fishyaker Loc: NW Michigan (Lower Peninsula)

It's that time of year in the Midwestern USA, along with many other sectors of the world at large, where the biological clock of many salmon species leads them to the waters of their birth to spawn, perish and give continuity to their kind for future generations!

And so it "almost" goes for the salmon that unfortunately chose to swim into West Bay near downtown Traverse City, MI. Here, unsuspecting salmon are lured into a fish ladder on the Boardman River, and subsequently halted on their upstream migrations to instead pay a visit to the fish "hut" that will turn them into a variety of bland food products instead of their best intentions to lay eggs someplace upriver. The goal of this particular station is to generate a "zero" by-pass of the fish, so that the only survivors for spawning are the ones that cleverly stayed downstream and found some decent gravel to work with between the stopgates and the river mouth....never entering the lure of the uphill sluicebox designed to herd and funnel them to their demise in the anesthetic tanks.

At this point you can probably tell that I have mixed feelings about the fate of the salmon here locally. I would much rather have them be allowed to swim freely for the next 10 to 15 miles of river course so that they could do as they please and partake in the natural spawning process. The Boardman River is in somewhat of a "cleansing process" that does not include any salmonoids, and for that matter...perhaps only a sustainable population of wild brook trout as the river has been potentially targeted for the re-introduction of Artic Grayling in the coming years. I should add a comment at this point that this is merely my opinion and educated hunch about the destiny of the river.

As avid salmon fishermen, many of us stand by and ogle thru the steel barred prison walls that surround the concrete fish holding raceways, and we can only ask ourselves why we were not able to catch them out in the bay before they lost their appetite for the various imitation food incarnations that were offered to them. After all, are'nt cut baits, J-Plugs, twinkling spoons and multi colored flies a part of their natural diet?! As a local "fleet" of salmon fishers, we sure gave it a good try, but many of these awesome fish simply ignored our lures and follow their noses into the river. Olfactory senses are like underwater radar!

I tend to visit the weir just about everyday this time of year. It's strange, but in an odd sort of way I kind of mourn these poor fish as they don't know what's ahead for them.

Despite what happens to most of these returning salmon each season, hopefully we will have a good return of salmon next season to start the year of deep water trolling for these chromed beauties all over again!

The Boardman River salmon harvesting weir - Traverse City, MI


Salmon says "Hang on guys/gals, I'll see what the heck is blocking our progress!"


Here fishy fishy...just swim up the water ladder and maybe you'll get around the blockade...or maybe not!


It's all a trick, as they end up in the San Quentin Raceway...a place for innocent salmon that have committed no crime!


"Geesh, I thought I was almost free, and now I'm on a slab of freaking plywood..talk about embarrassed!"

bknecht Loc: Northeast pa

Good story and photo shoot FY, I too share your opinion on the processing facility. One silver lining would be a successful introduction of the Arctic Grayling. Love the caption that accompanies that leaping salmon.

flyguy Loc: Lake Onalaska, Sunfish Capitol of the World!

Good mornin', Fish. Thank you for sharing that information. It was depressing to read, but we have to realize that the salmon will die anyway, but they should be able to reproduce. Or won't the environment let the eggs mature? At that stage of their life, they are not good table fare anyway, but they are fun to catch.

fishyaker Loc: NW Michigan (Lower Peninsula)

Very true about the salmon life cycle...born to die in 4 or 5 years generally speaking. We do get some successful natural reproduction in about a 1/8 mile section of the Boardman River by fish that stay away from the "trap" and hunker downstream from it.

The quality of the salmon meat at this time is rather poor, as you mentioned, so this facility turns most of the fish into pet food products. Very little goes into anything fit for human consumption. They suggest that some eggs are turned into "caviar" destined for Japan as well.

Fishing Fool Loc: redding, ca

We trap salmon every year and milk millions of eggs to hatch in hatchery and then release them in the river when they are fry and much more capable of surviving the trip back to the ocean. They give lots of the salmon to those that are low income. Where we used to have a fish ladder in Red Bluff, ca years ago the salmon made their way up several more miles to spawn. After spawning if the water wasn't cold enough many died and millions are eaten by the other predatory fish.

Jim Kay Loc: Franklin, Virginia

This is all stupid. Once they are here, they are here.

fishyaker Loc: NW Michigan (Lower Peninsula)

Sorry to strike a sour chord with you on this topic...no ill will intended on my part, so please forgive me. I try to interject some information, humor, imagery and a reasonable semblance of a story line when I create a posting.

Many decades ago, the City council of Traverse City...which is a massively aggressive small town when it comes to tourism, decided that they did not like "sport fishing and the mess that goes along with it"...particularly with the annual salmon runs that began in the late 60's. After the fish had spawned, there was a fair amount of decay and detritus all over the river corridor and fish carcasses were left for nature to dispose of all throughout the portion of river that ran right thru the downtown region of the city. In the eyes of City Council...blight and eyesore that would detract from tourism every Fall season when "leaf peeping" was at it's peak.

The solution was to fabricate a facility to capture the salmon and subsequently slaughter them for a variety of justifiable reasons. Kind of an "out of sight...out of mind" scenario. So...in essence, the salmon were stocked in the river, then allowed to "go to sea" until maturity...then return to naturally spawn...only to be met with a gauntlet designed to completely harvest them before being allowed to spawn at all. I am not a tree hugging environmentalist, but to me, it just seemed a bit unfair for the salmon to be treated this way. But hey, we are the top of the food chain...and we can do whatever we want, especially when the "priviledged" people are left in charge of the henhouse....

Back in the day, the outside Company that was in charge of the harvest made a decent profit for their efforts. Nowadays, they operate in the red (due to a meager population of salmon), and the whole institution is nothing but a mere farce. I would much rather see the salmon make it past the numerous fisherman in their boats all Summer long...trolling from morning to night...and then having the fish be able to swim upstream as far as they like to nestle down and get down to the business of carving out a redd. Once it's time to put the hooks and lines away for salmon season, the next best thing for a dedicated fisherman was to stroll/hike along the riverway to observe the salmon in their natural habitat until the spawning process was over. Kind of like a crowning touch to an annual event/process.

Not all Great Lakes facilities operate this way...and many only pause the salmon briefly to harvest some eggs and milt for hatchery use in rearing the new future youngsters in a controlled environment before stocking. I do not believe that there are very many "trap and harvest" facilities that completely decimate the returning brood.

Everybody is entitled to an opinion, and the reason I published the commentary was to try and enlighten folks, in a somewhat humorous way, about the plight of our local salmon. I suspect that many folks around the Country may not be familiar with the Great Lakes Salmon fishing industry.

rapala54 Loc: Nappanee,IN.

What sea or ocean are you referring to?? There fresh water salmon.

fishyaker Loc: NW Michigan (Lower Peninsula)

Just using a generic figure of speech on that phrase. You are correct that the Midwestern salmon are going to spend all their time in one of the fresh water Great Lakes. I probably should have said "head for the big waters", but it sounded more exciting to send them off to the "sea"...! Having grown up in Michigan, the Great Lakes salmon have been part of my life since 1966 when the first batch of coho were stocked in the Platte River near where I presently live.

woodguru Loc: El Dorado Ca

Profoundly deep insight there

rapala54 Loc: Nappanee,IN.

I fish the at Scottville at the PM