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We attended the Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie Citizens Fishery Advisory Committee Meeting this week to present our proposal for an optional trolling license to the committee. It was well received, and a straw poll was taken, and the majority were in support or neutral to our proposal. The committee has a number of bass, sturgeon, and perch fishing groups and most of the neutral votes came from them. We are glad to see there was not significant opposition to our proposal.

MDNR Tribal Coordinator Dave Caroffino gave an update on the 2023 Consent Decree and the 2 appeals to it that are in process. The 2023 decree is in effect and tribal fishers are beginning their season. The Coalition to Protect Michigan Resources appeal is through the filing of briefs stage. During this stage, CPRM filed their brief with their arguments against the decree, the State of Michigan, Tribes, and Federal Governments filed their briefs to argue against the CPMR positions and the CPMR filed a brief in response to their arguments. It is now in the judges hands, and he could request oral arguments in court or make a ruling on the appeal. We await the judge’s decision. The Sault Tribe appealed the decree to not accept it and regulate their fishery as they see fit. The first step after that was to participate in a mediation session with all the parties to the decree to see if they could resolve this out of court. The mediation was unsuccessful, and the Sault Tribe appeal is now going into the filing of briefs stage. The court could hear each of the 2 appeals separately or could combine them. We await the judge’s decision on that.

The MDNR is beginning lake trout assessment netting. See the picture below for more details. We posted this on the GLSI Facebook page, and some concerns were raised on the number of fish that will be killed. Indiana DNR Lake Michigan Biologist Ben Dickenson replied with this information:
"Catch rates are generally between 5 and 15 lake trout per 1000 feet of net in the spring surveys. More fish probably get caught by charter boats on a single fishing day compared to the entirety of spring sampling surveys. And before you say they are slaying the silver fish, I've been doing these gill net surveys for 11 years in Indiana and have seen a grand total of 2 silver fish in spring lake trout survey nets."
Many of our members love to walleye fish too.  The MDNR is taking comments on their draft Saginaw Bay Walleye and Perch Management Plan. You can see the plan and comment here, you need to scroll down on this page to find it:
Plan:  www.michigan.gov/dnr/managing-resources/fisheries/walleye
Send comments by email to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Coho fishing has been great on the south end of Lake Michigan, Lake Huron and Lake Superior and smelt runs are underway around Lake Superior.  Get out and catch some! 
Good luck and tight lines!
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