This whole winter I hope will drastically help out the fish in the Antrim chain. They were able to ice fish, but not get into much of the shallow water at the head and foot of the upper chain! I know the lower end of Intermediate got hit, but for the most part the typical spearing areas were unsafe for most of the season!
Also I have seen on opening weekend the exploitation of fish moving to areas to spawn, or spawning, and they might get to get it done without being bothered this year?!?! Hoping for a good year class I suppose.
"vano397" said:
This whole winter I hope will drastically help out the fish in the Antrim chain.
I think you are right about that. I think it helped the lower chain even more actually. Elk never froze at all so the south end didnt see a spear this year and I dont think the ice on Skegemog was ever safe enough to get near the channel where I see most of the main spear shacks usually and if it did it wasnt for long. It was a little disappointing not to be able to perch fish my favorite spots this winter but Id give up ice fishing those lakes all together if it meant they werent able to be speared all winter.
This whole winter I hope will drastically help out the fish in the Antrim chain.
Last year there was a 50" fish speared on the last weekend of the season on Skegemog. They are vulnerable during last ice. Again good news that there was no safe ice this year.
One year isn't going to be enough though. The 3 tagged fish that were harvested during the 2008-2009 season just shows how many fish are lost each season from this system. Its dramatic. I can only imagine the kind of fishery that we would have if that one area were open water every year…
I still know a guy who spears on Long Lake, he has harvested a fish from there before. Glad to report he didn't see any fish this season.
"vano397" said:
Well it looks like we are going to taper off into "normal" conditions for a while… But I was wondering if the DNR is prepared for an early spawn for the egg collection, or if they are stuck with a pre-set time???
They're keeping an eye on it. The water temp has been around 45 and with the cooling weather things may happen at about the normal time. Luckily Lake Huron really keeps St Clair cool!!
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