7:57 AM
Matthew Supinski's Gray Drake/Selectivity/Nexus Blog
Alleluia! It is finally a reality! (I’ve/and others been pushing for these regs for 15 years!) The new Type III-15 inch trophy Brown Trout Regs are printed and go into place April 1st, 2019...AMEN! ( from Croton dam down to Lake Michigan ) I can't express enough thanks to our new brilliant and progressive biologist Mark Tonello, who has in one year of being in charge of our district has done amazing things for us! Since our last retired biologist, who did everything he can to destroy the Muskegon trout/steelhead fishery, in favor of Walleyes and suckers, Tonello has radically improved management policy to make the Muskegon river and its wild trout small tributary watersheds an amazing trout/steelhead utopia fishery for the future. Besides understanding that the new regs will make the Muskegon a better and bigger brown trout fishery , which already has some massive browns in it, to become even 10 times better with these regs ( he used the Big Manistee and its Type III regs as a model ). In my entire world travels, the Muskegon is one of the most fertile in food prey rivers I've ever witnessed (yeah we could defiantly use more elevation, but I don't expect any glaciers and mountains soon eh?) Last year, Mark took the old biologist model 40,000 browns Wild Rose and Wild Gilchrist strain 6 inch plants for 18 miles of the Muskegon ( a mere drop in the bucket for such a massive river), and bumped up the brown trout plantings to double that-80,000 in 2018. Plus last December 20th, he gave us another 20,000 surplus fingerling brown trout- total for 2018 =100,000 browns, that must grow 8 inches before legal size!!!.( the vast richness of the Muskegon's fertility of food forms, having migratory salmon and steelhead adding egg and fry prey items, along with sucker spawn and minnows, plus the incredible hatches/crayfish/ crustacea, can support these enhanced fish populations, because the impoundments add fertility along with the Great Lakes conection- plus the deep pools and massive amount of spring-fed seepage/creeks along the entire sytem, along with the oxygen bubbler, keep drastic thermal conditions stabilized in stress periods, even with drastic heat like we had last summer, the browns fed all summer on midges, tricos and caddis and were fat footballs once September came- most stressed out fish on freestoners "slink-out"- ours feed ( food will take precedent over thermal stress. #Nexusbook) bio studies) IF that isn’t blessing enough, he introduced the wild Platte river Coho ( a great fly chasing game fish) program to the Muskegon in 2018 (we already have a massive run of super large King Salmon)...so, amazing things to come for the future of the Muskegon! (oh btw, I'm sure a few old codger brown trout killing bait bucket brigadiers are bitching, but you can still keep 10 inch rainbows- so whack those rubber rainbows away me lads, besides they are pretty stupid and will take anything you will throw at them! - the browns will be pretty smart by the time they get to 15 inches, so let the trophy games begin- EVERYBODY LOVES BIG BROWN TROUT !!!- EVERBODY!!!
( Image of client Geno Kelly from Boston with a big "truttasaurus" brownie from the Muskegon last April - more of these to come!)#browntroutatlanticnexus #brownatlanticnexus #graydrakelodge#michiganbrowntrout So I'm very honored to be part of this great freshwater micro-ecosystem/ wild and wonderful state of Michigan, which has the greatest trout/steelhead/ salmon utopia and DNR fisheries management in North America- no other place can compare !
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