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Great question Dave. Thanks for all the time you and Harry put in at Mixsawbah.

I will take a shot at answering. The way it is done as you discribed wouldn't really change much. After each sample net, that work stays the same. I believe what Rob Ackerson mentioned is they would fix in a mesh basket and the sampled netting would then go directly to the mesh basket which is also in the water. The portable pump would then pump those fish over from the mesh basket to the truck. So like when you and Harry were splitting off Steelhead from pond to pond the pump could also be used for that work also. No more lifting of heavy nets of young fish and manually walking them over to either the other ponds or the lifting up to the stocking trucks. I wish more of our fishermen would take some time like you have and experience the work. I'm sure they will walk away with a different out look on things.

Increase skamania stocking leave kings where they were 3 years ago or so or even where they were before 2013. Use the remaining equivalent for increase in skams. They provide more to our fishery in Indiana than Kings do now days.

I'm not arguing just asking questions. How many more Skamania do you feel we should be stocking, and how many kings would you cut? And what ports would you cut them from?

Those are questions for Ben as capacity is an issue as well. Kings are easiest to raise.

Right now we are the jack of all trades. We try to do that to please everyone but we do nothing really great. What if we became a destination for summer run steelhead in Indiana. We've seen them run into middle of August some years. Now if the conditions are right then you could get some kings still. Kings have become to unpredictable for our end it seems.

Sure wish you had made this last meeting Tim. Capacity was discussed. By both Ben And Rob Ackerson the manager for Mixsawbah.  Some fishermen feel differently and want more Coho. Seems like we look to fix something we think is broke but is it? Since we raise Coho and Steelhead to a larger size, it was stated that we could eliminate all kings which is presently 275,000 and raise 50-60,000 Coho. As we raise them larger they need alot more room.  

As far as how easy Kings are to raise,,,,,, again an item that was discussed as there was an issue this year not only with Kings but also with Steelhead. Just a few years back we had one of the best fall runs on Kings. As good as it was back as around 2012. What was the difference?????? We had 53 degree water that year and the fish were hitting well. Warm water kills us. And just recently in time we got choked out by warm water during the summer run Skamania time. Fishing sucked. We can't control mother nature. And it's hard to make everyone happy. All I can say is there are some happy shore fishermen this year over at EC catching Kings. Alot of work by many went into helping make that happen. It started with Ben and Rob Ackerson providing the first night stocking. Try telling the EC guys that night stocking doesn't work. Indiana is the ONLY one doing any night stocking on Lake Michigan. There are no easy fixes as we try hard to find them. 

No easy fixes, not everyone will be happy. I like the ability to catch kings in the fall if the water is perfect but that is the problem, water is rarely perfect for them here. I think you leave some kings so if it is perfect thats an option but go harder on the skams. Coho don't do anything for me and others as well as we barely catch them in the fall. Only ones that return constitenly are skams.

Wish I could make it but like I said before the times of these meetings are not possible for someone like myself who lives out of state. Weekday at 6pm coming from west burbs is not do able. The one in the winter is usually on a Saturday and ive made that one numerous times.

Mark did call me earlier in the week and I gave him my feedback.

I get where Tim is coming from in focusing time, money, and resources on s single species that seems to be more tolerant of the water temps we have on the southend of the lake through the season. Steelhead and perhaps brown trout seem to fit that bill. It does seem that the last few years of brown stocking has increased the catch of what has historcially been a pretty elusive fish. The additional benefit of these fish is that they live longer than 4 years.

With that said, coho are the prize of Spring, easy to catch, taste great, less filling......However, I think we would be kidding ourselves if we all didn't acknowledge that every time we leave the dock we are hoping to hear the scream of the drag as a King rips off line.  I suppose at the end of the day it comes to ROI.  If the numbers per species are spread thin to cover them all but the ratio that live to adulthood is low, then we will have fewer fish but more species.  Alternatively, if we put all our eggs in one basket so to speak, it would stand to reason that we would have more of that one or two species.
 

Most of the coho and kings we catch are not from Indiana. You could stop them and barely notice an difference in the spring and early summer (not saying to stop them completely) just making a point. The fish that Indiana can stock and make an meaning ful impact year in and out will be skamania.

I would agree that most of the Coho we catch are not ours. The Kings we catch in fall are all ours. If we didn't carry bait in the numbers that are needed in the spring we wouldn't see many spring kings and our stocking would suffer. It wasn't that long ago that we were zero across all three stocking ports. The change was the bait. And if we didn't carry bait in spring then the spring Coho would be gone when water temps hit 45.

There are some that are questioning the Skamania now Tim. Why do they seem to not be stageing like they used to? Each of us have a way we see the fishery. Yet the Brood stock team goes thru different issues for collection every year to get the numbers they need. What makes those years different?
Mother Nature,,,, the item they can't control. So far I'm the only one that mentioned bait. We really need to understand what makes us weak and what makes us strong.

What runners are taken as broad stock now? I feel the run is broader now. A little from May through July. There was always a much bigger push from end of June through mid July. This year the temps were prime. Found a bunch offshore which was nice as well.

If we are taking fish from early runners then the chances are the fish planted will run earlier. If were taking fish from later runners then the run will be later. This stuff takes years to impact. Look at some rivers in Michigan. The weir would come down same time every year so if the natural fish wanted to spawn they had to run earlier so the ones that did that made it year after year and now they run sometimes as early as mid July. Speaking about kings on that one.