Fishing The Huron River Better Than You Might Think!
Fishing The Huron River
Better Than You Might Think!
by Ted Sylvester
When it comes to fishing the Huron River, a safe rule to follow would be something like: Pan fry (or broil) the little ones and throw back the big ones! Qualified by: If you keep some of the big ones, don't eat more than one meal per month. And further: There are some fish you probably shouldn't eat at all.
I have to admit up front that I have a personal reason for writing this article. I love to fish! My favorite piscatorial pursuit is the spring steelhead run on the AuSable River in Northern Michigan. But I am not high-brown when it comes to angling. My standard bait is the old-fashioned nightcrawler and most of my fishing hours are spent close to home -- on the Huron River.
Many of you might be surprised that there are fish in the Huron River, let alone the kind you would want to eat. As the river passes through parts of the city on its way to Lake Erie it has the familiar traits of a typical "urban river" -- a greenish-brown color, a sluggish current, and a sometimes unpleasant odor. Yet, as "urban rivers" go, the Huron is among the least polluted in the state.
While the entire 136-mile-long river supports over 99 species of fish there are definitely stretches that hold more gamefish than others. This has to do with water quality and location -- upstream or downstream -- from the urban watersheds of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. Upstream, the water is clean enough to proved Ann Arbor with 80% of its drinking water (after treatment, of course), and some of the best smallmouth bass fishing in the state.
Downstream from Ann Arbor, after receiving our entire wastewater and storm sewer load, quality fishing opportunities significantly decline.
It's not that the fish are necessarily more contaminated, but the river surely is more polluted.
Polluted waters usually support greater populations of "rough" fish such as carp, suckers, and bullheads. These species tolerate lower oxygen levels than more desirable fish like bass, walleye, and perch, for example.
Sediments and nutrients from a variety of sources in the urban watershed are the main source of that pollution, according to Paul Rentschler, Executive Director of the Huron River Watershed Council. The HRWC is a coalition of Huron Valley residents and local governments from the seven counties through which the river flows.
Fish habitats are degraded by this pollution in a variety of ways, said Rentschler. Sediment suspended in the water column, for example, can increase water temperatures and be abrasive to fish gills and tissues of aquatic organisms. "The principal concern," he explained, "is when sediment drops out of suspension and covers important habitat like rocky substrates and clean gravel where fish eggs lie and need a great deal of oxygen flow."
Nutrient enrichment of the water because of high phosphorus levels (mostly from over-fertilized residential lawns) also spoil fish habitat by contributing to the excessive growth of aquatic plant life. The results sometimes include dreaded algae blooms and "pea soup" water quality, both of which reduce the amount of oxygen available in the water for fish.
The greatest threat to anglers and their families, however, comes from contaminated fish, not sediment- and nutrient-loaded river water.
Mercury-contaminated fish can be found throughout the state, indeed the region. Since 1988, inland lakes and reservoirs in Michigan, including the Huron River system, have been under a fish consumption advisory due to widespread mercury contamination throughout the north-central United States and Canada. Anyone thinking of eating fish from the Huron River should be familiar with these restrictions, especially, the Michigan Department of Community Health warns, "mothers who are breast feeding, pregnant women, women who intend to have children, and children under age 15."
The Huron River Fishery: Opportunities
The Huron River has one of the best bass fisheries in the state. "The portion from Portage Lake to Delhi is as good of a smallmouth fishery as we have," explained Paul Seelbach, a fisheries research biologist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and one of the authors of the "Huron River Assessment," a Fisheries Division Special Report (April, 1995). "As a warm water river fishery it's very good for smallmouth and rock bass, and there's also a fair number of pike."
The stretch Seelbach is referring to is part of the longest non-impounded section of the river, almost 13 miles of free-flowing water. It is where many fly and spinner-bait fishermen like to target the feisty smallmouth, including Seelbach and Rentschler, who both fish this part of the river. (And yes, they would eat some of the bass they catch there. "There's no question about it with me," said Seelbach.)
One of my favorite spots to fish in this area also, the fast-running clear waters of the river near the Bell Road bridge, right at the base of Peach Mountain (just north of Dexter). It's where the river bends sharply, changing its southwest flow from the headwaters in north-central Oakland County to begin its course southeast toward Ann Arbor and Lake Erie. The slope of the river is steeper here, Seelbach explained, and the water is especially clean, having been filtered through a series of glacial kettle lakes (Strawberry, Gallagher, Whiteford, and Baseline) and also fed by cooler groundwater. The level of nutrients, like phosphorus, is relatively low in the river here, keeping the water at more stable temperatures and richer in oxygen -- making it an ideal fish habitat.
This stretch is a great place to put the waders on and feel the strength of the current as it rushes over the rock-cobbled bottom. There are plenty of riffles and holes that hold lots of smallmouth but since I usually fish with nightcrawlers (worms), my catch here is dominated by rock bass. Pike are present in good numbers also, Seelbach assured me, but much harder to catch than bass.
It's not surprising that this part of the river is pretty heavily fished. A 1990 study of the Huron from Baseline Lake to the Barton Impoundment concluded that "in recent years an estimated 10,000 angler hours were spent per year on this 10-mile stretch; about 14,000 smallmouth bass and 1,700 rock bass were estimated to have been caught each year."
It should be noted that part of this segment of the Huron River, from Mast Road bridge in Dexter downstream to Delhi Road bridge, is designated catch-and-release only for large- and smallmouth bass.
Not coincidentally, canoeing opportunities are also excellent here and public access is generally good (as it is throughout the river system) through a series of public recreation lands owned by the State of Michigan of the Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority.
