I've often worried that Michigan would de-emphasize their coho program and for a time, it looked as though it would happen; once it did! There was a day when there were no stocking cutbacks due to forage problems. At the same time, the Michigan DNR was becoming increasingly strapped for funds since they hadn't raised their license fees for ages. All parts of their DNR were looking for places to scale back and lopping off coho was on the table and from the Michigan point of view seemed a good place to start in their Great Lakes program. Then (as now) chinook salmon was the king and frankly, once much north of St. Joe in the spring, no one gave much of a hoot about cohos until they got back to Platte Bay in the fall. Even then, people only fished it much because of their numbers and the chinook run was winding down in most areas.
***********************************************************************************
Here's from a column I wrote in 2006 INDIANA CLUBS PAY FOR MICHIGAN FISH
By Mike Schoonveld
When the Michigan DNR posted its plan of how to hold to future budget restraints one of the cutbacks hit hard at the Platte River Fish Hatchery–birthplace of most of the coho salmon stocked into Lake Michigan.
The plan is to reduce the number of cohos by 60 percent, from an average stocking of 1.7 million smolts to only 600,000 in both 2007 and 2008. If the plan comes together and the DNR gets it’s 8+ million dollar budget shortfall under control, 2009 is supposed to see a return to normal stocking numbers.
According to a DNR spokesman, coho are being targeted because they are the species which give the least “bang” for the buck.
THEN THE MDNR WENT FROM "CONSIDERING' TO PUTTING OUT THE ORDER, THEN WAITED FOR THE BRIBES TO START COMING IN FROM THE SOUTHERN LAKE -- THEY DID! SALMON UNLIMITED, NW INDIANA STEELHEADERS, HOOSIER COHO AND, IF I RECALL, MICHIANA STEELHEADERS ALL CHIPPED IN FUNDS TO SAVE THE COHO.
More from the column:
If the only reason for dumping some of the cohos was money, how much would it cost to “pay” the Michigan DNR to save some of the fish? The numbers were crunched and the figure came out to be $8000 per 100,000 cohos. By the time the okay was given by the MDNR bureaucrats to accept the money and finish more cohos, only a couple weeks deadline remained. Unfortunately, there was insufficient time to mount any specific fund-raising efforts, but by emptying the treasuries of these groups, $8000 for one additional measure of fish was produced.
Plans are now in effect to raise additional money to hire Michigan to raise additional cohos next year, as well, but the cost will jump from $8,000 per, to $18,000 in 2007 because the groups will have to pay for costs from egg-taking right on through to the finish.
*****************************************************************
As I recall, it was a one-year thing and something happened the stocking went back to normal after that.
One of the silver linings of the decreased king numbers is more Michigan guys up and down the lake are turning to cohos. It looks as though stocking them in the Grand River and others was very successful with terrific runs occurring right now.
Still, it all shows the old adage "if you want it done right, do it yourself" is appropriate. After five decades of experience, Indiana should have recognized the importance of cohos to Indiana fishing and geared up long ago to be able to produce millions of their own fish and in so doing insure that spring fishery would always be in "our" hands, not others and probably create a southern lake fishery coho fishery which wouldn't tank after the end of June and the bulk of the fish start migrating back to where they were stocked.
