May 18, 2008 @ 17:58

SAVING THE CLIPPED WIRE TAGGED CHINOOK SALMON HEADS

Last summer I saved a bunch of tagged fish heads, 15-20 to be exact. I delivered them to the Traverse City DNR office on Garfield after Labor Day.

I measured length, weight, where I caught the fish and the date caught. I attached my business card to a large garbage bag containing the heads.

Naturally the business card was lost. I spent some time on the phone to find out where my Salmon heads ended up.

I finally spoke to John Clevenger Fisheries Technician in Charlevoix. He told me he didn’t know which heads were mine. So he gave me a list of all the heads turned in from Frankfort to Leland last season. What a great bunch of information!

* 61 of the fish came from Medusa Creek in Charlevoix
* 4 fish came from Swan River Presque Isle Lake Huron
* 15 of the tagged fish came from Little Manistee
* 9 mild Brdg Manistee
* 10 fish came from St Joseph R Clementines NETPE, Berrien MI


All of my fish are listed in this mix.

Something I noticed was there were not any Traverse City fish on the list. I know that the DNR plants around 150,000 fish in the Boardman River every spring. So this means all these fish may stay in the Bay, or maybe some find their demise in the cormorants or make good Walleye feed.

Seems like we are always waiting for the Salmon to round the Leelanau Peninsula and arrive near Traverse City in August. They may be there all summer long.

Captain Bill
Watta Bite Charter Fishing

Click here for the Full Report:
http://www.wattabite.com/info/SavingClippedWireTaggedChinookSalmonHeads.pdf