Whitecap charters6/22/2023 Eventually a coded wire-tagging program to examine fish behavior showed what anglers were already figuring out: the Kings were moving their castles from Lake Huron to Lake Michigan. Nutrients once consumed by phytoplankton and small crustaceans were sucked up by the mussels, slamming a domino effect all the way up the food chain, from alewife baitfish to their predators, the Kings.Ī hard winter hit just before the crash began. Then zebra and quagga mussels showed up in Lake Huron. For a long time, the experiment was a resounding success. Lake Huron prospered, and so did Lake Michigan. Commercial harvest of the once-reviled alewives was halted. Wild fighters, anglers thrilled catching them.Ī multibillion dollar industry arose. In the Great Lakes, they consumed primarily alewives. In its natural habitat, the Pacific Ocean, King salmon feed on herring, shrimp and other sea creatures. In an intrepid, desperate move, biologists brought in Pacific salmon to manage the alewives. Alewives wolfed up the offspring of native species or dominated the food sources needed by mature fish. One has since fallen off the map.ĭecades ago, an alewife conquest almost demolished every other baitfish species whitefish, chubs, perch. ![]() Both salmon fisheries thrived thanks to a delicate balance between two non-native species: alewives and salmon. The similarities between Lake Huron pre-crash of a dozen years ago and Lake Michigan now are uncanny, some say. All of this prompted my friend, Don McChristian, to wonder if a Lake Huron-style collapse is impending. Salmon are just starting to run up the Bear and the Jordan. Typically very productive ports like Manistee, Ludington and Frankfort have seen less fish. The alewife schools that are their food source haven't moved up as fast, either. "Everything that I've seen since spring is that they're probably around a month behind," says captain Kent Seymour of Whitecap Charters in Charlevoix. The Kings that would have moved north most years are still down in St. This doesn't deter mating or angler chase.Īnyhow, reports say the fish are around 3-5 weeks behind. ![]() Every fall, when salmon come back from the lakes to their place of origin, hormone changes take place. That undead thing, by the way, started long before it became trendy among humans. ![]() This year, though, they've been acting strange, running late to their usual scheduled appearances in the shallows, slow to show for their zombie ride up the river to spawn. To boot, 25 million Chinook, or King salmon, are lurking in the realms of Lake Michigan's waters, enticing me to pursuit. Burgeoning sturgeon, 3D archery, musky, early teal, youth hunts and cool breezes cram the colorful landscape. There's the BASS tournament bringing untold wealth to Escanaba with its TV crews and super anglers wrapping up this weekend. This time of year is a little like being a kid in candy store. That sluggish, sticky, summer self disappears to skip through leaves and stalk prey like a primitive. I lose all semblance of somber adulthood in autumn.
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