News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Michigan Brown Trout volunteer Ernie Butterfield holds a salmon that was weighed at Alpena Small Craft Harbor Sunday afternoon. So far, more lake trout, salmon, rainbow trout and walleye have been caught than brown trout, which has been the trend for about a decade.

ALPENA – The state of Michigan can no longer plant brown trout in Lake Huron in northeastern Michigan, but local investment in private planting has helped ensure that at least several of the most prized fish are caught each year during the Michigan Brown Trout Festival.

The state has finished stocking the lake with large hatchery-bred yearlings, saying they were killed by predatory fish, cormorants, and only about 2% of them survived, which doesn’t not worth the investment.

Gaylord fisheries management biologist Tim Cwalinski said that while there are slightly more brown trout in and around Alpena, the odds of catching one compared to a lake trout, walleye or a salmon are thin. He said the state had spent millions of dollars over many years trying to bolster the brown trout population, but the plans just didn’t hold up.

In 2016, no legal-faced brown trout were caught at the brown trout festival, but since then there have been at least several on the leaderboard at the end of the nine-day tournament.

Instead, MNR plants brown trout in several parts of the Au Sable River in Alcona, where it believes survival is higher, and plants Atlantic and coho salmon in Lake Huron in the north. -eastern Michigan.

Cwalinski said it’s possible some of the brownies captured in and around Thunder Bay may have come from Alcona County plants, but he doubts many of them migrated that far.

“We’re seeing more brown trout, but that’s not saying much,” he said.

Locally however, the Brown Trout Festival, along with private donors, have continued to purchase thousands of small brown trout and plant them in deeper water in areas spread around Thunder Bay, which hopefully it, increases the chances that more fish will survive and become keepable. adults.

Other licensed private groups in Almost Isle County and Cheboygan are following suit and hope it will spark a resurgence in the popular hunt fish.

Trout Scout charter captain Ed Retherford said there was brown trout to be had before, during and after the tournament. He said the fish might not be as plentiful or big as they were years ago, but he said it’s not uncommon to have a customer caught or to see someone on another boat roll one up. Retherfor said he wants the state to try to restock browns in the area again because a lot has changed over the years since it stopped and he thinks small brown trout would now have better chances of survival.

“There aren’t many because there aren’t many plantations,” he said. “I’ve seen at least three that weighed 13 pounds or more this year, so there are some nice ones.”

If a brown is caught, it can result in a nice payout for the tournament boat crews. In 2017, for the first time in the history of the 48-year-old festival, Big Brownie got caught.

Big Brownie is tagged and released at an undisclosed location in Thunder Bay before the event begins, and the team of Jan Stepanski and Robert Westenbarger, both of Alpena, brought back the award-winning brown trout, which earned them the prize of $25,000.

Although the odds are long, around 100 boats are hoping to do the same during this festival, which ends on Sunday.