Although 20-pound chinooks were rare at most Lake Michigan ports last year, there were still some trophy kings caught. Photo by Mike Gnatkowski.

The only constant in Great Lakes fishing is that it never stays the same.

The Great Lakes are in a continuous state of flux. Water levels go up and down. Baitfish populations are boom or bust. Planting success or failures, contributions from natural reproduction, angler success rates, exotics, predation and other factors constantly influence the state of the lakes and how good fishing is going to be in any given year. It is a very delicate balance between great fishing and so-so fishing.

Right now, chinook salmon numbers are booming on Lake Michigan, and anglers are enjoying outstanding fishing at most ports. But there are warning signs on the horizon that the fantastic fishing can't go on forever, and fisheries managers are taking steps to offset a decline similar to the one that now grips Lake Huron. There is little doubt that if you like to catch salmon, Lake Michigan will be the place to fish in 2006.

The biggest news on the big pond for 2006 is that Lake Michigan management agencies have agreed to cut the chinook stocking in the lake by 25 percent beginning this year. Chinook plants lakewide will be cut by over one million fingerlings to 3.2 million fish. Michigan will be making the largest cuts -- 30 percent -- because our rivers produce the bulk of the naturally reproduced salmon. Wisconsin will cut its plants by 21 percent, Illinois by 17 percent and Indiana will reduce its chinook stocking by 12 percent.

Back in 1999, fisheries managers made a similar cut of 27 percent from 6 million to 4.4 million fish in an effort to better balance predator-and-prey populations. Biologists had learned from their mistakes. During the late 1980s, high densities of chinooks and the reduction of baitfish populations caused an outbreak of bacterial kidney disease (BKD), which significantly reduced the chinook population. Fisheries managers should be applauded for recognizing the warning signs of an eminent decline in the chinook population if some hard decisions weren't made. Lake Michigan's chinook catch skyrocketed to 68,235 salmon in 2004 from 57,136 in 2003. Most agree that the figure will be even higher when data for 2005 is available.

What just about everyone can agree on is that the following ports will be the best ones to fish out of for salmonids in 2006.

ST. JOSEPH
The port of St. Joseph annually produces excellent spring chinook fishing, and there's no reason to believe it won't happen again this year.

"The fishing usually picks up about the second week in April, right after ice-out," said Capt. Jerry Lee, who runs charter boat Sea Screw III out of St. Joe in the spring to take advantage of the hot king fishing.