Find out about the sportsmens clubs and the lake association. If we could write an informational article for their newsletters it would go a long way toward educating people. Second would be to find out if there are any sportshows in the immediate area. Even something like a rep day at a sporting goods shop could be a good way to spread the word.

Bar none the best advertising we have done are the Know the Difference signs and we'll want those at all launch sites and public fishing areas around the lake. They've already been requested for that area and Lake Winyah. I just need to get the stuff to MuskyPimp.

Great comments Mike and Will. This education and awareness will be VERY important. I recall the days when Hamlin had Tigers from that project and with that beautiful State park there filled to capacity every weekend the resource was in jeopardy right from the beginning. So, getting the lake association and other locals, including sport shops and other commerce, on the same page initially will be a good idea. What's good for muskies and fisherman on Hamlin will translate into big dollars
for the area of Ludington. They thought salmon was good for the economy, but they'll be a new generation of incoming dollars if this fishery can be successful. As Will says, our "Know the Difference" is a good start.

I can understand the desire to take the MMA crusade to Ludington area. Allow me to make some comments. I've lived at Scottville and Ludington for several years and I'm still involved with their local fishery.

First understand that we already have the support of the Ludington community and sportfishers for the muskie program. The Mason County Walleye Association (MCWA), Hamlin Lake Association (HLA), and MDNR have supported and put in place a muskie program. This was actually done very quickly from first mention of potential muskies to muskies in the Hamlin Lake water.

At our 2006 MCWA banquet in October, Mark Tonello was the speaker giving a great 'fisheries history' of Hamlin Lake. Yes he talked about walleye, but I would say that more than half of his presentation was on the history of the muskellunge in Hamlin Lake. This included native GLS muskies stranded in the lake when the dam was put in, the tiger muskie program, and the recent stocking of the northern muskie. During the Q&A following 3/4 of the questions were about the muskies, not walleye, and all positive! You would have been proud.

But, it is early to expect much in financial support for muskie with one exception. Remember our late 2006 chance to get the last Iowa fish transported to Michigan and our effort to collect the transport funding? Those fish were designated for the Sanford Lake chain. Had those fish been redirected to Hamlin Lake there was the money ready to be handed to you. I didn't say anything at the time because there was no point to, but the Hamlin Lake folks know a good deal when they see it.

I sit on the MCWA board. It cost us near $6000/yr to run the walleye culture pond which is now producing about 250,000 sf for the DNR covering several counties. We also raise and feed fathead minnows to the pond walleye after the net harvest. Those fish went into Hamlin Lake. It is tough for a small community businesses to also sponsor walleye when the primary big money is Lake Michigan salmon. Thus, for several years Manistee and Ludington would alternate years of sponsoring the walleye banquet to spread the work yet we all shared the walleye as scheduled by the DNR. We now have an endowment fund set up which is our present priority. Once our endowment fund goal is reached we will not need to work and pressure the community with the banquets. Your future MMA Ludington chapter funding will be better at that time.

I know we are anxious to have Hamlin Lake come online for a great fishery. I would suggest we get the fish scheduled for next year into the lake and educate the locals to not pressure the small muskies for another two years. The locals are anxious to have fun too. See what happens to our MMA finances, membership, and how the GLS program gets through the VHS challenge. Let the MMA organization be invited by the local Ludington initiative when they decide in due time. That will probably come when the year 2005 muskies reach legal size and start impacting the Ludington tourism.

You are correct Will and I would support what ever the MMA does.
Here is a timely article for Hamlin Lake. MCWA just got kicked on both the muskie and walleye programs for the area. "“I can’t even tell you if we’re going to rear walleye this year,” Rozich said. “This is an emerging issue and we’re learning as we go."

Precautions being taken against deadly disease
Local walleye program could be affected

12-20-2006 By BRIAN MULHERIN Daily News Staff Writer
** you do not have permission to see this link ** 843-1122, ext. 348

A fish disease that caused a fish kill on Lake St. Clair earlier this year could affect Mason County in the spring.

The disease, called Viral Hemmoragic Septicemia (VHS), was already present in the Great Lakes, but a new strain introduced by ballast water from Atlantic-Ocean-going ships has proved to be fatal to several species of freshwater fish, including pike, walleyes and sheepshead.

“There’s a lot of unknowns at this point in time,” said Tom Rozich, fisheries biologist supervisor for the Department of Natural Resources’ Central Lake Michigan district. “VHS has big implications because it affects such a wide variety of species.”

Rozich said 37 species have shown some degree of susceptibility to the disease, which kills by causing massive internal hemorrhaging in fish.

“It impacts fish when they’re in close proximity to each other,” Rozich said. “Muskies, when they get together to spawn, walleye, bluegills, freshwater drum — sheepshead, there’s been big die offs everywhere,” Rozich said.

Part of the effort to slow the spread of the disease has been a live fish shipping ban ordered by the USDA’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), but the DNR is also taking steps of its own.

“This is not something to be taken lightly,” Rozich said. “This could cause big impacts with inland fisheries.”

Among the species the DNR are most concerned about are muskies and walleyes.

The agency has already collected Tittabawassee-River-strain walleyes for testing and is preparing to collect walleyes from Bay DeNoc and the Muskegon River. Fish will be tested for signs of VHS and decisions will be made based upon results. Testing takes about three weeks.

Eggs and roe from Muskegon River walleyes are normally hatched and reared by the DNR and the Mason County Walleye Association for stocking in area lakes each year. But any sign of VHS could change that practice.

“I can’t even tell you if we’re going to rear walleye this year,” Rozich said. “This is an emerging issue and we’re learning as we go.

“I would encourage people, if they’re concerned, to write their legislators and tell them we need to gain control of this ballast water. From what I understand it would only take $150 worth of chlorine to kill the VHS virus (on each ship).”

Dennis Buchner of Buc’s Bait in Interlochen, which supplies area sport shops with minnows, said right now he doesn’t know what bait he’ll be allowed to ship, but it appears most everything will be available through the winter.

He said what the ban could impact most is the type of bait caught by “wild harvest” including the minnows commonly called “blues” and “grays” by anglers.

“Ninety-five percent of your wild harvest comes from Lake Huron and that’s the one that’s next in line (after St. Clair),” he said. “That’s what they’re testing right now.”