# Little Manistee Weir, 2021 Chinook Salmon Egg Take



## M. Tonello (Sep 20, 2002)

Hello everyone,
The Fish Techs turned on the pumps yesterday, so we now have some fish in the ponds. We'll be checking ripeness next week, so it is possible that the first day of egg take will be next week. I'll try to keep posting updates here as things progress.


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## fishdip (Dec 29, 2010)

Thanks Mark,appreciate all you and your staff do.


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## M. Tonello (Sep 20, 2002)

Thanks Fishdip!

Day one of Chinook egg take 2021 is now scheduled for this wednesday, Sept. 29. If we have enough fish on hand and they're ripe enough, we go again on thursday.


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## seabass810 (Apr 2, 2010)

Is this open to the public. Didn't know because of covid. I will be up there surf fishing and camping and might swing by.


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## M. Tonello (Sep 20, 2002)

I just checked, and yes the public will be allowed to observe the egg take this time. There might be a mask requirement or something like that, but at least the public will be allowed in the building.

FYI- we usually try to get started by 9am, and we like to finish up sometime in the early afternoon.


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## sherman51 (Oct 28, 2018)

could you maybe tell me how many fish get stocked in the little Manistee river compared to the heyday years? was thinking about coming up and fishing the lake for salmon and maybe a steelie in late aug or early sept' haven't fished it in many yrs. but want to know if there will be a lot of fish coming in. we want fresh runners that still strike lures.


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## SkunkCity (May 15, 2019)

sherman51 said:


> could you maybe tell me how many fish get stocked in the little Manistee river compared to the heyday years? was thinking about coming up and fishing the lake for salmon and maybe a steelie in late aug or early sept' haven't fished it in many yrs. but want to know if there will be a lot of fish coming in. we want fresh runners that still strike lures.


Look at the fish stocking database on the DNR website.


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## foxfire69 (Sep 10, 2006)

DNR


The description of my page




www2.dnr.state.mi.us


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## M. Tonello (Sep 20, 2002)

Successful day of Chinook egg take at the LM Weir. We spawned right around 250 pairs, harvesting 577 Chinooks. Biggest fish was 29 lbs and change. There were several in that range. We also passed 195 coho salmon, 16 steelhead, and 8 brown trout. One of the browns was over 15 lbs!

We're going to be down there again tomorrow taking eggs, and we're hoping for another good day.


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## jmaddog8807 (Oct 6, 2009)

Damn! Imagine hooking into that brown on that river. Be one hell of a story.


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## sportsman98 (Dec 6, 2010)

Any size to the steelhead?


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## tgafish (Jan 19, 2001)

Thanks for the updates Mark. Good luck makin babies!


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## M. Tonello (Sep 20, 2002)

Had another good day of Chinook salmon egg take down at the Little M Weir today. We spawned 250 pairs, harvesting 771 Chinooks for a total of 1,348 Chinooks so far. Nothing huge today- although there are quite a few in the 25+ lb range. We passed 24 steelhead for a total of 41. One of the steelies was a male that topped 16 lbs. He was last seen heading for Hopper Junction! We also passed 118 coho salmon, for a total of 313 so far. Had a few reach double digit weights, but nothing huge. Lastly, we passed 4 more brown trout for a total of 12.

That'll do it for this week. We'll be back at it likely next tuesday.


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## John Hine (Mar 31, 2019)

Nicely done!! Thank you


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## jmaddog8807 (Oct 6, 2009)

1,300 already, that seems like a good start!


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## sportsman98 (Dec 6, 2010)

Thank you!!


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## riverman (Jan 9, 2002)

Thanks


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## SJC (Sep 3, 2002)

Are you guys going to take eggs from Swan? It's been loaded....


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## M. Tonello (Sep 20, 2002)

SJC- Not sure yet on the Swan. Depends on what we get at the Little Man next week. My preference would be stick to the Little Man if we have the fish, due to the wild component of that run vs. the Swan which is all hatchery fish.


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## Canvsbk (Jan 13, 2013)

Really appreciate the posts. Thanks!


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## M. Tonello (Sep 20, 2002)

Looks like day 3 of the 2021 egg take at the Little Manistee Weir will take place tomorrow (Tuesday), Oct. 5th. As usual, we'll get going around 9am and probably take eggs until the early afternoon.


