# Current state of the Boardman



## Boardman Brookies (Dec 20, 2007)

This spring I heard several reports of anglers catching steelhead along River Rd and the Brown Bridge area. I also heard of numbers turning up in the shocking survey. I found out first hand by catching a year of the young in the Brown Bridge Quiet Area.










Recently there have been report of coho salmon around River Rd and the tribs. These fish will surely spawn. Why not? The steelhead clearly did. 










The DNR failed to do anything to prevent these fish from breaching Union St dam and now they are spawning.....


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## slowpaya (Oct 23, 2011)

itll still bite the bag


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## riverbob (Jan 11, 2011)

coho


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## Boardman Brookies (Dec 20, 2007)

Earlier:











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## Jimbos (Nov 21, 2000)

Can lampery's also get up into those same places, or did they put in some sort of barrier?


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## Boardman Brookies (Dec 20, 2007)

They usually have traps in place but they dropped the ball so there probably are some getting up. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are coho all the way up to S Boardman and Kalkaska.


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## Mr Burgundy (Nov 19, 2009)

Please pardon my ignorance, but salmon getting up that far is a bad thing? And why is it a good/bad thing? I'm truly asking not trying to stir the pot.


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## Vicious Fishous (Sep 12, 2006)

It’s bad for the resident trout, that have have had the river, and all of it’s food and cover to themselves. Salmon and steelhead successfully spawning will now be part of the total biomass and take up space in the river. Trout numbers may/will go down. Higher Angler numbers and associated litter, will inevitably follow the silver fish up as well.


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## -Axiom- (Jul 24, 2010)

In my experience the fishing on the Boardman has steadily declined since the 2000 reg changes, not that I think the reg changes had anything to do with it.

As nice as this river is there is something wrong with it, there should be 3x as many fish or more and there should be more large fish.

The steelhead are really going to do well here and the DNR knows it.


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## Shoeman (Aug 26, 2000)

Me thinks it would lead to higher growth rates for the trout


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## Boardman Brookies (Dec 20, 2007)

This is exactly what the DNR wants. They opened up the section from Keystone to Cass for year round fishing? Why? This area was largely part of the impoundment from Boardman Dam. This area is extremely fragile right now and doesn’t need thousands of people ripping it up for some skanky cohos. 


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## TriggerDiscipline (Sep 25, 2017)

The city and DNR keep saying that they made a mistake and let a few get up the river. But one begins to wonder if their mistakes are willful. Sadly, I think we are at the end of a beautiful era. I'll always cherish my memories of fishing for brookies and browns at Shumsky's and a few other lesser known spots. Here come the flossing brigade!


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## BMARKS (Nov 6, 2017)

bring on the silver fish!


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## BMARKS (Nov 6, 2017)

i personally cant wait to fish for steelhead there, im gonna drop my driftboat over the guard rail on garfield opening day of trout season and plug 5-6 miles of it.


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## nichola8 (Oct 7, 2013)

Close the river during spawning season like most small tribs. The only thing I could see possibly screwing with the local brookies, is the dropbacks steelhead in spring gorging on the way back down. But really the brookies have late spring, summer and early fall to themselves. During late fall they will be amongst the cohos spawning and will have a plethora of eggs tumbling to load up on after spawning. Plus brookies are very aggressive, I could see them tearing up coho smolts in the spring. I would say just close the river to fishing in the fall, I totally agree that a couple snaggers would ruin your precious river.

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## the rapids (Nov 17, 2005)

Seems like once the new barrier at union st. is constructed this incidental passage wont be a problem anymore unless coho and steel are selectively allowed to pass. I gotta imagine in 1-2 years once the smolts produced from this year and next spring migrate out it wont even be a problem anymore.


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## the rapids (Nov 17, 2005)

If they do choose to allow passage of coho and steelies then the stretch from keystone down is a perfect reach to keep open. If folks illegally fish upstream of there then it doesnt matter how they target them, they are violators for fishing closed water anyway. I think the snagging issue is going to be a problem of the past soon anyway


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## Canvsbk (Jan 13, 2013)

Snagging is Pure Michigan. It’s been here for 50+ years and will be here another 50+. As long as there’s sleaze bags and silver fish there will be snagging.


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## Jimbos (Nov 21, 2000)

TriggerDiscipline said:


> The city and DNR keep saying that they made a mistake and let a few get up the river. But one begins to wonder if their mistakes are willful. Sadly, I think we are at the end of a beautiful era. I'll always cherish my memories of fishing for brookies and browns at Shumsky's and a few other lesser known spots. Here come the flossing brigade!


I have never fished there and probably never will, but I can feel your WTF apprehension as to the gross cluster**** it'll become over green/black salmon.


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## BMARKS (Nov 6, 2017)

I bet the vast majority of people who would snag salmon would not have a clue about this whole ordeal, but now when they Google search salmon in Michigan, this thread will appear for them to read. Or they're lurking on the site already.


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