By Daniel Wanschura, Interlochen Public Radio
Points North is a biweekly podcast about the land, water and inhabitants of the Great Lakes.
This episode was shared here with permission from Interlochen Public Radio.
Dave Naftzger found out about the 100% Fish Project entirely by accident.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/04/points-north-more-than-just-filet-of-fish/
By Daniel Wanschura, Interlochen Public Radio
Points North is a biweekly podcast about the land, water and inhabitants of the Great Lakes. This episode was shared here with permission from Interlochen Public Radio.
On November 11, 2023, Ben Karasch is up in his treestand, waiting for a deer.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/04/points-north-not-always-the-apex-predator/
The long, fast, toothy muskellunge (also known as muskie or musky) is nicknamed the “Fish of 10,000 Casts” due to its notoriously elusive nature. It is the apex predator in all waters where it’s found, known to hide in underwater cover, aggressively ambushing prey. They eat fish almost exclusively, though they have been known to consume just about anything they can swallow including birds, small mammals, and their own kind.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/02/wisconsins-state-fish-tops-the-food-chain/
As apex predators, adult muskie occupy the very top tier of the Great Lakes food chain. Reaching up to six foot in length with teeth lining their jaws, the roof of their mouths and their throats, few can escape them. They are feared by most species underwater and revered by many people above.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/02/want-healthy-walleye-fishery-stock-some-muskie/
Catching and eating fish is a way of life for many people around the Great Lakes and connecting St. Lawrence River, but decades of industrial pollution have made it unsafe to eat too many, too often. The advice about how many and how often can vary wildly depending on which jurisdiction, even though the fish don’t care about the lines humans draw on a map.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/02/how-safe-great-lakes-fish-to-eat-depends-on-who-you-ask/
By Josh Boose, Ideastream Public Media
This story was originally published by Ideastream.
Lake Erie is behind its typical freezing schedule.
The schedule depends on different weather patterns, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Director of Communications Jennifer Day.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/01/lake-erie-is-13-frozen-expect-less-freezing-in-the-future/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Ben Eiler, Great Lakes Echo
The founder of a company that uses drones to recover deer carcasses that hunters cannot find says that Michigan’s prohibition of the practice violates his First Amendment rights.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/01/lawsuit-could-complicate-drone-laws-for-michigan-hunters-and-anglers/
I Speak for the Fish is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor Kathy Johnson, coming out the third Monday of each month. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/01/i-speak-for-the-fish-the-great-seasonal-flip/
Ohio will soon embark on removing the Gorge Dam on the Cuyahoga River, but first must clean up 875,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment at a cost of more than $100 million. The result will be a free-flowing river, a healthier ecosystem, improved habitats for fish and wildlife, and expanded public access for fishing and whitewater rapids for kayaking.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/01/great-lakes-moment-ohio-provides-example-for-funding-detroit-and-rouge-rivers-sediment-cleanup/
Points North is a biweekly podcast hosted by Daniel Wanschura and Morgan Springer about the land, water and inhabitants of the Upper Great Lakes.
This episode was shared here with permission from Interlochen Public Radio.
It was 2016 and Samantha Tank was digging around in Michigan’s Pere Marquette River.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/09/points-north-dirty-laundry-invasive-species-and-the-limitations-of-knowledge/
By Ashley Zhou, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/08/michigan-river-walker-program-warns-anglers-eating-contaminated-fish/
Love staring at a map and discovering something interesting? Then “Mapping the Great Lakes” is for you. It’s a monthly Great Lakes Now feature created by Alex B. Hill, a self-described “data nerd and anthropologist” who combines cartography, data, and analytics with storytelling and human experience.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/07/mapping-the-great-lakes-summertime-fishing/
Veteran fishers on Lake Erie fondly recall the late 1980s as a heyday for walleye – a time when Ohio anglers were allowed to catch 10 fish a day and the big-eyed apex predators seemed an endless resource.
At its height in 1988, the Ohio charter fishing industry supported 1,221 licensed captains and nearly 5 million walleye were taken.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/lake-erie-charter-industry-rebounding-from-slump/
I Speak for the Fish is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor Kathy Johnson, coming out the third Monday of each month. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/05/i-speak-for-the-fish-whats-the-most-popular-freshwater-fish/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Vladislava Sukhanovskaya, Great Lakes Echo
Laptops, phones, keys, a drone, a picnic table, a meat slicer, axes, spoons, chairs, a horseshoe, guns and a 90-year-old condom are among the items Michigan’s Magnet Man has fished out of the state’s rivers.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/04/michigans-magnet-man-attracts-river-trash/
Great Lakes Moment is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor John Hartig. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that February 2023 was Earth’s fourth-warmest on record.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/04/great-lakes-moment-decreasing-great-lakes-ice-cover-consequences/
By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/few-good-options-for-shrinking-michigans-problem-deer-herds/
By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2023/03/michigan-mallards-decline-domestic-ducks-weakening-genes/
In “Shrinking Winter,” scientists work to understand the causes and potential effects of less ice cover on the Great Lakes, a documentary photographer and three longtime ice anglers reflect on changes to the winter fishing season, and a competitive speed skater reflects on the joys of “wild ice.”
