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I attended the meeting, I learned and heard so much I wouldn't know where to start typing it here.

It does seem ancient "treaties" and outdated fish models of all the great lakes still require what fish get stocked. The meetings of all these groups needed to change Federal laker stocking. (sounds like congress, maybe some term limits are needed)

The new quagga mussel www.thenewsherald.com/articles/2012/01/2...ea38889842971812.txt has taken over and killing the lower food chain, Alewives down to 20% of what they were. These quagga live down to 500 feet.

About 10 years ago, charter boats wrote about 9,000 one day Indiana tickets. 2015 will be about 900. Most charter fishing is now NOT in Indiana.

It also seems cleaning up the lake polluters has actually stopped some minerals that helped lake fish production. The BP discharge may actually be helping the west end.

The charts shown seem to show Lake Michigan is trending just like Lake Huron did, the next 2 years are critical to come back or else.

IMO, the asian carp got all the press coverage, while the quagga beat them to the food first.

I though the meeting was very informative and I know I learned a few things. And it was great to finally meet some of you in person. I also heard alot of great feedback about how well Jeff is doing with the site. We made a few new contacts and opened a door to good relations with DNR. All in all I say it was a good meeting. See you at the launch.

I enjoyed the meeting and found it to be informative, but more than anything reinforcing what we all know. What they need to try to do now is manage it as effectively as possible so we don't fall into a crash of the level of Lake Huron.

With low water levels in the 2012 time frame hurting natural reproduction, and the last 2 cold winters hurting the alewives, its surprising our catch numbers have not been worse. It seems likely we had a good alewife year class this year along with perch. We are supposed to have a warmer winter this year (strong el nino) which will bode well for the alewives.

I am optimistic that LM will find some balance on not completely crash like Lake Huron. The DNR and other agencies can help make that balance more efficient and effective. All of the Lakers being "stuffed up our ass" as Ed would say is surely not helping anything - and doing nothing but making the DNR's efforts more challenging.

The only cure is to address the Quagga's with a lab made virus or genetic mutation that produces infertile offspring. Hopefully some biologists can figure out something but its going to be a while.

While it keeps getting worse from the last charts. Mussels are killing the lake and there's nothing that can be done to stop or kill them. So from there you either going to have a dead lake or a lake that's main forage is gobies which silver fish will not feed on to sustain a good population. Plus it looks like more cuts this spring on coho and kings with possible more browns in the mix hint they feed on gobies. Don't know about steelhead sustainability under these current lake conditions. The last thing is all the lakers that are being dumped over a century old treatie can't be cut even if they have the potential to wipe out all the elwives and smelt? Mike

Not my idea, but a good one. I'm not even going to get into the ups or downs of treaties with Native Americans, Indians, chippewas or what-ever ethnic group they claim to be. If the treaty says the USFWS needs to stock a bazillian lakers each year, why doesn't the USFWS stock them at about 2 days old when they are still sucking up their egg sack. Or stock them at a normal size at East Chicago in the spring when there are 17 bazillion gulls and cormorants filling the sky and slurping up fish? Letter of the law, spirit of the law? Never saw anything in any treaty about tribal gambling casinos or selling unlicensed cigarettes. The door should swing both ways.

I can remember a time when the Post Tribune, The Times, The Chicago Tribune and The Sun Times had outdoor sports writers who would address such issues in their columns, bringing the problems to everyone's attention. Other than the few subscriber who are members of this website , the problem doesn't exist. Sad, but true.

I asked the biologists at the meeting if they felt it's inevitable that Lake Michigan will crash like Lake Huron did. They wouldn't say yes or no, but their answer is "it's close".

The mussel problem has been around for 20+ years with no solution to get rid of them. Alewives are 25% smaller than the pre mussel years and back then there were 9 year classes compared to only 3 yeAr classes today. I cannot see how this will improve and many trends are mirroring the Lake Huron crash. I hate to say this but I left the meeting feeling like it's only a matter of time, maybe 2 years and the Lake Michigan Salmon Fishery will be history just like Lake Huron. I hope the biologists are wrong, but that is what I heard.

You have to remember, most of Lake Michigan and from what I've heard and experienced, most of Lake Huron and Lake Ontario are king salmon oriented. Kings used to be a part of Indiana's fishery but have always just been a part of it, not the brightest or only star in the sky. Cohos have been the most frequent guests on my boat since I started playing this game in 1979. As long as the coho stockings remain constant, I don't think that will change much, even if the alewives crash and the kings die off. Cohos don't eat many alewives except for their last six months or so of life.

Any talk about perch? As much as I hate the idea of no salmon in the lake and the feds wanting to give the lake back to the lake trout, I guess they have some what of a point about native species. But, if they are going to push natives, I'd really like to have my perch back.

Perch basically are subject to the same problem - as are all infant fish lack of the lower food chain. Sounds like it was likely that there was a good perch class this year and perhaps some good ones in the past few as a good deal of small perch have been caught. Like everything else, I dont think we have a chance at a strong rebound for anything until the mussels are contained somehow.