The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is seeking volunteers to assist in placing wood habitat structures in Chicagon Lake (Iron County) on Sunday, March 2, to provide additional spawning habitat for muskellunge.
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From Mark:
The structures we are talking about are located in five to ten feet of water and are for spawning. They are eighteen inches tall and will provide some attractiveness to fish but are not the normal fish crib.
They are at the north end of the lake and on the north most shoreline toward the creek so they are very easy to find.
The report from the Chicagon habitat project was it was a good success!
About 20 volunteers showed up in -25 F to start off. They made and placed 23 "tic tac toe" shaped structures measuring 24' x 24' which are weighed down with small rocks and cobble which fill the squares and are held in welded wire mesh, which is in turn fastened to the 4"-6" maple timbers.
I think I got all that right, I will have to post pictures if I can get some. I was unable to make the road trip, but one dedicated MMA member from Grand Rapids did! Big thanks to Larry and all the other local volunteers, sounds like a pretty cool project
"Duke" said:
The report from the Chicagon habitat project was it was a good success!About 20 volunteers showed up in -25 F to start off. They made and placed 23 "tic tac toe" shaped structures measuring 24' x 24' which are weighed down with small rocks and cobble which fill the squares and are held in welded wire mesh, which is in turn fastened to the 4"-6" maple timbers.
I think I got all that right, I will have to post pictures if I can get some. I was unable to make the road trip, but one dedicated MMA member from Grand Rapids did! Big thanks to Larry and all the other local volunteers, sounds like a pretty cool project
Nice work Larry! impressive trip. I would have loved to go. Also look forward to seeing pics of this if anyone has them, and also follow up on the effectiveness of the project
Here is a cluster of the spawning wood placed on Chicagon. Similar to structures Wisconsin has had success with
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Just curious. Is there a difference in preferred spawning habitat between the GLS fish and the northern UP/Wisconsin strain fish? I have heard that the fish in those western UP lakes have shown some natural reproduction with the northern strain fish previously stocked in there. Now that GLS fish are being stocked in Chicagon, is that going to make a difference in where/how these fish try to spawn?
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