# Hmmmm...ideas!



## thousandcasts (Jan 22, 2002)

Has any of the other west side steel chasin' posse been following this thread in the SE forums? 

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87595

Since hatchery space is limited for steelhead and they have to re-adjust plants in order to increase a plant in another river (say that 10 times fast), let's play the "what if" game here on the West Side. What if you could up a plant in a certain river, but you'd have to figure out where the fish were going to come from. What get's planted, that has limited access and low angler use? That's the criteria. As you can guess, I've got ideas or else I wouldn't be typing this post right now, huh? :lol: 

Here we go...

I'm not all that thrilled that the Muskegon only gets 55,000 steelhead, while rivers like the Grand or St. Joe (put and take rivers like the Mo) get 80,000+ Where am I going to get my extra fish from? Let's break out the DNR planting records and see what jumps out at us...

http://www.michigandnr.com/fishstock/default.asp


Crockery Creek--5,400 steelhead. Crockery Creek? The same crockery creek that's 10 miles from my house and get's flooded with a bunch of suckers and sucker fishermen? I've seen a lot of fishermen on Crockery, but they ain't steelhead fishermen. I've tried to find steelhead on Crockery--I find suckers, lot's of 'em. If you want lake run suckers, head to Crockery Creek. Steelhead? Nope--those fish are headed to the Muskegon. 

OK, now that we've re-adjusted the Mo plant by taking Crockery's fish (stay with me here, it's cold out and I need a game to entertain me!) The Mo plant is now 60,400. Hmmm...close, but we need a few more I'm thinking. Where else can we rob...er...re-adjust from? 

Well lookie here, why in the world are we putting 2000 steelhead into Heart Lake and 2500 into Big Chub Lake, both in Otsego County. Now how many fish are you going to catch with only planting 2000 and 2500 respectively? If they want trout in those lakes, they can replace them with those put and take stream rainbows that every other suitable lake gets. Those 5500 steelhead are going to the Mo.

Now we're at 65,900--I'm OK with that. How many people have I pissed off by moving these plants? A lot less than the one's I've made happy, I imagine! 

Anyone else wanna play?  :lol:


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## modo1221 (Jan 17, 2003)

I don't think the Thunder River needs that many fish its just a short run to a dam that has no ladder. So let take 15000 for them to go in the MO. play on : bash:


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## thousandcasts (Jan 22, 2002)

I see our friends down on the Kalamazoo are getting a bit short changed.

14,000 planted at Allegan and 9,000 planted in the Rabbit River--seems pretty low for a major lake Michigan Trib, huh? I mean, the Huron River over on the south east side gets 65,000!

We've already found 10,000 more for the MO, how about those 15,000 un-needed Thunder River fish goes to our K'Zoo loving steelhead bretheren?


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## Hollandpiper (Oct 21, 2002)

Galien River
NEW BUFFALO
(08S 21W 04)	Steelhead
Michigan 4/21/2004 9:43:00 AM	13,400

Is anybody really fishing this river?!?!? Send 'em to the Zoo. That's 51,400 for my neck of the woods.

Alex


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## Mitch (Jan 10, 2003)

Thanks Steve, from your K'zoo loving brother!  

And all this time I thought you were greedy! LOL

Mitch


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## thousandcasts (Jan 22, 2002)

> Is anybody really fishing this river?!?!? Send 'em to the Zoo. That's 51,400 for my neck of the woods.


I noticed that too, HP and the answer is "of course not!" --unless of course you want a Walleye or something. The Galien has little access and angling pressure so why plant it? Ah, but again it comes down to mananging the lake fishery. The Galien is planted because New Buffalo has a pier and a boat launch--well, if memory serves me there's a boat launch there. I don't remember, but I lived in nearby St. Joseph for two years and tried to find scams in the Galien a few times, HA! So, those fish are planted there in order to supplement the lake fishery--even though it's smack dab in the middle of St. Joe (which has 80,000+ Michigan fish and 150,000 Indiana summer runs) and Michigan City (200,000+ skamania and winter fish). Figure in the coho's and kings, does the Galien need 13,400 steelhead planted? Mitch would be a happy man, because those fish would be headed to the K'zoo for a grand total of 51,400!

If only it were this easy right? But what the hell, it's fun and looks good on "paper!" :lol:


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## cireofmi (Feb 13, 2001)

Is it possible that the DNR, doesn't plant higher numbers in some spots, because they know that more fish return to those rivers? When the DNR plants fish in a river, that doesn't mean 100% that they will return to that river correct? Ionia County only got 10,845 Steelhead in 2004. Should I have these fished ship to the Kzoo or Mo? Why do we need them? :lol:

Here are the 2004 Stocking Totals for Ionia County.

