Alpena National Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office (NFWCO) has been conducting fall lake trout spawning surveys at two offshore reefs since 1993: Six Fathom Bank and Yankee Reef.  Both of these reefs are located in the central part of Lake Huron and have the preferred habitat, honeycomb limestone rock, of spawning lake trout.  Alpena NFWCO attempts to conduct a spawning survey annually at both reefs.  However, the weather during the fall can be quite challenging with gale force winds and high seas, which may not provide an opportunity for Alpena NFWCO to sample one or both reefs.  As a result, each year the priority reef alternates in the event that two fall cruises are not possible.

This year survey efforts proved to be quite challenging due to weather.  The priority reef in 2008 was Yankee Reef, which is located about 20 miles offshore of Tawas, MI.  The M/V Spencer F. Baird arrived in Alpena on October 15^th.  Due to consecutive days of gale force winds and high seas, the staff from Alpena NFWCO waited until the end of the allocated three week period to conduct the lake trout spawning survey.  On November 3^rd the M/V Baird cast lines and departed for Yankee Reef.  On board the M/V Baird was the vessel crew, which consisted of Captain Michael Perry, Marine Engineer Robert Bergstrum, and Seamen Fishermen David Bohn and the assessment crew, which consisted of Aaron Woldt, Scott Koproski, and Adam Kowalski. 

Two 400’ gangs of gill nets were deployed on Yankee Reef.  Each gang consisted of one 100’ panel of 4.5”, 5.0”, 5.5”, and 6.0” stretch mesh and was fished for one night.  The effort and sites have been standardized at Yankee Reef since the inception of this survey in 1993.  In total 95 lake trout were captured between the two sites, marking the third highest catch since implementing this survey.  More notable is that over 23% (22 wild fish) of the total lake trout catch were un-clipped fish (presumable wild), nearly doubling the previous record set in 2004 consisting of 13% (13 wild fish) of the catch.  This year had the combined highest percentage and number of wild lake trout we have sampled since 1993.  The increase in wild fish encourages staff and further justifies the Services efforts to rehabilitate and restore lake trout in Lake Huron.