Larger salmon spicing up Lake Michigan catches this year

Lake Michigan trout and salmon anglers have enjoyed a very good spring and early summer of fishing in 2018, with frequent catches of daily bag limits that have included heavier fish — especially chinook salmon — than in recent years.

"Quite frankly, it's been outstanding," said Bob Wincek of New Berlin, president of the Milwaukee chapter of Great Lakes Sport Fishermen. "I've been telling people to get out and enjoy it."

While Lake Michigan anglers are accustomed to what many call "world class fishing," the large size of the fish this year is notable.

On June 10, Jack Moro of Brookfield landed a 30.5-pound chinook while fishing in 100 feet of water east of Milwaukee with Milwaukee Offshore Fishing Charters.

The charter did not land a fish that weighed more than 30 pounds all last year, said captain Nick Scaffidi of Hartland.

"This year we're seeing some very heavy fish," Scaffidi said. "I think we'll continue to see even bigger ones in the weeks ahead, too."

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The action has been very good along most of the Wisconsin coast of Lake Michigan.

In its Thursday fishing report, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources noted a 34-pound king (chinook) was caught out of Manitowoc and two 31-pounders were caught on the same day out of Two Rivers.

The larger size of chinook is likely linked to stocking reductions (in 2012 and 2016) as well as two recent poor years (2013 and 2015) of natural reproduction. 

And although 2017 assessments by the U.S. Geological Survey found alewife biomass to be lowest on record (by bottom trawl) and fourth-lowest (by acoustic testing), the key forage fish is showing up on anglers' graphs and in salmon stomachs.

The lower number of chinook has helped provide a better balance between predators and available prey in the lake.

The "wild' or naturally-reproduced chinook, mostly spawned in rivers in Michigan, have become a key component of the fishery over the last two decades.

In 2012, an estimated 6.8 million wild chinook smolts entered Lake Michigan, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, nearly twice as many as were stocked.

But under hot and dry conditions in the autumn of 2013, only 1.5 million chinook were naturally produced, less than the 2.4 million stocked by in Lake Michigan and Huron.

In 2017, 67% of chinook sampled in Lake Michigan were wild, according to the USFWS mass marking study.

Wincek said the fish being caught appear "fat and healthy," an observation that concurs with scientific data released earlier this year.

In March, the Lake Michigan Committee of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission announced the 2017 predator-prey ratio on Lake Michigan was 0.058, near the goal of 0.05 and well below the 0.09 calculated for 2013.

The upper limit is 0.10. 

In the five years preceding a collapse of the chinook fishery in Lake Huron, the PPR averaged 0.11.

The 2017 PPR report and larger size of fish this year has helped boost confidence in the future of the chinook salmon fishery even as the species' key food source, the alewife, is historically low.

"We know things are changing out there," Wincek said. "But it's not all doom and gloom. These big fish we're seeing are a positive sign."