February 4, 2010
Michigan DNRE Fisheries Division,
On behalf of its more than 600 members, The Anglers of the Au Sable is pleased to submit the enclosed recommendations for fishing gear restrictions on Michigan trout streams. In deliberating this issue, our organization took note of an important statement in the DNR’s April 2009 proposal to modify Michigan’s trout stream regulations:
“The majority of fishing that takes place on current stream Types 5-7 is catch and release. Consequently, the regulations can be a bit more complicated than on catch/keep streams because anglers fishing Types 5-7 primarily do so for the enjoyment or trophy potential, and not necessarily the harvest, so they are not as concerned with having standard size and creel limits.”
With this in mind, we propose the following:
Au Sable Main Branch:
Burtons Landing – Wakeley Bridge: Flies only, catch and release, open year round.
Rationale: This stretch -- and its historically unique regulations -- has become the standard of quality among anglers and guides and shouldn’t be changed. It has benefited the area economically and will continue to do so for years to come. It is extremely heavily fished and the trout populations are likely improved by the current regulations.
Wakeley Bridge – McMasters Bridge: Single-hook artificial-only, 18” brown or rainbow, 7” brook, 2 trout, no more than one 18” or over. Open year round, catch and release from October 1 – last Saturday in April.
Rationale: Another heavily utilized bridge-to-bridge stretch with trophy trout potential. This would be a good compromise stretch where anglers could use a variety of hardware and flies and would have lessened size limits on brook trout, while still encouraging numbers of trophy trout for which this stretch is well-known. This would be one of the few opportunities in our area for year-round angling with hardware, thereby increasing enjoyment for a whole segment of anglers. The use of single-hooks instead of treble hooks has been justified in several studies, including those by Julie Meka (North American Journal of Fisheries Management, 24: 1309-1321, 2004), where it was noted that mortality was higher for fish caught by treble hooks than by single hooks, particularly those fish under seventeen inches, which is the bulk of the Au Sable and Manistee’s trout populations. An earlier study by Melvin Reingold found that “single barbless hooks would account for 428 deaths versus 1928 for treble barbless hooks, a difference of 1500 trout [out of 75,000 Cutthroat trout]" (Reingold, Melvin, Idaho Fish and Game, Vol. 047, Article 2, 1979). It is also believed that increasing the amount of year-round water available to “off-season” anglers would reduce the winter pressure on areas such as the Holy Waters and Mason Tract.
McMasters Bridge-Mio Pond/Dam: New Type III.
Rationale: This encourages a multitude of different angling opportunities by treating this rightly as a stretch with both warm and coldwater opportunities.
Au Sable North Branch:
Sheep Ranch – Mouth: Flies only, 18” brown or rainbow, 10” brook, 2 trout, no more than one 18” or over. Open year round, catch and release from October 1 – last Saturday in April.
Rationale: The restrictions on this water would only change in the increase of brown and rainbow trout size limits and a reduction in the total number of 18” fish in the creel. The idea is to increase the trophy potential of this river without changing the total number and size of brook trout allowed to be harvested. This will not be a controversial change in regulations, and would be welcomed among the vast majority of its anglers [For this stretch, and the lower South Branch, please see rationale for Mancelona Bridge - Cameron Bridge with regards to the effects an 18”size limit on browns might have]. Brook trout over 10” are commonly caught in the North Branch and we believe, and studies have shown [see South Branch Highbanks-Mouth rationale below] that more stringent regulations in areas of high angling pressure and large brook trout potential will have a positive effect on populations of larger brook trout.
Au Sable South Branch:
Chase – Highbanks: Flies only, catch and release, open year round.
Rationale: Again, a popular stretch of river that is traditionally catch-and-release and is very popular for both this reason, and the fine fishing enjoyed there.
Highbanks – Mouth: Flies only, 18” brown or rainbow, 10” brook, 2 trout, no more than one 18” or over. Open year round, catch and release from October 1 – last Saturday in April.
Rationale: Like the North Branch, these regulations are only a slightly modified to encourage large wild trout while allowing anglers to keep the larger brook trout. With due respect to the opinion that harvesting 7” brook trout will have little or no impact on overall brook trout populations, we commonly catch larger brook trout in both this stretch and the North Branch stretch from Sheep Ranch – Mouth. Moreover, preserving the 10” limit would be overwhelmingly well received by the majority of anglers that enjoy these stretches of river. Setting larger size limits on brook trout has been shown to have significant effects on brook trout size on Wisconsin’s streams. Larry Claggett, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Coldwater Fisheries Ecologist, notes that in areas where brook trout size limits went from 6 inches to 10 inches, the number of brook trout over eight inches improved from 13 percent to 21 percent! (Claggett, Larry, Wisconsin Natural Resources Magazine, Oct. 2007.)
Manistee River:
Mancelona Bridge – Cameron Bridge: Single-hook artificial-only, 18” brown or rainbow, 7” brook, 2 trout, no more than one 18” or over. Open year round, catch and release from October 1 – last Saturday in April.
