Right now, the daily bag limit is three. The change would mean anglers could only harvest one steelhead on several rivers.
From outside the fishing world, the amendment seems small. But inside the fishing world, there’s a heated debate about whether it’s the right decision.
OUT ON THE RIVER
Ed McCoy has been a river guide in northern Michigan for over 20 years. And almost every day since steelhead season began in early October, McCoy has been out on the Manistee River trying to get a fish to grab a line.
But he says catching a fish this season is already proving tougher than last.
“It’s still early in the fall season,” McCoy said. “But everybody’s not very optimistic at this point, unless something changes quickly and drastically. This season has been pretty dismal on catch rates, and that’s a primary concern.”
McCoy says the fishery he and thousands of others love and rely on is at risk of overharvesting. And as president of the Michigan River Guides Association, he’s pushing hard for the state to lower bag limits on steelhead.
“We're still managing this fishery like it’s in its prime in the mid-90s, early 2000s,” he said. “We still have the same regulations in place. But yet the fisheries change, right?”
The three per day harvest limit was introduced in 1989. And the steelhead fishery has changed pretty dramatically since its peak; there’s far fewer fish than there were 30 years ago.
But biologists at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources say overharvesting is not the reason why.
“We're still managing this fishery like it’s in its prime in the mid-90s, early 2000s. ... But yet the fisheries change, right?”
Ed McCoy
river guide
CRUNCHING NUMBERS
Biologists like Jay Wesley, the Lake Michigan Basin Coordinator for the DNR’s Fisheries Division, point to Lake Michigan as the main cause for steelhead decline.
“Lake Michigan’s changed a lot because of invasive species, particularly with Quagga and zebra mussels that have lowered the capacity of Lake Michigan,” Wesley said. “We’ve seen a decline not only with steelhead, but also with Chinook salmon, coho salmon, and brown trout.”
(These species are born in streams, then migrate out to Lake Michigan to feed and grow, then ultimately travel back upstream to spawn. Salmon, brown trout and steelhead were introduced to the Great Lakes region.)
Wesley says all of these populations, including steelhead, saw a decline in the early 2000s.
“But it's been relatively flat or stable ever since then,” he said. “We just think that the steelhead numbers are what the lake can produce. We don't see any evidence that harvest or anglers taking steelhead has influenced their population in any way.”
Wesley argues restricting bag limits won’t make steelhead populations rebound to pre-Quagga mussel levels. But it would change one thing.
“It certainly will provide more catch and release within a river, so if that’s their strategy, then this may work,” said Wesley. “Unfortunately, they're saying that the steelhead population is in peril. We just disagree with that. We don't have evidence of that at all.”
But many anglers aren’t convinced. There’s still a perception that Michigan’s steelhead are at risk in popular rivers.
Dan O’Keefe is an extension educator for Michigan Sea Grant through Michigan State University. He collects surveys from steelhead river anglers through a program called the Great Lakes Angler Diary.
“According to our last survey, novice anglers preferred higher harvest limits than more experienced anglers who tended to practice catch and release,” said O’Keefe. “75 percent of our novice anglers prefer the three or five fish limit, while 95 percent of expert anglers prefer the limit lower than three.”
But O’Keefe says angler satisfaction has hovered around neutral.
“Fishing has been okay overall,” O’Keefe said. “Not fantastic, but not terrible by any stretch of the imagination either. On average, our volunteers are reporting about one fish [for] every five or six hours of angling effort. And [when] you consider that a lot of these fish are seven-to-nine pound fish, that’s pretty good.”
He says anglers may notice a downturn this year because the pandemic prevented steelhead stocking in 2021. He says those fish would be lake-age three this year, which are the most abundant age group in Michigan’s steelhead river fisheries.
Despite that, O’Keefe says the data shows that steelhead populations are stable overall, particularly wild, or unstocked, steelhead.
MAKING DECISIONS
But the overwhelming desire among anglers to restrict harvest limits has been heard by the people who will decide what to do, including Natural Resources Commissioner Dave Nyberg.
In 2021, Nyberg proposed a one-steelhead daily harvest limit on select rivers from March 15 to May 15, which is typically the peak of spawn. That change was adopted.
The new amendment, also proposed by Nyberg, would make that limit year-round and expand it to several more rivers and tributaries.
On the Pere Marquette River, near Ludington, it would entirely prohibit the take of wild steelhead.
Nyberg says the recent amendment would continue a more proactive approach to long-term steelhead conservation.
“What the commission … and other stakeholders are concerned about is what the commission can do today that will basically be a ‘Do No Harm’ approach,” Nyberg said.
Anglers who want to harvest a steelhead will still be able to. And he says more protections will buy time for more river restoration, data collection and research.
BACK UPSTREAM
Jay Wesley with the DNR says the research is already clear, and that a “Do No Harm” approach still has consequences.
“Biologically, I agree, this will do no harm," Wesley said. "Where the harm is, is socially."
“Biologically, I agree, this will do no harm. Where the harm is, is socially."
Jay Wesley
Dept. of Natural Resources
He says there will definitely be more fish to catch and release on rivers. But he’s worried the change will keep novice anglers away who tend to prefer to keep more fish.
“That should be fine to do,” said Wesley, “because the population can withstand harvest. It is now.”
The DNR is concerned lower bag limits will harm fishing license sales, which Wesley says are stagnant. Those license sales help fund fisheries management in Michigan.
But Wesley says he worries all of this might harm something else, too: people’s trust in publicly-funded research.
“We think we have some really nice data here suggesting that there's no issue, and then people are turning that around and saying there is an issue,” he said. “I just hope that we have the trust of our public to make changes when they're really necessary.”
River guide Ed McCoy says those changes are really necessary. And he knows one thing for certain: steelhead fishing on the Manistee River just isn’t the same anymore.
“I don't need to catch the most fish on the river every day; that is not my goal or objective,” said McCoy. “But I am trying to sell an experience to somebody that maybe they only can have once or twice a year, and I want it to be the best that it possibly can. But I also can't catch what's not there, and that's the bottom line.”
McCoy says trying something new is worth a shot.
The proposal to limit steelhead harvests is up for action at the Natural Resources Commission meeting on Thursday. The public can weigh in before then via email at NRC@michigan.gov or in person at the meeting itself, which happens at 9:30 a.m., Nov. 9 at Lansing Community College.
