# Discovering - Grayling Initiative, Planting walleyes in Little Bay De Noc



## PunyTrout (Mar 23, 2007)

This week on Discovering young grayling arrive at the Marquette Fish Hatchery and Bay De Noc Great Lakes Sport Fishermen plant 5000 walleyes in Litte Bay De Noc.


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## hhlhoward (Mar 1, 2012)

Thanks punytrout that was really cool!


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## Teggs (Mar 20, 2013)

Good bye King salmon and splake. Say hello to Greyling!!! What a unbelievable joke and waste of time. At least we can all here say we lived during the time of 8lb orange splake and 20 lb kings. Super sad to see what the future of our fisheries will be. I am dreading 5 years from now, no more king salmon or splake trips in the fall. instead we can go catch some 15 inch little chars that fight like wet socks and taste like garbage.


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## 22 Chuck (Feb 2, 2006)

I liked smelt till your salmon ate em all..


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## Martin Looker (Jul 16, 2015)

You can have the salmon and I will take the Grayling. I think the grayling taste much better. They don't put up a fight but that's ok.


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## kzoofisher (Mar 6, 2011)

Teggs said:


> Good bye King salmon and splake. Say hello to Greyling!!! What a unbelievable joke and waste of time. At least we can all here say we lived during the time of 8lb orange splake and 20 lb kings. Super sad to see what the future of our fisheries will be. I am dreading 5 years from now, no more king salmon or splake trips in the fall. instead we can go catch some 15 inch little chars that fight like wet socks and taste like garbage.


Please explain your reasoning about how grayling will have any relationship to king stocks.

As for splake, aren't they on their way out anyway? The DNR did a study of the cost effectiveness of the splake program and it was awful. Expensive to raise and low returns. The cost per fish caught, iirc, was anywhere from the $80-$250 or something like that. Just a huge expenditure so a few fishermen could try for them. Not a justifiable use of money. I'll see if I can find the write up but it was a few years ago.


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## Teggs (Mar 20, 2013)

They are no longer raising salmon or splake in the U.P. fish hatcherys. instead they are doing greyling where those fish we’re raised. thats how they are related. ditch one, get another.

We stopped stocking kings in 2016, and will be done with splake now as of 2020. If you or the DNR think splake are on their way out then you got alot of exploring to do. We catch 100s during the fall and winter months and 100s of anglers are also out fishing and having the same luck. They are one of my absolute favorite fish and will be super bummed in 5-6 years when they are gone. I also have no desire to catch greyling and think that it will take multiple years to create a natural population.


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## Purebrook (Sep 4, 2019)

It was my assumption upon reading materials on the new grayling initiative that only very select streams would be targeted for their release. Am I correct on this? I am also not clear on how the DNR will distribute the grayling between UP and lower P locations. As for splake, if I read Teggs comments correctly, the issue is that the breeding sites now used for grayling used to be dedicated to splake, thereby reducing splake plantings. OK, But then how come so many splake are still being caught? They cannot naturally reproduce correct? It would be cool, however to see grayling in Michigan again.


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## kzoofisher (Mar 6, 2011)

Took me quite a while to find reference to the study. I can't find the meeting minutes with the details, everything before 2018 is missing since they updated the website. I think it was Troy Zorn that did the presentation but it was five years ago which explains why my memory of the cost per fish caught was so far off. Also, for the study to have been presented in 2015 it had to be started well before the Grayling Initiative was a thing (formed in 2016). But splake come from the Marquette hatchery and that has nothing to do with Grayling in any case. And if kings were dropped in '16 before they even had a plan for Grayling it seems more like it was related to the alewife collapse.

_ If you catch a splake in Marquette be thankful for it, the DNR spends $1400 for every one caught there. Even in Copper Harbor they cost over $100 each and in the hundreds everywhere else. Not a very cost effective angling opportunity.
_


kzoofisher said:


> DNR presentation at the Coldwater meeting last week. They are considering different options/locations for stocking. Over $200,000 spent each year on splake so they need to get a better bang for their buck.


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## Teggs (Mar 20, 2013)

There are no Splake at the hatchery in Marquette anymore, only greyling. and lake Superior has never had any alewives in it, ever...... One splake does not cost 1400$ my friend. These are All nonsense statements.


