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I fished out front of St Joe yesterday and Michigan City today with nothing to show for it. Skunked last three times out. Gonna give it a break.

Tough time of year bud. Generally hero or zero unfortunately.

The Indiana D.N.R said the Kings are up the river . I fished yesterday out in front of Michigan City for 4 hours never even marked a fish. Looks like next spring for me

Thanks for the report

It must have been a very small return rate.

I was told if 10 percent came back at Michigan City it would be about 350 King's coming back

Greg wrote:

I was told if 10 percent came back at Michigan City it would be about 350 King's coming back

interesting you wouldn't mind letting us know who from the DNR gave you that information? Last season we were to have returning kings in all 3 ports, Michigan City, Portage and East Chicago. A few more then 200,000 kings split over 3 ports. Return rates was less then 1/2 percent for Indiana.
Will be interesting to see how this fall and next fall play out.

Lickety-Split wrote:

Greg wrote:

I was told if 10 percent came back at Michigan City it would be about 350 King's coming back

interesting you wouldn't mind letting us know who from the DNR gave you that information? Last season we were to have returning kings in all 3 ports, Michigan City, Portage and East Chicago. A few more then 200,000 kings split over 3 ports. Return rates was less then 1/2 percent for Indiana.
Will be interesting to see how this fall and next fall play out.

I think it's probably just a lost in translation thing. The 350 mature fish returning is in the right ballpark, because recently return rates have been 0.5% or below. So half a percent return rate on about 70,000 kings stocked would be 350 adult king return in the fall.

in 2016 there were 67K kings each stocked at East Chicago, Little Cal, and Trail Creek. As Ed mentioned ,the return of those fish in 2019 was poor, due to low survival, just like in the preceding half dozen years or so

In 2017 we had our first significant stocking reduction of kings in Indiana. There were 63K kings stocked in Trail Creek. Those fish are returning now as 3 year olds.

In 2018 there were 67K at Little Cal, and those would be returning as 2 year olds this fall.

In 2019 there were 75K in Trail Creek, those would be returning as 1 year old jacks (a few small males this fall)

In 2020 (this spring) there were 75K each at East Chicago, Little Cal, Trail Creek. Although stocking was recently increased, it takes time for those fish to grow and return. So it will be in 2022 and 2023 before those would be returning in any numbers as mature fish.

Unless there was miraculously high survival (something we've not seen in a decade or so), the 2020 and 2021 fall runs will continue to be poor, because the combination of bad survival and stocking cuts will not produce many returns

Yes the guy we was talking to only mentioned Michigan City.. He also said last year they didn't stock kings at portage.The D.N.R. site said they were already up trail creek NOW. I never marked a big fish in 4 hours from 60ft to the ramp. This guy wasn't with the D.N.R. but did tell a good story. I'm assuming you are with the D.N.R. or a good story teller.

Greg, the information from MC Angler was spot on. Didn't want to get into a he said she said situation. Was just curious where your information came from.
When I look at the numbers stocked and do the math it does come out. The difference in the way we look at numbers may differ. For example. Do we check the math as total kings stocked or, how many lived the first year????
Just to throw a number out say 40% do not make it to year one, then the math looks different.
The southend is struggling as mentioned. It wasn't that many years ago that our bait fish here was very poor.Now we have bait and during most of the season we all see some good fishing. It is the bait that is holding our fishing, as a large portion of those fish are from other states. Stocking being done has it's challenges. This end of the lake has changed in many ways. Be interesting to see what happens as we go forward.