This episode originally aired in February and was one of the team’s favorites this year, so we brought it back around for the holiday season with updates.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/12/shrinking-winter-update-ice-coverage-great-lakes-life/
By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/12/michigan-tribes-state-reach-tentative-deal-great-lakes-fishing-access/
For more than a century, a dam divided the upstream Sandusky River from Lake Erie. People got power, but fish were prevented from reaching native spawning grounds.
Then, four years ago, the dam came down, like hundreds around the Great Lakes region. It had been replaced as a power source years earlier, and environmentalists argued to restore the river’s natural course.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/12/ballville-dam-removal-history-trends-impacts/
By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/12/michigan-hunters-say-252000-deer-killed-firearms-season-new-rules/
By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/11/michigans-outdoor-recreation-boom-business-boom/
While Great Lakes fish populations are constantly in a state of flux, one species has declined precipitously in the last decade: lake whitefish. But Great Lakes leaders and fisheries managers are looking ahead in planning to do more with less.
And in the case of whitefish, a lot more.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/11/great-lakes-iceland-connection-through-whitefish-effort/
By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/11/michiganders-lobby-state-on-possibility-of-a-hunt/
By Lester Graham, Michigan Radio
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/11/republicans-democrats-environmentalists-more-wetlands/
CLEVELAND (AP) — Two men accused of stuffing five walleye with lead weights and fish fillets during a lucrative fishing tournament on Lake Erie pleaded not guilty to cheating and other charges on Wednesday.
Jacob Runyan, 42, of Broadview Heights, Ohio, and Chase Cominsky, 35, of Hermitage, Pennsylvania, made no comments during their brief court appearances in Cleveland.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/10/ap-fishermen-plead-not-guilty-to-charges-in-tournament-scandal/
A fishing tournament weigh-in in Cleveland last month, an event most often attended by anglers, family, friends and passersby, sent the Lake Erie walleye scene into worldwide news after several videos went viral.
They appeared to show two consistently winning tournament anglers get caught cheating red-handed after 10 lead weights, tipping the scales at about 7 pounds, were removed from their five walleye at the final 2022 event for the Lake Erie Walleye Trail.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/10/weighted-walleye-fallout-lake-erie-fishing-tournament/
By Mark Gillispie, Associated Press
CLEVELAND (AP) — The county prosecutor’s office in Cleveland has opened an investigation into an apparent cheating scandal during a lucrative walleye fishing tournament on Lake Erie last week.
A video posted to Twitter shows Jason Fischer, tournament director for the Lake Erie Walleye Trail, cutting open the winning catch of five walleye on Friday and finding lead weights and prepared fish filets inside them.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/10/ap-authorities-report-scandal-fishing-tournament/
If you catch fish in a Great Lakes state on a river, pond, stream or reservoir and keep any to eat, most likely you’ll have to clean them yourself. But if you get close to one of the big lakes, especially Lake Erie, you could have a fish cleaner do it.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/09/fish-cleaning-houses/
The total allowable catch (TAC) for yellow perch and walleye went up this year in Lake Erie. The raise is indicative of booming walleye population in recent years as well as a healthy perch population in most areas of the lake.
The walleye TAC rose 18% from 12.28 million fish in 2021 to 14.53 million this year, with yellow perch rising 15% from 6.23 million pounds last year to 7.18 million pounds this year.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/08/setting-lake-erie-limits/
By Julie Riddle, The Alpena News
This article is part of a collaboration between The Alpena News and Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television to bring audiences stories about the Great Lakes, especially Lake Huron and its watershed.
ALPENA — Spring showers may bring spring flowers, but they can also carry pollutants into the lake that provides Alpena’s drinking water and many tourism dollars.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/06/keeping-pollutants-out/
One of the last known (and most famous) blue pike was landed by hook and line in 1962. In 1983, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared the blue pike extinct. Yet, nearly 40 years later, the population remains robust and healthy – in the hearts and minds of countless anglers.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/06/lake-erie-blue-pike-never-forgotten/
By Zahra Ahmad, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/06/michigan-great-lakes-summer/
Every year thousands of anglers participate in fishing tournaments across the Great Lakes, with prizes ranging from a couple hundred bucks to tens of thousands of dollars. Some, like the Lake Erie Fall Brawl, offer new fishing boats valued at more than $100,000 as top prizes. Some events are targeted toward professional anglers, while others pair a professional angler and an amateur angler.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/05/fishing-tournament-trends-kayaks-catch-photo-release/
Editor’s Note: This is part two of a two-part story. Read the first part here.
