The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has stocked state waterways with more than nine million fish so far this year.
DNR fish production program manager Ed Eisch tells us that’s more than 269 tons of all kinds of fish that were produced at the state’s six hatcheries. There’s still some more fish stocking to come this year.
“We’ve got our fall fingerling walleyes and muskies that will be stocked, there are a number of fall fingerling coho that will be stocked, as well as the steelhead,” Eisch said.
Eisch says the fish stocking program usually focuses on rivers and warmer inland lakes. The program has been around since the late 1800s, and Eisch says the fishing experience in Michigan would be a lot different without it.
“It would still exist because there are some really solid, naturally reproducing populations around the state, but there’s no question that fishing would be different around the state, for sure. The steelhead program the coho program, the chinook program, and several of the inland stocking programs really create some outstanding opportunities.”
The DNR uses specialized tanker trucks to transport fish to waterways and then it pumps them into the water through large hoses. Eisch says the operations will often attract crowds as people watch thousands of fish be placed in rivers and lakes.
In Berrien County this year, the DNR pumped more than 100,000 Chinook salmon into the St. Joseph River and around 40,000 fish of various kinds into the Galien River.
In Van Buren County, they released around 20,000 rainbow trout and 10,000 walleye into the Black River.
You can learn more about the state’s fish stocking program right here. You can also search a database to find out what kids of fish were stocked where.
