Presque Isle
Northern Lake Huron's Presque Isle is as picturesque a fishing venue as you'd want to see. Combine this with the fact that deep water is only a stone's throw away from the beach, that the area features a proliferation of points, reefs and other salmon-holding structure, and the knowledge that staging chinooks home in on the area and you have the makings of a salmon mecca. Presque Isle may very well be the best of what's left for salmon fishing in Lake Huron right now.

Presque Isle is ideal for the angler with a smaller, trailerable craft. Although one of the attractions of Presque Isle is often the lack of competition, there is a modern launch facility capable of handling plenty of vehicles and trailers. August usually finds the port fairly busy.

Anglers will find a hodgepodge of brown trout, lakers and salmon available shortly after ice-out, although the real fishing at Presque Isle doesn't get started until mid-July when chinooks bound for Swan Bay, Rogers City, Oscoda and Harbor Beach cluster there prior to spawning. Good places to search for pre-spawn kings are off structure like Observatory Point, Black Point, North Point, and North and South Albany points.

The ultraclear water often makes kings super skittish, and anglers who work at getting lures away from the boat using lead-core line, divers and planers will have the best success. Mate these to flasher/fly combinations, magnum spoons and plugs when the kings show up. Mature fish are usually available until mid-September when they disappear in search of natal streams and planting sites. Immature fish can provide great sport for those hardy souls willing to brave the cold well into the fall. Like other Lake Huron ports, the kings ran on the small side at Presque Isle in 2004, but the port is one of the most dependable for numbers.

For information on charter boats, bait shops and motels in the Presque Isle area, contact the Alpena Convention & Visitors Bureau at 1-800-425-7362 or online at www.alpena.mi.us/.

LAKE MICHIGAN
Lake Michigan basin coordinator Jim Dexter said that unlike Lake Huron, Lake Michigan's forage base is in pretty good shape, and barring a severe winter that could decimate alewife numbers, anglers can expect another banner year on the lake.

"The forage base is quite good on Lake Michigan," claimed Dexter. "We had a very big year-class in 1998 that we've kind of been surviving on and another good year-class in 2002. Acoustical surveys indicated that there was a very large year-class of alewives produced in 2004. They found those in the middle portion of the south end of the lake. So it looks like that we're going to have very good numbers of alewives, and things look positive for the 2005 season."

Stocking rates for most species continue to be constant on Lake Michigan.

"Stocking rates haven't changed much since we made the cuts a few years ago," said Dexter. "We plant about 4.5 million chinooks lakewide each year."

Dexter said the Michigan Department of Natural Resources still doesn't have an accurate figure on exactly how many salmon are being reproduced naturally that contribute to the fishery. "The estimates from several studies that were done indicate that about 30 percent of the chinooks in Lake Michigan are naturally reproduced fish," he said. Dexter indicated that if they could get a better idea of exactly how many fish are naturally reproduced that they might be able to further reduce stockings. "The fitness of the natural fish is so much better," claimed Dexter. "The natural fish just have a competitive advantage."