Ed Matusik and his wife were in their new summer vacation trailer for just a month at Bay Point Resort and Marina in 2006 when they received an eviction letter: the investment group which recently purchased the site had plans for a new development in that section of the resort.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/trailer-parks-campgrounds-waterfront-developments/
Editor’s Note: This is part one of a two-part story. Look for the next part next week.
Every summer for the last decade, James Peterson, his wife and two daughters traveled from Charleston, West Virginia, to Kaspar’s Lake Breeze Cottages in Marblehead, Ohio, to fish, relax and soak up the beauty and restorative power of Lake Erie.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/04/water-access-grows-out-of-reach/
The largest known muskie is 67 pounds 8 ounces. Or it’s 69 pounds 11 ounces. Or it’s 70 pounds 10 ounces. Depending on the type of record, whom you ask or what organization you trust, it could be any of those answers.
After Great Lakes Now published a column on muskies that referenced record sizes, it kicked off a dispute among readers on what record was the most accurate, so Great Lakes Now decided to do a deeper dive.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/03/who-caught-worlds-largest-muskie/
By Zahra Ahmad, Bridge Michigan
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/03/dnr-fishing-regulations-michigans-2022-season/
Summer is hands-down the most popular fishing season on the Great Lakes because people on vacation want to fish.
But Great Lakes fishing is a year-round sport. With a range of fish that offer a tasty meal, a challenge to land or both, anglers can have 365 days of fun on the lakes and their tributaries.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/02/top-10-fish-catch-great-lakes-fishing/
By Matthew Brown and John Flesher, Associated Press
BILLINGS, Mont (AP) — A judge restored federal protections for gray wolves across much of the U.S. on Thursday, after their removal in the waning days of the Trump administration exposed the predators to hunting that critics said would undermine their rebound from widespread extermination early last century.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2022/02/ap-judge-protections-gray-wolves/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Nicholas Simon, Great Lakes Echo
Efforts by politicians to create a hunting season for eastern sandhill cranes in both Wisconsin and Michigan are stirring debates among hunters, farmers and birders.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/12/eastern-sandhill-cranes-hunt/
By Lester Graham, Michigan Radio
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/12/rock-snot-algal-blooms-lower-peninsula/
Scott Stecher would like it if all baits, or lures, were Reefrunners. He’s been manufacturing and selling his series of Ripshads, Rippers, Cicadas and Wiglsticks baits for decades, and they hold sway in the walleye community.
Stecher, who lives in Marblehead, Ohio, said his lures have landed walleye (and other fish) in places like South America, Europe and Asia.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/11/walleye-windfall-lake-erie-bait-and-tackle-is-big-small-business/
Gary and Roseann Sauvey have been operating Kaspar’s Lake Breeze Cottages in one capacity or another for 65 years.
The Sauveys’ waterfront home sits on a couple acres, sporting a side yard with five 20×20 cottages that haven’t changed much over the decades. From beautiful, quaint wood interiors to a small fishing pier and breathtaking sunrises, it’s a site stuck in time.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/11/walleye-lake-erie-population-ohio-economy/
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Seventeen Indiana state park sites will be closing their gates to visitors for a pair of two-day deer hunts later this month.
The hunts are scheduled for Nov. 15-16 and Nov. 29-30, with the parks closing the evening before and reopening the next day.
The annual deer hunts began in 1993, with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources saying wildlife biologists evaluate the parks to determine where the hunts are needed to ensure healthy habitats for native plants and animals.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/11/ap-indiana-state-parks-closing-deer-hunts/
By Laura Gersony, Circle of Blue
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/11/climate-change-trout-streams-nation-anglers/
By Matthew Brown, Associated Press
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A group of Democratic lawmakers on Thursday urged the Biden administration to enact emergency protections for gray wolves in the U.S. West in response to Republican-backed state laws that make it easier to kill the predators.
Twenty-one U.S.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/11/ap-senators-emergency-protections-wolves/
This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.
By Kristia Postema, Great Lakes Echo
National declines of hunting license sales and the need for additional wildlife conservation funding have prompted proposals to fill the fiscal gap, including one that’s stalled in Congress despite bipartisan support.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/11/wildlife-habitat-projects-hunting-licenses-decline/
Lake Erie, so far as modern fisheries biologists are concerned, has never been so flush with walleye.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources estimates there are currently about 95 million walleye in the lake two years old or older – that translates into fish about 15 inches or longer, the minimum size for keeping and eating.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/10/walleye-windfall-2021-hatch-fish-lake-erie/
