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Indiana DNR release, 7-1-16.
No chinook stocking for three years, starting in 2017/
Public meeting set for 7 to 8:30 p.m. CDT on Aug. 10 at the American Legion Post 451, 121 Skwiat Legion Ave., Michigan City

The DNR will temporarily cease stocking Chinook salmon in Lake Michigan in 2017 out of concern that there isn’t enough food in the lake.
Research has shown that the amount of prey fish in Lake Michigan are at historic lows. The decision to reduce Chinook salmon stocking in Indiana waters is part of a multi-state plan to restore balance to the lake’s ecosystem and preserve its multi-billion dollar sport fishery.
Biologists hope the lakewide stocking reduction will allow populations of prey fish, such as alewives, to recover.
The Lake Michigan Committee, the group responsible for cooperatively managing Lake Michigan’s fisheries, recently announced a 62 percent reduction in lakewide Chinook salmon stocking to take effect in spring 2017. The committee is made up of representatives from Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin and the Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority fishery agencies.
Since 2013, Indiana has stocked 200,000 chinooks annually. The lakewide stocking plan reduces Indiana’s Chinook quota to 45,000 chinooks beginning in 2017. However, given low fall Chinook returns and difficulty obtaining Chinook eggs from out-of-state partners, the DNR’s Lake Michigan Management Team decided to suspend Chinook stocking altogether.
In the interim, the DNR will use the free hatchery space to rear an additional 45,000 to 50,000 Skamania steelhead trout to yearling stage for stocking in Lake Michigan, according to Jeremy Price, north region fisheries supervisor with the DNR Division of Fish & Wildlife. Price is also the state’s representative to the Lake Michigan Committee.
“We want to consistently give anglers the best fishing opportunities possible,” Price said. “These steelhead will survive at much higher rates than Chinook, rely less on alewives for food, offer fishing opportunities for boat, pier and stream anglers alike, and give us complete control of our production cycle.”
The interim plan likely will be in place for at least three years while biologists evaluate how alewife populations respond.
“If prey fish abundance recovers to acceptable levels, we plan to add chinook back into our stocking mix,” Price said.
Indiana’s Lake Michigan fisheries biologist Brian Breidert said suspending Chinook stocking was “certainly not a desired outcome.” But he added that nearly 70 percent of Chinooks that boat anglers catch in Indiana are wild, not stocked.
“So we will continue to have an open-water Chinook fishery in Indiana,” Breidert said.
The latest Chinook reduction comes on the heels of a lakewide stocking cut implemented in 2013. That effort saw success, but prey fish recovery was hampered due to poor alewife spawns in consecutive years.
The committee also has slated a cut of 550,000 lake trout to take effect this fall.
The Lake Michigan Fisheries Management Team will have an informational meeting from 7 to 8:30 p.m. CDT on Aug. 10 at the American Legion Post 451, 121 Skwiat Legion Ave., Michigan City.

To build on the official press release, I'd like to share a bit more in-depth why the decision was made. The chinook allocation for Indiana moving forward is only 45,000 fish.

Given such a low number, we have been strategizing on how best to use our available hatchery space for some time now. 45,000 chinooks is less than a single hatchery raceway, and we have been seeing poor returns even when stocking 200,000 kings prior to this upcoming cut. I’d like to share a bit of our process and some of the data we have been looking at given the new chinook allocation for 2017 and beyond.

First, a primer on the composition of kings caught in Indiana. Thanks to the Mass Marking Program, we know that during the open-water fishery (March-August), 68% of the kings caught by Indiana fishermen have been of wild origin from 2013-2016. These are fish that were born in Michigan rivers like the Pere Marquette, Betsie, Muskegon, and so forth, and also the Canadian waters of Lake Huron. Those fish all come to Lake Michigan to feed since the collapse of the Lake Huron alewife populations. In recent history, the % wild has fluctuated between 63% and 75% depending on the year. I know anglers are seeing the same thing, because our numbers have lined up nearly identically to the poll conducted last year and this year on TheSouthEnd. With 68% of the catch being wild fish over the past 3 years, that means 32% are stocked fish. Of the 32% of kings that are stocked, 10% of those have been from Indiana. So the TOTAL proportion of Indiana-stocked kings caught in Indiana waters by boats is 3.2% (10% Indiana fish of the 32% stocked = 3.2% total). I know that this seems shocking that only 3% of the kings you catch are stocked by Indiana. BUT, in terms of data it is not surprising at all, as Indiana stocked 11% of the kings lakewide, and of stocked fish, 10% of them were of Indiana origin – exactly what we would expect given stocking numbers.

Over the past few years, we have seen a drastic decline in the return of Chinooks to the fall fishery. I am sure you have noted it as well. From creel surveys of angler catch, we estimate about a 0.25% return to streams, with an average of only 500 chinooks caught over the past couple years. That number has been trending downward every year since 2013, despite stocking in our waters being relatively constant.
The number of chinooks caught in open water fishery in Indiana has averaged about 5,000 fish per year since 2013 (also trending down last couple years). Calculating the boat fishery catch of Indiana chinooks (3% Indiana origin of 5,000 chinooks), that is less than 200 Indiana-origin chinooks caught by our trollers. Adding in 500 for shore anglers and harbor patrol boaters (probably extremely generous based on creel estimates and angler anecdotes) we get a total 1200 kings out of an average of 200,000 stocked. A total return of 0.6% to Indiana anglers. Even if we be generous and almost double that to a 1% return to Indiana fishermen, that means under our 45,000 chinook allocation, Indiana anglers would only catch 450 kings stocked by Indiana. Split between 3 ports, those numbers are bordering on completely meaningless.


