5 Kings Good or Bad?

I’m writing to give some insight as to why the DNR is changing the daily limit of 3 Salmon to 5 Salmon.

The change doesn’t make sense, due to the fact that our charter boat fish catch reports were down 20 to 30% last summer. The DNR cut back on the Salmon plants of 1 ½ million fish the past 4 years. That's a total of 6 million less fish in Lake Michigan. Although, we did need a cut back in the DNR fish plants to save the Alewives.

The history of the 5 fish limit goes back to the early 1990’s when Bacteria Kidney Disease (BKD) was killing our fish. The Salmon population was in bad shape at that time. The DNR  and the Michigan Charter Boat Association worked together to try and save what was left of the Salmon fishery.  At that time it was decided to reduce the limit catch from 5 to 3 fish. The people of Michigan were very upset with this change. So the DNR added a clause that if and when the Salmon population recovered the limit would be reviewed and could go back to 5 fish per day. Now go back to the years of 2003 – 2006.  A two-hour fishing trip would put 12-15 and possibly as many as 18 King’s in the box.
 

Many Michigan Steelheaders and others fish the spring Salmon in Southern Michigan, Indiana and Illinois. They catch Coho and the early 1 through 3-year class Chinooks. They were very knowledgeable in the details of the agreement during the BKD issue. They were limiting out on these small fish so fast, they figured the population had recovered, so they wanted the 5 fish limit returned. Steelheaders and others also argued that many of them spend large amount of money on their boats and equipment, have limited time to fish, and therefore wished to be able to take more fish during their fishing trips at all times of the year.

In 2006 the Steelheaders proposed the 5 fish change at a September Lake Michigan Citizen’s advisory committee meeting. The MCBA members at that meeting urged the DNR to not make any changes until the full effects of the cuts to the Salmon plants to save the Alewives and forage fish populations were fully known. The proposal to increase the bag limit was postponed until further information was known.
 

A joint Citizens advisory committee meeting was held in March, 2008 at the DNR Ram Center near Roscommon. (Joint means Lake Michigan and Lake Huron). There were about 100 people in attendance representing all areas of fishing in Michigan. Only a few MCBA Charter Captains were there, including Jim Fenner, representing the Central Lake Michigan region of the MCBA, and they were rather out -numbered by Steelheaders and others. Fish Chief Kelly Smith announced that as a result of the MSSFA’s (Michigan Salmon Steelhead Fishing Association) request to resume the five salmon limit, the Department had decided on an online survey with the question of whether the limit should be raised from three to five Salmon or not. The online survey was conducted over the whole summer and turned out to be overwhelmingly in favor of the change, with the general public not really knowing what the biology of Lake Michigan actually was. There were articles written in the local papers, but very few people thought about how important this issue could be to us. That in short is how we came back to the 5 fish limit.
 

The Fisheries Division of the DNR has developed a plan to try and stabilize the Salmon fishery. The plan developed by Fisheries Division Chief, Dr Kelley Smith, and other fish division personnel attempts to achieve a stable, sustainable balance between the number of fish and the forage base in the lakes. Dr Smith and other fisheries managers subsequently prepared a graph showing the desirable range believed to represent a stable fishery and overlayed it with current catch rate information from DNR and Charter Boat catch reports. If the fish catch reports run below both key indicators the daily limit will be reviewed and may go back to three. These key indicators will be reviewed annually and presented to the public and to the Michigan Charter Boat Association and others at the LMCAC meetings. See below: (MDNR graph provided, courtesy of Jim Fenner, MCBA Secretary).

2007 was a very busy year for the Charter Boat Association. The Coast Guard was boarding our boats, and enforcing new regulations the DNR didn’t cover in our inspections. The Coast Guard is starting to enforce Documentation of all boats 26’ plus.
 

The Coast Guard and TSA went after the charter boat industry on the TWIC card issue. There were many more issues that the Association was dealing with and attending to and this one completely slipped through.
 

2010 has more big issues coming up. The Lake Trout decree is up for review. We definitely need changes on the West Coast North of Arcadia. The 23-inch rule must be reviewed and corrected.
 

     Captain Bill Winowiecki
     Port Captain Leelanau, Grand Traverse Area
    Michigan Charter Boat Association