$100 reward offered by DNR if you catch one of these fish

BAY COUNTY, MI -- There's tens of thousands of dollars in the Saginaw Bay and anglers can reel it in one walleye at a time.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources recently tagged and released 3,000 walleye fish in Saginaw Bay tributary rivers as part of their annual drive to get anglers to help monitor survival and harvest rates of the species as well as their movements.

Of the 3,000 tagged walleye, about 20 percent of the tags include a $100 reward when reported, according to the DNR. More than 100,000 walleye have been tagged since 1981, but the cash reward for reporting a catch began within the last several years.

Chuckie Militello, owner of Chuckies Bait and Tackle in Hampton Township, has caught a lot of walleye in his life but never one with a winning tag. He remembers when a customer of his, Dan Ford, caught one in May 2017.

"I was excited for him," Militello said. "It costs a lot of money to go fishing and when you go fishing and catch one with a $100 tag in its mouth, that makes the day a lot easier."

"It's like catching a hidden treasure," he said, laughing.

Within the next week or two, walleye making their spawning runs in Saginaw Bay tributary rivers will return to the bay and adjoining areas of Lake Huron, said Dave Fielder, a DNR fisheries research biologist.

In other words, it's a good time to catch the fish, said Militello.

"Right now is really a unique time," he said. "I was fishing yesterday, we must have caught 15, 20 walleye right at the mouth of the Saginaw River. Right now is a good time for even a novice to go out and catch some walleye."

There's an estimated 2.2 million walleye age two or older in the Saginaw Bay and nearby areas of Lake Huron, Fielder said. The tagging operation, which began in 1981, helps manage the population's sustainability. Each year, the DNR pays out between $3,000-$5,000, he said.

"It's really essential information for the fisheries managers to make sure we're not overharvesting these populations," he said.

The cash incentive began several years ago as a way to increase reporting and ensure more accurate data, Fielder said.

To cash in on a reward tag, anglers must provide a clear photo of it to the DNR. Reporting tagged walleye can be done by mail at the address on the tag, by phone at 989-684-9141 and online at michigan.gov/taggedfish.

"We are very appreciative to those who take the time to report them," Fielder said. "We couldn't do it without their participation."

The DNR, for the second year in a row, is tagging walleye with an orange disk-shaped tag, as opposed to the silver-colored jaw tags put on in previous years. Fielder said it was done to see if it helped reporting numbers by making the tags more visible.

It may be the last year of disk-shaped tags, though, because they have a tendency to fall off the fish, he said.

Walleye season is year-round on the Saginaw Bay. The catch limit is eight per day, and the fish must be at least 13 inches long. Fishing for walleye on the bay's tributary rivers begins the last Saturday of April, Fielder said.

Let's block ads! (Why?)