# Da weir



## LiveHardDieFree (Apr 27, 2017)

M. Tonello said:


> The numbers at the Little Manistee Weir are certainly down from a long term perspective. There are several reasons for that. In the past, especially in the fall, we would leave the weir in longer to get a better count on the number of fall fish going up. Now we remove it as soon as we're done with egg take, both spring and fall. It is easier on the fish if we don't handle them. The drawback to that is the "numbers passed" drop, which some anglers get upset about.
> 
> The other reason for fewer numbers is that Lake Michigan is much more sterile than it was 20 or even 10 years ago. I will say that I don't believe there's anything wrong with the Little Manistee River itself. It still produces as many smolts as it ever has. They just don't survive as well in the harsher, less productive environment that is Lake Michigan these days.
> 
> There are no current plans to make major changes to the steelhead stocking program in Lake MI. We are currently working on upgrades to our hatcheries that would allow us to rear and stock more yearling steelhead, so when those are complete, maybe we can stock more. However, that will depend on how things shape up in Lake Michigan and whether or not we can safely stock more predators.


Mark, immediately following egg take, what percentage of fish swim up vs. swim back down?

What's the distribution of these 2 groups WRT sex?

It would seem that since they've "spawned," instincts may tell them they're "all done" following egg take and to abandon any further upstream advancement.

Thanks for supporting.


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## Corey K (Dec 11, 2009)

Start a new thread RML, I'm interested to hear the response.


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## Trout King (May 1, 2002)

RML said:


> Mark..How would one request stocking for the middle river of the Pere Marquette River. Would like to see 22,000 Steelhead and 22,000 Browns just like Tippy Dam. Brown Trout fishing Rainbow Rapids to Walhalla is greatly diminished and therefore needs stocking badly. My Opinion, is the wild reproduction can't keep up with the Steelhead creel limits from Gleason's Landing downstream. The Only shocking data for the Pere Marquette is collected from special regulation water ( funny). No shocking data has ever been collected Middle River where it is a wackfest.


The PM received stocking of about 24500 brown trout in 2016 alone. The majority of stocking was in the non-gear restricted water, below Rainbow Rapids.


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## M. Tonello (Sep 20, 2002)

skipper34 said:


> Mark, can you give any reports of any fish still left in the system as of today?


I have not been down there. There were still a fair number of tight hens we passed last week after we finished egg take. Should still be a few around, but most have probably spawned or are finishing up. Should still be a fair number of dropbacks around to play with.


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## M. Tonello (Sep 20, 2002)

LiveHardDieFree said:


> Mark, immediately following egg take, what percentage of fish swim up vs. swim back down?
> 
> What's the distribution of these 2 groups WRT sex?
> 
> ...


LiveHardDieFree,
The males will continue on upstream. We only take a small amount of milt from them, so I'm sure they go on up to find some females to party with. The hens that we've spawned likely don't go very far, you're correct about that. The green hens (not ready to spawn) certainly go upstream to find some gravel. The sex distribution for this year's run (obviously just the fish we handled) was about 2/3 females and 1/3 males.


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## LiveHardDieFree (Apr 27, 2017)

M. Tonello said:


> LiveHardDieFree,
> The males will continue on upstream. We only take a small amount of milt from them, so I'm sure they go on up to find some females to party with. The hens that we've spawned likely don't go very far, you're correct about that. The green hens (not ready to spawn) certainly go upstream to find some gravel. The sex distribution for this year's run (obviously just the fish we handled) was about 2/3 females and 1/3 males.


Thanks again Mark, the insight is appreciated.


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