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## M. Tonello (Sep 20, 2002)

Here's the update from today's Chinook salmon egg take at the weir. We spawned 190 pairs, and harvested 561 Chinook salmon, for a season total of 1,909. We passed 225 coho salmon, for a season total of 588. We passed 72 steelhead for a season total of 112, and 9 brown trout for a season total of 21.

We plan on taking eggs again tomorrow. As usual we will start around 9am.


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## Spin to Win (Dec 7, 2010)

As always - Thanks for the updates Mark!

How many more days of egg take do you think you'll need before you open up the weir? Any bigguns from today? 

Thanks for all you and your team do!


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## M. Tonello (Sep 20, 2002)

I'm not entirely sure when we'll be done, partially because it depends on how many fish we have on hand. It's a lot tougher for us to estimate fish numbers with our new ponds than it was with the old ones. We need two more good days of egg take for sure, one for Indiana and one for Illinois. We only need something like 25 or 30 pairs to finish up our own hatchery needs. If all goes well, we could be done by the end of this week and pull it. If not, we'll go into next week and probably pull it sometime midweek.

Nothing overly large today. There were a handful of mid 20's kings, and a few low teens steelhead.


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## Quig7557 (Dec 31, 2008)

A bump in Stealhead numbers yesterday, what’s your thought on the number of them for this point in time?


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## M. Tonello (Sep 20, 2002)

Had another good day down at the Little Manistee Weir today. Spawned 130 pairs and harvested a total of 354 Chinooks, for a season total of 2,263. Passed 59 steelhead for a season total of 171, and passed 176 cohos for a season total of 764. Last but not least, 11 brown trout for a season total of 32 so far. Today we finished up our hatchery needs and those of Indiana. We are hoping tomorrow will be our last day of egg take, as we'll be looking to get all the eggs for Illinois. If all goes well, we should be able to finish up and pull the weir either tomorrow or Friday.

Quig- considering that it's only Oct 6 and with the summerlike weather we've had, I'm thrilled with that many. We're seeing a fair number of skippers, so that typically bodes well for the future.


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## riverman (Jan 9, 2002)

Great job. You sure hit a push at the right time!!!!


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## M. Tonello (Sep 20, 2002)

Finished up the egg take today at the Little Manistee Weir. We spawned 120 pairs and harvested 644 Chinooks, for a season total of 2,907. We passed 117 coho salmon for a season total of 881, and 47 steelhead for a total of 218. Finally, we passed 7 more brown trout for a total of 39. Had several steelies in the 15 lb range today and the biggest Chinook was 27.9 lbs.

We pulled the weir, so all fish can now pass upstream on their own. That's a wrap on the 2021 Chinook salmon egg take!


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## Sons of Fishes! (Oct 7, 2021)

M. Tonello said:


> Finished up the egg take today at the Little Manistee Weir. We spawned 120 pairs and harvested 644 Chinooks, for a season total of 2,907. We passed 117 coho salmon for a season total of 881, and 47 steelhead for a total of 218. Finally, we passed 7 more brown trout for a total of 39. Had several steelies in the 15 lb range today and the biggest Chinook was 27.9 lbs.
> 
> We pulled the weir, so all fish can now pass upstream on their own. That's a wrap on the 2021 Chinook salmon egg take!


Thank you Mark! Nice job.


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## SkunkCity (May 15, 2019)

Those numbers sound pretty good when compared to recent years. Can you confirm?


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## M. Tonello (Sep 20, 2002)

I'd say yes, at least for the Chinooks. Numerically this is our best year since 2013, for what that's worth. Being that it's only Oct 7th and we were still seeing some fairly fresh fish, I'd like to think there are at least a few more that will head upstream to spawn. We never know the exact total because we remove the weir as soon as we're done taking eggs.

Steelhead- we're definitely better off than we were last year, and again I like all the skippers I'm seeing. Makes me think that 2019 year class was pretty good. But the fall run for steelies is always dictated by rain, so it's way too early to tell. 

Cohos- they run all fall and winter long, so again, tough to tell. Nice to see over 800 of them this early though.


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## fishdip (Dec 29, 2010)

Thanks again to ypu and your crew.


