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A while back I had mentioned that here in Indiana our state hatcheries run on a very tight budget. Spending time with the hatchery folks, I have asked where some of the problems are that they run into. Over the past few years there has been welcome help from Hoosier Coho club and Lake County Fish And Game Protective Agency. We have teams working with the hatcheries to help with projects like fin clipping, moving fish around the hatcheries, night stocking,net pens, and a general help were we can attitude. One of the last items I mentioned in the past was what would we do if the state of Indiana felt they had to cut our programs for Lake Michigan, what would we do???? I asked our fishermen to start thinking along those lines, just what would we do? Don't you think it would be to late to start looking for ways to keep what we have, if the state had already made that decision?
I just read where the state of Wisconsin, due to money issues, has made a decision to start cutting what that state does for their fishermen.
Wisconsin is cutting muskellunge stocking by 70% and closing some hatcheries this season after state budget issues. Overall fish stocking will be down 11%. That means 40,000 fewer muskies, and 300,000 fewer Walleye, Wisconsin Public Radio reported.
Michigan also is having issues and fishermen there have gotten behind House Bill 5093. It is time that we all start looking at the facts. Cost that we see in our general family living have not gotten less. They are up, electricty, food, gas etc. All cost are up. The hatcheries are also getting the same hit. It just might be time for our fishermen to really understand the road blocks that are out there. We can't hide from them anymore. Will Indiana fishermen have to get behind a house bill down the road to help secure funding our hatcheries to keep what we have? Mixsawbah alone will need 4 million to put in a new bio filter.

I really appreciate all the articles and the the info you share on this site: all really good reads...

The problem I have, is with the state constantly riding the backs of conservation clubs, nickel and diming for investments that they should be making themselves.  Lake Michigan (and any Great Lakes for that matter) is a multi-billion dollar recreational grounds: we aren't talking about stocking bass in some local inland lake within the state where a cut back happens and the locals can figure out a way to work with it and head down the road to the next lake for their next fishing trip.  You are talking about a destination spot that people travel to.  Just ask Slez the amount of fisherman he has traveling here with the winter perch fishery alone, and he'll tell you how far folks are traveling and from multiple states to get in on this world-class jumbo perch fishery.  Look at the smallmouth fishery and the amount of bass tourney's jacking up the launch ramps on the weekends: that too, another world-class fishery.

The point I'm making is, preserving this fishery (from the hatchery technology, to the fish themselves) shouldn't require conservation clubs passing the hat around at their monthly meetings to collect donations.  Please don't take this the wrong way: I'm not disparaging anyone at the hatchery or the DNR in general, but the fact that nobody can get the ears of the governor (or any high ranking state official) to understand the importance of doing everything they can to preserve our small slice of Lake Michigan fishery is beyond me.  This really isn't complicated either: there is no other lake in IN that draws as much tourism as Lake Michigan I'm sure.  Why Bureaucracy can't get on the same page with the hatchery problem is really puzzling.  And I get it if you are going to lecture me about money, budget shortfalls, inflation, etc., but that comes and goes through different election cycles.  You don't get many cracks at bat when it comes to the big lake: you mess this up, you not only lose tourism dollars, you ruin a lot of folks livelihoods. No offense, but I don't know of any inland lake in IN that carries the economic impacts that Lake Michigan does.  Sounds like the state needs to get it's priorities in line, but what else is new...

How many employees have success telling their Bosses/Company heads how to run their company? My guess 0.0.
Change/influence has to come from the outside in some form.