In spite of the food web changes that are occurring in Lake Huron, steelhead have adapted well and are providing a major fishery from Port Huron to the Straits of Mackinac.  Steelhead are very common in catches from June through October at Rogers City, Presque Isle and Hammond Bay.  A three year diet study of trout and salmon in Lake Huron was completed this fall and the results showed that steelhead are a diverse feeder.  They search for food from the surface to the bottom and will eat almost anything from tiny zooplankton to small insects to large items such as smelt and goby.  This has allowed the steelhead to flourish even during periods when baitfish has been less available

However, there is major mystery since it is not known how the steelhead move around Lake Huron and beyond.  For example, from 2008 to 2010 a total of 60,000 specially marked steelhead were stocked in the Au Sable River.  Each of these steelhead received a small metal tag in their nose and the small fleshy adipose fin in front of their tail was removed so they could be easily identified, see the drawing above.  Currently, 14 marked fish have been returned since 2008 and amazingly all of those marked stocked fish from the Au Sable River were caught in Lake Michigan!  Many questions remain unanswered including: 1) are the steelhead moving freely between Lake Huron and Michigan or do most of the steelhead tend to prefer one lake to the other, 2) since the steelhead eggs are obtained from Lake Michigan, raised for about 18 months and then stocked in Lake Huron is there a tendency for these fish to return to rivers in Lake Michigan, 3) how many of the steelhead caught in Lake Huron are wild and 4) which stocking sites provide the best return to the anglers.  

    A new three year steelhead study was started in 2010 at Harrisville, Oscoda and Harbor Beach.  Approximately 100,000 steelhead will be stocked each year in Lake Huron at those locations and each fish will have a metal tag placed in its nose and the adipose fin will be clipped, see the stocking and marking table above.  If a good number of these marked steelhead are recovered with the metal tags then answers to the above questions may be found.  The fish stocked during 2010 should be approximately 13 to 18 inches long by next spring and please check each steelhead that you catch and if the adipose fin is clipped please freeze the head and take it to the Rogers City fish cleaning station where a simple form is available to complete.  You could also drop the frozen heads off at the DNR stations in Alpena and Cheboygan.  Once the metal tag is analyzed, you will receive a letter indicating when and where the fish was stocked.  All marked steelhead that are legal size should be kept and the heads turned in because the smaller fish can provide a great deal of important information.  Even if you only catch and provide one fish during the study the information will be extremely important, so please participate.  The results could assist in providing better survival and increased numbers of steelhead in Lake Huron.  Please note that even though the tagged fish are stocked in the southern waters it is anticipated that by spring many of those fish will be in the north as it is common for some fish to travel several miles each day.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions do not hesitate to contact me.

Frank Krist

Phone: (989) 734-3100 or (989) 351-2053

Email krists@speednetllc.com

December 18, 2011

Hammond Bay Area Anglers Association