Walleye thriving and so is Freeland weekend tournament

 By Steve Griffin for the Midland Daily News
Published: Thursday, April 23, 2009 11:58 AM EDT

People once scoffed at the notion that Saginaw Bay and its tributary rivers could become a noted, restored walleye fishery.

It had been too long since the tasty coolwater fish thrived there, they said. The habitat had changed, the water had been fouled, newcomers introduced.

But Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologists, and local sport fishing groups ignored the naysayers, and they're having the last laugh now, as the region gets ready for the reopening of the inland-waters fishing season and the 24th annual celebration of the fishery that accompanies it.

The annual Freeland Walleye Festival kicks off Friday, with its fishing contest to begin at 12:01 a.m. Saturday morning.

Once focused just on the yearly return of walleyes to the river to reproduce, the contest now encompasses all Michigan waters, and winners could come from anywhere.

But the fact is, there's nowhere in Michigan with walleyes as good as the Saginaw Bay watershed.

"Fishing should be good," said Don Leuenberger of Saginaw, who won the Saginaw Shiver on the River contest last winter with a 13-pound, 4.25-ounce monster, has won the Freeland Festival several times, and has often been a contender for top honors.

"They're caching quite a few on the Bay now," he said of the Lake Huron waters where fishing remains open year-around, "and with cold nights, there should still be fish in the rivers," where fishing opens Saturday.

Where will Leuenberger fish? He won't. For the first time, he'll miss fishing the Freeland event, while he recovers from hip replacement surgery. But he'll be keeping track of the results, and be fishing again come May.

Anglers this weekend, meanwhile, will pony up $10 each by midnight Friday, and try for the heaviest two-day, 10-fish catch, and the $1,000 first-place prize it brings. The largest single walleye also wins an electric trolling motor and taxidermy mounting. Other prizes will be awarded by drawing to top-15 finishers and to others who registered fish.

Weigh-in is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m, Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, at the Tittabawassee Township Park at Freeland. Spectators are welcome.

Fishing remains at the core of the festival, but it's surrounded by a galaxy of other events - city-wide rummage sales, Texas Hold 'Em poker tournament, kids fishing pond, foods and beverages, parade, live music and fireworks.

And it all goes back to the fish with the strange looking eyes, the white spot on its tail, and the tasty flanks - a species historically plentiful on the Bay but gone by the 1960s and 1970s.

That's when the DNR and sport fishing groups around the Bay began tending drainable ponds in which millions of walleye fry were reared to lengths of about two inches before plant-out.

"No question about it," said DNR Saginaw Bay biologist Jim Baker of the key role of the rearing pond. "That's what made it possible."

"We continued to stock walleyes when we were not getting natural reproduction," Baker said in a phone interview this week, "and built up a stock that was ready to take off. And the alewife collapse is what allowed that to happen."

Alewives, alien but long-entrenched residents of Lake Huron, eagerly feed on young walleyes, Baker said. When changing water and weather conditions pummeled alewives, walleyes rebounded so robustly that plantings of fish were no longer needed.

Today's walleye population, Baker said, "couldn't be better. We had another big year class (of newly hatched fish) in 2008. That makes 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2006 all monster hatches, and 2006 was no washout by any means."

Is that too many fish at the dinner table? "There seems to be enough food," said Baker. "The forage base seems to be holding up well."

Walleyes are flexible - they'll dine on what's most available from a list that includes several minnow species, smelt when they can find them, gobies, young-of-year yellow perch, gizzard shade and more.

Will alewives rebound? "We have no idea whether they will or not," said Baker. "but there was no sign of that happening in fall 2008 when the U.S. Geological Survey studied the Bay."

And so, what are the prospects for this weekend's anglers?

"If you dig out our prediction from last year, it will look just about the same," said Baker Monday. "It all depends on how much rain falls this week. But barring a gulley-washer, it should be a good opener."

"The fish spawned just about on time," he said. "A lot of fish have dropped back (into the Bay) post-spawn," said Baker, "but there are plenty left in the river. And unless the water gets so high it's up in the parking lots, anglers should do well."

Fishing on the Bay, meanwhile, is "perking right along. I always say Saginaw Bay is protective of its fish. We've had a lot of nasty, windy, cold weather. But when the weather is nice, I think anglers are doing quite well."

At one point during recent nice weather last week, Baker said he counted 29 boats on the Bay from one vantage point within the Recreation Area.

Leuenberger said he expects river anglers will do best jigging lead-headed jigs baited with minnows or plastic grub tails, or trolling with crankbaits such as Hot 'n ' Tots or Shad Raps - although he said with a laugh that given all the lure-stealing snags on the river bottoms, "That's a pretty expensive way to fish."

On Saginaw Bay itself, trolling with crankbaits or with night crawlers will probably pay off, he said.

In the two settings this weekend, and at Tittabawassee Township Park at Freeland, anglers will celebrate a walleye bounty that would have been unthinkable a few decades ago.

http://www.ourmidland.com/articles/2009/04/24/local_news/1738828.txt

Reader Comments The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of ourmidland.com. Inform Midlanders wrote on Apr 23, 2009 6:00 PM:

" How many PCBs, dioxins, and other chemicals of concern are in those fish?

I see the following advisory from 2008 : "Updated public health advisories on popular waters to fish in eastern Michigan are in the guide, including the 2008 public health advisory for the Saginaw Bay, Saginaw River, and Tittabawassee River. The advisories for these waters are:

- No one should eat carp, catfish, or white bass;

- Women of childbearing age and children under 15 years should not eat any smallmouth bass or walleye longer than 18 inches. Women and children are advised to eat only one meal per week of yellow perch from Saginaw Bay or one meal per month of yellow perch from the Tittabawassee or Saginaw Rivers; or they can eat one meal per month of any other fish species not mentioned previously; and

- Women beyond childbearing years and men 15 years and older may eat as much as they want of walleye shorter than 18 inches from any of these waters and yellow perch of any size from Saginaw Bay. These adults are advised to eat only one meal per week of smallmouth bass of any size, walleye longer than 18 inches, yellow perch of any size from the Tittabawassee or Saginaw Rivers, or any other fish species not mentioned previously.

Over the next year, MDCH will be working with local partners to provide improved outreach to people eating fish from the Tittabawassee River, Saginaw River and Saginaw Bay with special attention to at-risk populations. http://www.michigan.gov/mdch/0,1607,7-132-8347-197442--,00.html

I just read that Dow, a sponsor of the event, is donating fish from that festival to food banks for poor people to eat. Why aren't they bringing that fish into work for themselves to eat? http://michiganmessenger.com/17368/dow-sponsored-walleye-fest-to-donate-contaminated-fish-to-the-poor  "

For additional articles like this one, go to the Tittabawassee River Watch web site www.trwnews.net for complete coverage of the Tittabawassee River Dow Chemical dioxin contamination saga. . The Newspaper / Media page of our site contains an extensive archive of media articles dating back to January 2002. The source organization's web site link is listed to the right of the article, visit often for other news in our area. The Newspaper / Media page may be accessed by scrolling down to the bottom of the CONTENTS section and clicking on the Newspaper/Media link.