Rationale: The Deward Tract is a special trout stream for its scenic undeveloped beauty and wild trout. The new regulations extend the gear-restricted mileage while allowing anglers to possess 7-inch brook trout. With the water being open year-round, this will spread the off-season pressure being imposed on other stretches of river. The use of more restrictive regulations on this stretch mirrors several studies done in our neighbor-state of Wisconsin. On Wisconsin’s Tomorrow River, regulation “had changed from a bag limit of 10 fish over six inches, to a bag of one brook trout at least 10 inches long and a minimum size of 18 inches for brown trout. Artificial lures were required to reduce hooking mortality. Surveys were done every year starting in 1988. Population estimates were averaged from 1988-91 before the regulations were put in place and compared to post-regulation years (1995-1997) after waiting a few years for the populations to stabilize. Brown trout showed an increase from 469 fish per mile to 709 fish per mile. Brown trout over 12 inches increased from 5 percent to 20 percent, and brown trout over 18 inches increased tenfold from 0.3 fish per mile to three fish per mile." Certainly this study could have been influence by habitat improvements, as several studies on the Manistee likely have been. However, Wisconsin tested for this. Over and over again, Wisconsin has used special regulations and habitat improvement to boost their populations of wild fish in highly pressured streams. They have even done comparative studies between areas that had habitat improvement and stricter regulations with those that had no habitat improvement but stricter regulations. In both cases, fish populations and sizes improved (14.3% and 9.4% respectively) (Claggett, 1979). With the upper Manistee, which has the highest trout populations in the Manistee River system, we have the potential to greatly increase productivity, and great care should be given in considering both this suggestion, and the one for the adjacent stretch downstream, explained below.
Cameron Bridge – M-72: Flies only, catch and release, open all year.
Rationale: This bridge-to-bridge stretch is heavily utilized. With its excellent populations of wild trout, the addition of this as flies-only, catch and release water would make this a more popular and productive stretch. Without belaboring some of the points made above, consider the effect catch and release angling had on the South Platte River in Idaho in the 1980s: “catch rates averaged 48% greater in the catch-and-release area than in the standard-regulation section that had the benefit of catchable-trout stocking. The catch rate of trophy-sized trout was 28 times greater in the catch-and-release area than in the harvest area” (Anderson and Nehring, Effects of Catch-and-Release Regulation on Wild Trout Population in Colorado, 1984). Clearly, there is great potential in adding restrictions to angling methods in areas of extremely high pressure. There is also another factor that few if any studies seem to take into account: the effect that large takes of trout during the spring has on the angling experience throughout the rest of the season. On rivers such as the Manistee and the Au Sable, where most of the fish growth occurs in the spring and early summer, the removal of large number of adult fish early clearly affects the quality of the fishing later in the summer and fall. This stretch, according to guides and anglers alike, would be such a stretch negatively impacted by intense angling pressure coupled with liberal restrictions on angling methods and creel limits.
M-72 to CCC Bridge: Flies-only, 18” brown or rainbow, 7” brook, 2 trout, no more than one 18” or over. Open year round, catch and release from October 1 – last Saturday in April.
Rationale: Another heavily utilized bridge-to-bridge stretch with trophy trout potential, this area is already flies-only and popular for this reason. However, in the interest of compromise, we propose reducing the size limits on brook trout from 10” to 7”. This will not be an unpopular change in this area, and considering the diversity of water n this long stretch, allowing a smaller size limit on brook trout seems a prudent -- and fair --recommendation.
In Summary:
We refer to the data presented by Anglers Board member John Bebow (these figures are present in the Au Sable Big Water Preservation Association’s nomination, of which the Anglers of the Au Sable support). Without belaboring the point, the fact is this: Michigan has significantly less areas of gear restriction/quality designation than other states with similar cold water opportunities:
-Michigan has 12 total stretches of gear-restricted streams. Seven peer states have an average of 81 (Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, California and Idaho).
-Michigan has seven stretches of artificial flies/lures only. The seven peer states have an average of 58.
The Au Sable and the Manistee are the crown jewels of Michigan -- indeed, the Midwest -- with regards to numbers of wild trout and angling variety. They are irreplaceable natural resources, and irreplaceable destinations for locals, Michiganders, and out-of-state (and out-of-country) visitors. They deserve special consideration due to their fecundity, as well as the intense angling pressure they attract. We understand that our proposal has the support of numerous local and statewide conservation groups, including the Mason-Griffith and Headwater Chapters of Trout Unlimited, as well as the Au Sable Big Water Preservation Association.
All together, these recommendations encompass nine specific stretches on two of Michigan’s most famous and productive trout watersheds. In addition, we support, in principle, the additional gear restriction recommendations of our neighboring peer organizations (Headwaters Trout Unlimited, Mason-Griffith Trout Unlimited, and the Au Sable Big Water Preservation Association).
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Alan Diodore
President, Anglers of the Au Sable
cc: Kelley Smith (Fisheries Chief)
Keith Charters (Chairman of the Natural Resource Commission)
Mindy Koch (Deputy Director)
John Madigan (Policy Committee Chair, Natural Resource Commission)