Hatchery Logistics
We have been having difficulty obtaining coho and chinook eggs from our usual source (Michigan), and had to go to Wisconsin last year for chinooks, and got shorted on Coho (lots of uncertainty involved with obtaining eggs from out of state). In contrast, we control the Skamania broodstock through collections in Trail Creek and in the St. Joseph River in South Bend. That allows us to full flexibility and control of our own destiny, rather than drawing the short straw when it comes to getting eggs from Wisconsin or Michigan (they fulfill their salmon egg quotas first, before we get additional eggs).

Our Preferred Decision Given All The Challenges
Given that 45,000 chinooks would not even be a full hatchery raceway, and that returns of them would be so miniscule, there would be very limited benefit to any mode of fishing in Indiana. With an approximate return of 5% on Skamania steelhead, and their availability to all 3 fishing modes, we estimate that raising an additional 45,000 to 50,000 skamania steelhead to yearling size in the space previously allocated for our Chinook stocking would result in an additional 2000 to 2500 steelhead caught by Indiana fishermen, in comparison to less than 500 chinooks. In our angler surveys, Skamania are the 2nd most popular fish (behind Chinooks) and are Indiana’s flagship fishery.
We believe that this MUCH higher return of Skamania, coupled with being able to ensure egg collection on our own terms, means it is the best use of our hatchery resources going forward, until chinook quota is raised.

Thanks for the detailed explanation Ben.

How many Skamania strain steelhead does the state stock in the lake now? If 45 to 50 thousand chinooks won't fill a hatchery raceway why will the steelhead fill it? Are their needs greater assuming you are going to use the same hatchery raceway to rear those 45 to 50 thousand skams? If the INDNR controls the Skamania stocking that much why not fill the hatchery to its capacity and give the anglers more of what they want? I do believe the skams are the second most popular fish on the lake but we are seeing very little return to the Burns waterway. I would hope the state could stock Skamania by the hundreds of thousands. Maybe then we could have a notable run in the future in the Portage area.

Due to their different life history, steelhead are raised to a larger size than chinooks before stocking, which is why they will fill the raceway space. Chinooks are stocked at about 6 months of age and 3-4 inches, whereas steelhead are stocked at 6-9 inches, depending on the life stage. But they survive best as yearlings around 8 inches or more. Hence why you can't fit as many steelhead in a hatchery raceway as chinooks - you can only have so many pounds of fish per given amount of space

We are maxing hatchery space to capacity by making this move.

There are some temperature issues in Burns Ditch/Little Cal in the summer, which are being evaluated and assessed. Steelhead Mass Marking (starting next year) will give us lots of good answers on how to maximize our steelhead program in Indiana, but those results will take a few years before we have enough information to make sound decisions

MC_angler wrote:

Due to their different life history, steelhead are raised to a larger size than chinooks before stocking, which is why they will fill the raceway space. Chinooks are stocked at about 6 months of age and 3-4 inches, whereas steelhead are stocked at 6-9 inches, depending on the life stage. But they survive best as yearlings around 8 inches or more. Hence why you can't fit as many steelhead in a hatchery raceway as chinooks - you can only have so many pounds of fish per given amount of space

We are maxing hatchery space to capacity by making this move.

There are some temperature issues in Burns Ditch/Little Cal in the summer, which are being evaluated and assessed. Steelhead Mass Marking (starting next year) will give us lots of good answers on how to maximize our steelhead program in Indiana, but those results will take a few years before we have enough information to make sound decisions

I have been told and have read it on other forms of media that the Trail creek area has good steelhead fishing and yet you don't read much of it on this site. I know there are members who live and fish in that area. You would think would be more written about it. So let me ask you, is Trail creek the place to go now to catch these fish and when should traveling fishermen such as myself try to come to the area and get in on the action?

Trail Creek has great steelhead fishing. You probably don't read much about it on here because its mostly boat guys on this forum, plus most pier and stream guys have to deal with a lot of internet scouts and they have limited real-estate to fish from, unlike the open lake.

Trail Creek is the best place to catch steelhead June-August, the water stays coldest of any Indiana tributary. It does get a lot of pressure though. You can catch a steelhead 12 months of the year in Trail Creek... May being the toughest month probably

If an angler fishes or trolls the mouth of the creek and out for a half mile or so can a he expect to see action now? I know this time last year and the week before there was a good flurry of steelhead activity at the mouth of the ditch and trolling out in circles about 1/2 mile in diameter. Thinfins and thinfish along with other baits such as f11 mag rapalas and spoons on riggers down 10 to 15 feet caught fish. Is there a method that is used in the MC area that is popular? What about using pieces of shrimp for bait now?

Same thing that works in Portage works in Michigan City

Favorable conditions for catching numbers of staging steelhead in close: cold water near shore, and some rain to get the tributaries pumping out more water into the lake. If we get one or both of those things, action picks up.

South winds with a potential for rain are in the forecast, so I would think action might be good in the next several days sometime