Please join our effort to improve Indiana’s Summer & Fall Lake Michigan shoreline and boat fishing.

Our Spring Salmon & Trout catches are mostly fish stocked by other states and naturally reproduced elsewhere. By Summer, those fish have gone home, and our catches depend almost entirely on fish stocked in Indiana.

Excitedly, we can improve our Summer and Fall fishing by changing the way we handle fish at the hatchery!

Today, when fish are moved, it’s with dip nets passed from one to another. Some fish are crushed and others injured from the pile of fish on top of them. None of the fish can breathe, all are stressed, and some get sick.

While in the hatchery, fish are moved 3 – 4 times. These moves cause some fish to die and some of the survivors never become as large or as strong as they would have been otherwise.

When stocked, these smaller / weaker fish have a lower chance of surviving their migration downstream, of thriving in the lake, of contributing to our Summer boat/shore catches, and of returning for our Fall shoreline fishery.

We can change this!

By moving fish with a Transfer Pump, like other States do, the fish are never packed in nets, never out of water, and never stressed. All of the fish stocked will be healthy and the right size.

The Hoosier Coho Club, joined by other stakeholders, is raising $35,000 to purchase a pump to donate to the DNR.

The hardworking IDNR teams caring for our fish at the Mixsawbah and Bodine Hatcheries enthusiastically endorse this effort.