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## Curt (Jan 5, 2011)

Teggs said:


> There are no Splake at the hatchery in Marquette anymore, only greyling. and lake Superior has never had any alewives in it, ever...... One splake does not cost 1400$ my friend. These are All nonsense statements.


I'm not sure what the status of alewives in Lake Superior is today but they, most definitely, have been there in the past though their numbers were low. They first showed up in 1954 (see attached). I have personally seen them (back in the late 1960's). 

https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/aquatic/fish-and-other-vertebrates/alewife


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## kzoofisher (Mar 6, 2011)

kzoofisher said:


> Here's the relevant minutes from the CRSC meeting.
> 
> _
> Lake Superior Basin Team’s Splake Stocking Evaluation Criteria (Phil Schneeberger)
> ...


Phil is in your neck of the woods you can ask him about it. If it costs $200,000 (they’re expensive b/c they stay in the hatchery a long time) to plant them and 1000 get caught that’s $200 per fish. Some ports were more productive than others resulting in Marquette being the worst at $1400 and Copper Harbor the best at $100.


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## Kisutch (May 26, 2011)

Do you have an extensive cost analysis on the worthless Atlantic Salmon program. How about the cost of heating the water at the Platte hatchery just for "those" fish. Babied worthless fish that are another money pit. But we can't, won't talk about this farce. Grayling. What a joke! Yep I said it.

Kisutch 

Former Lake Michigan Stakeholder 

God Bless Dr Howard Tanner 

Lake Michigan Lake Trout Gillnetters Association Join now 

Alewife what?


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## kzoofisher (Mar 6, 2011)

I don’t. I’m sure the DNR does. They cut back on planting Atlantic’s before because of rate of return. And many trout streams in southern Michigan had stocking ended because it was a poor investment. And walleye in lakes where they don’t take. It’s far from an unprecedented action.


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## Gordon Casey (Jun 13, 2017)

kzoofisher said:


> I don’t. I’m sure the DNR does. They cut back on planting Atlantic’s before because of rate of return. And many trout streams in southern Michigan had stocking ended because it was a poor investment. And walleye in lakes where they don’t take. It’s far from an unprecedented action.


I understand the DNR is increasing the stocking of Atlantics. Didn't they set up a hatchery exclusively for atlantics. They are fun to catch, have variable diets, do not have a defined life cycle and can be caught in a variety of methods. I'm all for atlantics.


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## Martin Looker (Jul 16, 2015)

I don't know if there are alewives in Superior but I know they are in Lac La Belle because I see them every summer. I would guess that they probably are in the big lake too.


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## phawksmulder (Aug 20, 2020)

Just food for thought guys, this is weirdly super heated. The DNR is always going to want to do things like introduce greyling because their whole premise is to preserve. Greyling were an extremely bountiful native fish that mismanagement killed off. Fixing that wrong is almost the ultimate goal of any conservation program.

Splake came about due to a lamprey problem that was thought to be a major crisis for the overall survival of Lake Trout. They ultimately didn't turn out as detrimental as thought and Splake, despite being capable, turned out ultimately unwilling to procreate (at least under current understanding).

Atlantic Salmon were introduced to the Great Lakes as they were being rapidly depleted in the oceans. Lake Superior stood as one of the last ditch efforts to save the species. They also stand as a more recent success story as they've now been observed naturally reproducing in the waters.

All of these species are important. Just because we may have personal ties to some, doesn't necessarily mean others are a waste of money. These programs have a history and lots of reasons for the adjustments they've made through time.


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## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

I thought Atlantics have only been placed in the lower Lakes?


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## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

Here are a couple nice pictures from the last 5-6 days from a friend in Wisconsin, which also plants Splake. Only 2nd fish was measured - 24”. Would you like to catch these? I would. 



















The one I caught on Thursday, much farther east, looked like a fish photographed in black&white - almost no color at all.


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## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

I have never taken much of an opinion on Splake as I don’t live near where they are planted and only am fortunate to visit such areas for work now and again. I have caught 3 in the last several years. 

What I gather from peeps fishing in those areas is that they are a popular target for ice fishing. 

Here is a quote from the current MI DNR Weekly Fishing Report:


“Those fishing a few of the river mouths found some coho and a few splake. Still not much to report on splake in the marinas, but anglers are anticipating their arrival.“


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