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## Getting A NOID (Aug 22, 2018)

M. Tonello said:


> I'd say yes, at least for the Chinooks. Numerically this is our best year since 2013, for what that's worth. Being that it's only Oct 7th and we were still seeing some fairly fresh fish, I'd like to think there are at least a few more that will head upstream to spawn. We never know the exact total because we remove the weir as soon as we're done taking eggs.
> 
> Steelhead- we're definitely better off than we were last year, and again I like all the skippers I'm seeing. Makes me think that 2019 year class was pretty good. But the fall run for steelies is always dictated by rain, so it's way too early to tell.
> 
> Cohos- they run all fall and winter long, so again, tough to tell. Nice to see over 800 of them this early though.


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## Getting A NOID (Aug 22, 2018)

Thanks for all the info I have a few questions these wild salmon that people talk about what river have the highest spawning success because on the east side kings are pretty much non-existent back in the early 90s there were plenty of kings over there. I was told many years ago by a biologist at the little man weir that there is no natural reproduction and it made sense since nobody I know has never caught a small salmon while spring steelhead fishing or even trout fishing so I'm curious what the most productive spawning river is so if I fish it I can release all the females.


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## M. Tonello (Sep 20, 2002)

Getting A NOID- we have a great deal of Chinook natural reproduction in our Lake Michigan tribs, and we have for many years. In particular, the Muskegon, the White, the Pere Marquette, the Little Manistee, the Manistee, and the Betsie are the big producers of wild Chinooks. One reason you don't catch many Chinook parr while fishing is that most of them smolt out of the river at a small size.


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## riverman (Jan 9, 2002)

Just have to say it again nice job hitting that run. Hope next spring you hit it out of the park also. We need a good fall and spring steelhead run to turn the last few years


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## salmon_slayer06 (Mar 19, 2006)

manistee should see a big jump in numbers with no egg take during Covid shutdown. but than again those fish may stray elsewhere anyways..


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## crystalflash (Jul 5, 2010)

Grass is always greener…enough still enough..we all want more fish. I do have to say, I spent a large portion of my life in Michigan thumb area through marriage now live in Ontario (LH). The difference between MDNR and the Ministry of Natural Recourse Ontario is the difference between me and the starting 2nd basemen for the Yankees. No comparison. You would never see any Ministry person get on any informational platform and let sportsman know how or what the hell their doing. They get annoyed when Sportsman get involved. Over here license money goes un checked in to a general fund which is spent on who knows what. Tracking fish plant is pathetic and I honestly believe it’s intentionally made confusing so nobody questioned what hell there doing. Hats off to MDNR (Mark T) I can say there is zero effort by Ontario’s Ministry to contribute to plants in Lake Huron. If it wasn’t for a few clubs with dedicated volunteers and Michigan MDNR Lake Huron wouldn’t have almost no cold water fish other than maybe Lakers. As bad or upsetting it might be with MDNR at times ,they are world class compared to Ontarios Ministry of Natural Resources.


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## Spoonbill (Jan 28, 2009)

Getting A NOID said:


> Thanks for all the info I have a few questions these wild salmon that people talk about what river have the highest spawning success because on the east side kings are pretty much non-existent back in the early 90s there were plenty of kings over there. I was told many years ago by a biologist at the little man weir that there is no natural reproduction and it made sense since nobody I know has never caught a small salmon while spring steelhead fishing or even trout fishing so I'm curious what the most productive spawning river is so if I fish it I can release all the females.


As Mark mentioned, wild-spawned Chinooks are generally too small to catch in spring. I got some video of Chinook parr in the White River (3:30 in the video below) and they were about 2 inches long in mid-May:

Salmon in the Great Lakes: Part 1, Early Life History - YouTube

I see huge schools of Chinook parr in the White almost every year, and it is easy to mistake them for minnows. Look for them to hang out in eddies near shore. If you see parr marks then they are salmonids, and if they are in the 1-3 inch range they are almost certainly wild fish. Stocked Chinooks have a big head start on growth and are usually around 4 inches long and losing their parr marks when they are stocked.

I also organized the Salmon Ambassadors program a few years back. Volunteers fishing Lake Michigan from Pentwater to Leland saw their catches rise from 66% wild chinooks in May to 86% wild in September. We didn't get much participation from anglers fishing in the rivers, but it was pretty clear that the majority of kings staging before running up rivers in that region were wild fish.

Salmon-Ambassadors-Results-2014-2017-rev2018-2.pdf (michiganseagrant.org)


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## Fishndude (Feb 22, 2003)

I've caught plenty of Parr Kings tossing cast nets for Alewives from piers in May, and early June. Kept the Ales, and tossed as many of the Parr back as possible.


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