Lake Huron commercial trial ends 1st year

The first year of a three-year experiment allowing commercial fishing for whitefish in southern Lake Huron is wrapping up.

Tom Goniea, the administrator for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources' commercial fishing program, said commercial fisherman Dana Serafin of Pinconning had collapsed his trap nets before pulling them.

"He's done for the season now," Goniea said. "I was out on his boat (Oct. 26) when he did his last set of the year."

Goniea said the experiment likely will continue in 2016.

"I see no reason why it wouldn't at this point," he said. "He was relatively successful this year considering the fact he missed the first two months of the season.

"Most of the season, he was fishing five nets."

Recreational anglers in southern Lake Huron were concerned when the DNR announced the trial in the spring. The fishing area is north of Port Sanilac and south of Harbor Beach. It's a popular area for salmon fishing.

Anglers were worried about losing downriggers, lures and other equipment in the nets. They also were concerned about damage to boats and propellers.

"I have heard no reports of anybody losing any gear in these research nets," Goniea said. "Earlier in the year there were reports of fishermen running into some sort of underwater obstruction well north of the fishing grounds.

"It was not a fishing net. I have not heard of a single person running into any of his fishing gear."

Goniea said Serafin harvested slightly less than 100,000 pounds — 98,914 — and the fishing was better earlier in the season.

"His lifts ranged from 23,500 pounds at the end of June to 2,060 in August," he said.

He said most of the fish from the trap nets were whitefish.

"On our ride-alongs the vast majority of the fish in the nets were whitefish, 90 to 95 percent," Goniea said. "We were out there for 37 percent of his lifts, and the lake trout survival rate was 97 to 98 percent."

The state in June issued a press release stating the Michigan waters of southern Lake Huron had not been commercially fished for about five decades.

Goniea said Serafin was operating out of Oscoda and, on a typical day, was leaving the dock at 1 a.m. and returning by 11 p.m. He said the fisherman is building a new boat and looking for dockage closer to the fishing grounds.

One of the reasons for allowing Serafin to move into Lake Huron is to relieve some of the fishing pressure in Saginaw Bay. Goniea earlier had said Serafin had four licenses and 86 trap nets in Saginaw Bay and had accounted for almost 50 percent of the bay's commercial perch and whitefish harvest and about 37 percent of the catfish harvest.

He said the plan is for Serafin to reduce his gear and licenses in 2016 and 2017 and to cease fishing in Saginaw Bay by 2018.

Commercial fishermen can fish for whitefish, depending on the weather, all months of the year except November.

Contact Bob Gross at (810) 989-6263 or rgross@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @RobertGross477.

More information
 

A web page with information about a three-year trial of commercial fishing for whitefish in southern Lake Huron using trap nets is at http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10364-355666--,00.html.

The web page includes coordinates of where the nets are set.