# Lake Michigan's ecosystem facing collapse



## Coldwater Charters (Sep 17, 2000)

It's not just the Mussels, it is also the Spiney fleas which are competing for the same forage as the alewives.


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## Stinky (Jan 19, 2002)

What the east guys experienced back in 2003/2004, the next year we caught HEADS and then the drop off all together. Good Luck.


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## Fishndude (Feb 22, 2003)

Actually, it wasn't that long ago for lake Huron. 2004 was the last year the fishing was good. In 2005 it was horrible, but 2004 was a real good year for both Kings and Steelhead. The writing is on the wall. I'm not buying anymore nice rods for Steelhead and Salmon.


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## snaggs (Jul 20, 2005)

snaggs said:


> Many folks have opinions about the outlook for lake Michigan salmon fishing. But what does the DNR have to report. Let's hear from them or do they not want to say anything which will affect their License sales ????? Anyone know the real scoop???:idea::help::yikes:


Back in 1968 and for 15 years thereafter there were so many Salmon in Lake Michigan you didn't even need a hook and line to catch em'. The alewife were contained and everyone had food and fun. Then other exotics began to appear. Year after year as the weather/climate changed the Salmon were challenged to reproduce and survive. Michigan DNR were certainly challenged to keep up with the exotics and to balance our great fisherie. Congratulations to them.


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## 1mainiac (Nov 23, 2008)

fishlkmich said:


> Do you believe the DNRE?
> 
> "This is the fish that really started the Great Lakes salmon fishery. Although attempts to create a coho salmon fishery in the Great Lakes date as far back as 1800s, they were never successfully established until Michigan planted them in the mid 1960s."
> 
> ...



Thanks I was going to go look that up I read it many years ago. Among the many reasons the Salmon failed back then was to many predator fish and not much they liked to eat. However bring in lots of invasive species and it did not take long to build them a usable fishery. Browns and Rainbows were brought here to replace the Grayling and Brooke trout in rivers and streams that had been destroyed by the timber industry since removing all the trees allowed the water to warm up beyond what they would live in and floating all the logs out trashed the water as well.


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## joecc (Jan 31, 2007)

More interesting reading. A three part series written by my friend Dave Spratt, on Huron, Michigan, Quaggas, alewives, salmon etc.

http://www.greatnorthernoutdoors.net/lake-huron-report-1

http://www.greatnorthernoutdoors.net/lake-huron-report-2

http://www.greatnorthernoutdoors.net/lake-michigan-report


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## Robert Holmes (Oct 13, 2008)

The salmon all but disappeared in Lake Huron because the DNR took it upon themselves to load up the fish planting in Lake Michigan. St Ignace for the most part is on Lake Huron and gets a good sized TRIBAL plant of salmon every year. These fish don't jump off of the truck and swim for L Michigan. They stick around and you can catch a few during the summer. They are getting some size to them also as I caught one at 25 pounds on July 3 and a 22 pounder on May 28. The mussle problem is here to stay unless there is a desease or predator that will wipe them out. Unfortunately that predator may be the dreaded asian carp. An alternative to Chinook and Coho might be Atlantic salmon which are way better eating and a better fighting fish.


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## Spanky (Mar 21, 2001)

Do you have a link for the 3rd part?


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## joecc (Jan 31, 2007)

Spanky said:


> Do you have a link for the 3rd part?


 
It should be posted...I had to do them one at a time


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## rz6x59 (Nov 9, 2008)

Like it or not mother nature is taking back the lake we have been experimenting with for the last 200 years. We've cut in canals that shouldn't be there, made rivers flow in opposite directions. I am surprised we have as good a fishery as we still do. But at the end of the day it's all artificial and cannot be sustained. The biomass has changed and we need to change with it. DNR has a lot of work ahead of them, or just let it go and let mother earth take care of it on its own.


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## Spanky (Mar 21, 2001)

joecc said:


> It should be posted...I had to do them one at a time


Thanks, I see it now.


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## Salmonous Maximus (Jan 28, 2004)

rz6x59 said:


> Like it or not mother nature is taking back the lake we have been experimenting with for the last 200 years. We've cut in canals that shouldn't be there, made rivers flow in opposite directions. I am surprised we have as good a fishery as we still do. But at the end of the day it's all artificial and cannot be sustained. The biomass has changed and we need to change with it. DNR has a lot of work ahead of them, or just let it go and let mother earth take care of it on its own.


No we are the ones still messing with the lake. Bringing in exotics that mess with other exotics..there is nothing natural about this as long as freighters are allowed to empty ballast in the freshwater system.

Asian carp are not "part of mother natures plan" but if we do nothing and leave it alone they will be a nuisance in the lakes.


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## finlander (Jan 11, 2007)

Looks like the mussels will take care of the Lake and the carp will clean up the rest, inland lakes and rivers connected to the Lake. What happened in Lake Huron? Were the others affected like that too, Erie and Ontario???


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