Total Fish Stocked 2379824
Walleye 2349000
Brown Trout 13440
Steelhead 10845
Channel Catfish 6539


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## Hollandpiper (Oct 21, 2002)

Mitch said:


> Thanks Steve, from your K'zoo loving brother!
> 
> And all this time I thought you were greedy! LOL
> 
> Mitch


Mitch,

I checked out "the spot" and I s/b there Saturday morning. There was a scare though. . . My better half almost had Alex II & I going to MSU for an "engineering thing". However, we just met with his advisor for next year and spent an entire day @ State. The young man is firmly footed in Spartan Country. So the Metalheads should have my full attention(~:

Alex

P.S. 51,400 - 3 = 51,397

 :lol: :fish2: :lol:


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## silversides (Aug 16, 2002)

heres one TC and "the boys" should appreciate...

Why waste plants on the Muskegon? That river is purely put 'n take (we all know the wild fish are strays from the Grand) plus it will allow those hundreds of thousands of trout plants that certain DNR officials splooge about to survive and grow because of decreased competition with smolts for food. I say we take the 50,000 from the mo and throw um into the grand and make it an even 130,000. That way, not only do you get significant amounts of natural repro in grand tribs, but since the grand runs through a major metropolitan area, you get more "bang for your buck" (as you love to put it TC) by having more fish locally available to more people. 

Lets keep the replies civil folks :lol:


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## thousandcasts (Jan 22, 2002)

And all we're left with on the Mo is those freakin' planted stream trout? 

Hi! This is Steve's wife. He can't finish this post because he's laying on the floor, twitching and mumbling something about "take my steel, I'll whup that ass" and "that damn silversides". Beats me--can't really make it out since he's twitching so much, but half the time you can't really understand what he's raving about anyway. So, I'll just finish this for him and--uh oh, now he's curled up in the fetal position and clutching a baseball bat. I'll go get him a Pop Tart and he'll be alright...

Bye!


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## REG (Oct 25, 2002)

Steve,

I didn't look yet, but could the difference for the Huron be that they get stocked with fingerlings and the West side rivers get yearling/smolts.

Hands down, take the yearlings anytime.


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## quest32a (Sep 25, 2001)

Better yet, yank all the fish out of the Grand. It is just a big sewage dump anyway. And that way all the real fisherman (ie the non sixth street fisherman) would have many more fish to fish too. All those fish that come up the Grand are just wasted anyway by the slaughter that goes on at 6th st. That would also eliminate all the crowding problems on the Rogue, you trout guys would have the whole place to yourself. 

Send all the fish down my way to the zoo, I know the crowds would follow but that would be fine. It would be worth its weight in gold to see what would happen when a guy took a centrepin out and started doing floats from the stairs down to the launch. And oh man, when someone got a speyrod out and started flinging flies..... they would be the ones floating towards the launch. 

So yes, my solution is take all the fish out of the Grand. It is always to flooded to fish anyway.

Civil enough Silversides...LOL :lol: 













BTW, for those of you that can't read sarcasm.... my entire post was tounge in cheek.


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## MPsteelheader (May 2, 2000)

hey hey hey...

I FISH THE GALIEN...

its actually pretty nice...

very similar to Indiana creeks...

cya on the river,

mark


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## EdB (Feb 28, 2002)

A better idea, let's just pull all the fish planted in the NE and NW part of the state and move them to southwest rivers. We could have a couple hundred grand in the Joe, Zoo, Grand and MO. Keep the plants on the Galien too. Those northern rivers should be managed strictly for natural reproduction. :lol: :lol: :lol: 

For the guys on the NW and NE forums, I am joking.


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## phlyphisher (Aug 15, 2001)

I say p*ss on these steelhead things. Let's manage out watersheds for native species only. No more browns, rainbows, steelhead and -- God forbid -- salmon. 

I say plant only grayling, whitefish, lake trout, and brook trout. For kicks, they could plant some "summer-run" lake trout like TSS Caddis tore into on the Big M last fall. Of course, if we could see some coasters in the NW lower, that'd be cool too. 










How'd you like that Hutchins?


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## Hollandpiper (Oct 21, 2002)

OK, we'll leave a few in the Galien for Mark. . . the one known SH fiherman on it. LOL.

Steve are you alright this morning?!?!? Blueberry or Strawberry?

Alex
:lol: :lol:


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## redneckdan (Dec 14, 2004)

...how 'bout we just plant more damn fish? I'm sure we could find some extra money somewhere in lansing. State legislatures and the honorable gov. granholm:lol:, both took a 15% pay hike this year. With that kinda raise, must be plenty of dough rolling around the capital.


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## thousandcasts (Jan 22, 2002)

Raspberry...

Yeah I'm fine. Right now I'm trying track down Silversides address so I can pay him a little visit ala the end of "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back"  :lol: 

Phly--if we're going to manage for native species, then I want more suckers, there just isn't enough suckers to play with in my opinion. If we want to talk about declining fisheries, let's talk about that one. I just haven't hooked as many suckers the past couple spring's as I used to. Let me tell you about the good 'ol days of the spring sucker runs, why it was nothin' to...


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## pikedevil (Feb 11, 2003)

:evil: 
However if hes not at his house he is probably down to 6th street laughing as he fights a steelhead that should of been stocked in the MO.


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## Scuba Steve (Jul 16, 2003)

Shouldn't you kids be in school, or playing sports? That's what the rest of us were doing when we were in high school.


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