Michigan TU Council Chair’s Report

Michigan TU Council Chair’s Reportby Tom Mundt

While most of the world celebrates the beginning of the New Year on December 31, followed by a day laying on the couch and watching football, Michigan trout anglers know that the New Year really begins on the last Saturday of April. I know regulations have changed on many Michigan streams and rivers to allow fishing for brook, brown, and rainbow trout year-round, but in my mind, “Trout Opener” is the true New Year’s Day.

Trout Opener is a time to emerge from hibernation and head to our favorite stream the last Saturday in April with a fly rod in hand with flies tied during the winter doldrums to temp wary trout with a Hendrickson fly pattern cast along a current seam or a wet fly swung through a riffle. This year’s Trout Opener was especially important as it was the first time in over two years that fellow anglers could gather safely in cabins, lodges, and fishing clubs across the state to toast the New Year with a great deal reduced probability of creating a super spreader event.

I celebrated the new trout season by attending such a gathering with friends along a Northern Michigan stream on the Friday prior to the opener. A big thank you to the hosts; it was a great event. I went fishing with my friend Steve on the Muskegon River a few days later. Yes, this is the same guy who most likely passed the Covid virus to me in early 2021. (He argues that I gave it to him, but facts say otherwise.) The day turned out much better, with both of us catching several nice brown and rainbow trout as well as steelhead without having to receive monoclonal antibody treatment followed by two weeks of isolation. Happy New Year, trout anglers, and welcome to what I hope is the beginning of a post-pandemic world.

Turning to conservation, your Michigan TU team is engaged in several major habitat restoration projects across the state. Aquatic Ecologist Kristin Thomas and the Upper Manistee team have secured permitting and selected contractors to install locally harvested trees and woody debris within the river via helicopter this fall to improve fish habitat. Kristin will report on this project in the fall/winter addition of Michigan Trout- stay tuned. I want to thank the very generous private donor who initiated the Upper Manistee project and the individual other supporters, as well as the Michigan DNR and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, for expanding its scope.

In other areas, Michigan TU and the Mason-Griffith Founders Chapter are collaborating with the Anglers of the Au Sable and other key stakeholders to finalize the engineering and action plan to improve fish passage around the Grayling Fish Hatchery. I also am happy to report that the team is close to removing a dam that contributes a significant amount of thermo-pollution to a tributary of Big Creek near Luzerne. Finally, Kristin recruited two interns to assist with the aforementioned projects and support chapter initiatives, including projects within Southern Michigan’s Paint and Prairie Creeks and the Coldwater and White Rivers.

As we plan for the future, Michigan TU is collaborating with the Michigan-based TU National team to implement TU National’s new strategic “Shared Priority Waters” initiative for Michigan waters. This initiative aims to integrate current scientific data with local knowledge to identify the watersheds where TU can make the greatest contribution to the preservation and protection of our state’s coldwater fisheries. Considering Michigan’s 35,000 miles of cold water and varied physiographic structure, which ranges from glacial outwash of sand and gravel in the Lower Peninsula and Eastern UP to igneous bedrock in other sections of the UP, this was not an easy task.

I want to thank the core team, including TU National’s Keith Curley, Nichol DeMol, Jack Lemon, Jeremy Geist, and Jamie Vaughan as well Michigan TU’s Dr. Bryan Burroughs, Kristin Thomas, Greg Walz, and Robb Smith, for their technical/scientific expertise as they analyzed layers of interactive mapping data to create the initial list of priority waters candidates – Great Job! The process and outcomes from these efforts will be presented and reviewed with the State Council in July and reported to all of you in a future addition of Michigan Trout.

In closing, I leave you with a few words of wisdom from visual artist Ilan Shamir titled, Advice from a Trout. “Show your true colors; Be a good catch; Don’t be lured by shiny objects; Scale back; Cherish clean water; Know when to keep your mouth shut; (and), Don’t give up without a good fight.” Please enjoy this issue of Michigan Trout and get out and enjoy your favorite lake, river, or stream.