.8 million in Fisheries Habitat Grants administered by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
The projects, supported by an additional $1.6 million in matching partner contributions, will rehabilitate and protect valuable fish habitat that provides the foundation for Michigan’s world-class fisheries. Four of the funded projects are identified by the DNR as priority habitat conservation projects.
The Fisheries Habitat Grant program provides funding for a variety of activities including fish habitat conservation, dam removal and repair, resource assessment studies and access to recreation opportunities like fishing. Funding from fishing license sales, state of Michigan general funds and a settlement with Consumers Energy is distributed through three grant areas: aquatic habitat conservation, dam management, and aquatic habitat and recreation in the Au Sable, Manistee and Muskegon river watersheds.
Joe Nohner, a resource analyst with the DNR Fisheries Division, said the funded projects will protect and rehabilitate fish habitat across the state, while in many cases also improving public safety through the removal of dams.
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Fisheries biologist with trout
The Michigan DNR fisheries management units completed over 260 fisheries surveys across Michigan in 2021. Specifically, DNR fisheries staff surveyed 152 inland lakes and 115 streams.
Overall, the surveys revealed that most of our lakes and streams have healthy, self-sustaining populations of fish.
The surveys are useful for tracking inland fisheries populations, evaluating if stocking increases angler opportunities or addressing concerns from anglers throughout the year.
So, just what are crews looking for?
According to Jay Wesley, DNR Fisheries Division Lake Michigan basin coordinator, surveys fall into three categories:
- Evaluating management actions.
- Understanding status and trends.
- Finding answers to new questions or concerns.
“The management units stepped up last year and safely conducted these surveys to evaluate if management actions, like fish stocking or habitat improvement projects, had the desired effect,” Wesley said. “Surveys help us understand whether or not our management actions resulted in better recreational fishing in certain areas or improved a lake’s overall health.”