And this section of the Middle Huron, from Baseline (FlookDam) downstream to the Scio-Ann Arbor township line (excluding the village of Dexter), contains part of the 27.5 miles of "country-scenic river" as designated by the Michigan Natural Rivers Act. The Huron is one of only 14 Michigan rivers with state-protected portions, with rivers being classified as either "wilderness," "wild-scenic" or "country-scenic."
Though this part of the river is best known for its smallmouth bass fishing, the rest of the river offers fair to good opportunities for a variety of sought-after species including walleye, northern pike, perch, bluegills, crappie, pumpkinseed, and catfish, and the less-than-desirable "rough fish," namely suckers, bullheads and carp. I have even caught a muskellunge
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(from Argo Pond), a species of fish that were once native to the river (but now stocked in some places) before dams stopped their natural upstream spawning migration from Lake Erie.
Upstream from this little bass paradise, fishing pressure is even heavier. Habitats are varied between the river's wetlands and headwaters, its main stem, and a number of impounded and connected lakes including Kent Lake, and the Strawberry-to-Baseline chain of lakes. In a 1980 study anglers on Kent Lake alone clocked an estimated 191,000 fishing hours in pursuit of good numbers of northern pike, yellow perch, smallmouth and largemouth bass, bluegill, pumpkinseed, and black crappie.
Downstream from smallmouth bass heaven, from Ann Arbor through Belleville, the river is essentially a series of seven impoundments: Barton, Argo, Geddes, Superior, Peninsula, Ford, and Belleville. "This reach would have been the recreational 'heart' of the river with 38 miles of gravel-cobble-boulder substrate characterized by sizable riffles and rapids and interspersed with deep pools," according to the DNR report. "This reach would have provided outstanding canoeing and kayaking, excellent fishing for smallmouth bass and walleye (and potamodromous fishes returning to spawn), and beautiful scenery."
Instead, as the report indicates, the upper five impoundments "provide limited-to-fair boating and fishing."
In 1972-74, both the river and these seven impoundments were treated by the DNR's Fisheries Division with the piscicide rotenone (a fish-killing chemical agent), targeting carp and sucker populations but removing virtually all fish. Through restocking most of the fisheries of these part-river, part-lake, impoundments have recovered. Barton and Argo reservoirs, for example, "have developed good gamefish populations of small- and largemouth bass, black crappie, walleye, channel catfish, and bluegill," according to the report.
Personally, these are the waters I fish most. The relatively clear, lake-like waters of Argo and Barton ponds offer plenty of shoreline opportunities for a live-bait dunker like myself.
One of my most productive fishing excursions took place just a 10-minute drive from home. What my best fishing buddy refers to as The Great Fish Migration of '96 took place over a spring weekend on Argo Pond. I caught at least a dozen northern pike (all in the 18-20" range), a couple of walleye (one keeper over 15"), and a small tiger muskie (also about 20"), a few big crappie, a couple of small- and largemouth bass, as well as a lone carp. All with minnows suspended from a bobber on 6-pound test line. I had never caught a pike, walleye, or muskie in the Huron before so this was a memorable weekend for that alone. By the way, I kept only the single walleye as the rest of the fish (except the crappies) were under the legal minimum size requirements or out of season.
Not only are these ponds close to Ann Arbor, but more importantly is that I trust the quality of the water here and enjoy the scenery more than I do downstream. Intuition tells me, and facts bear it out: The water just gets plain dirtier from this point on. And the fish community changes for the worse from Geddes Pond downstream.
"Geddes impoundment," the DNR report goes on, "which is more shallow and turbid (large amounts of suspended solids in the water column), has good populations of channel catfish and fair populations of bass and panfish. However, it also has a high proportion of species that are generally termed rough fish."
The smaller (and deeper) impoundments, Superior and Peninsula, have a "fair" sport fish community and large numbers of rough fish. Ford Lake, says the DNR, has a "good gamefish community of bluegill, walleye, black crappie, and large- and small-mouth bass" with bi-annual stocking of tiger muskellunge.
The last impoundment in this series, Belleville Lake, has a "fair" gamefish community. This particular lake hasn't fully recovered from a 1987-88 extended drawdown of water levels of the reservoir for dam repairs. Black and white crappies, bluegill, and bass are present, the report says, but significant numbers of walleye, tiger muskellunge, and channel catfish have not returned.
The last 28.5 miles of the river -- the Lower Huron -- from French Landing Dam to Lake Erie, "lacks cover for larger piscivourous (fish-eating) fishes and does not support a good fishery for resident fish." Consequently, various stocking programs have been tried but with little success. Coho salmon resisted, and it is still too early to tell if an ongoing effort with steelhead trout will meet the same fate. "Historically important walleye runs," notes the report, "are now small due to the loss of spawning habitat beneath the Flat Rock impoundment."
Eating Your Catch: How Safe?
"I've been eating fish out of the Huron all my life," Don told me one sunny spring weekend afternoon down at the river just below Argo Dam. "My mother and father taught me how to fish this river."
Don usually fishes with minnows as bait but today he is using nightcrawlers. He has caught one "big bass" by mid-afternoon but released it because it was out of season. Don, 64 years old and retired, lives near the river and has been fishing it since about 1940 (that is, when he is not wintering in Florida).
It's rare when he goes home empty handed. He listed for me the kinds of fish he takes home to eat: bluegill, pike, walleye, crappie, bass, catfish, and even suckers. After removing the bones and skin, he likes to pan fry the filets with a flour coating. "No," he told me, "I don't worry about toxins."
In an informal survey of about a dozen anglers that day and on a rainy Sunday at Barton Dam, about half said they eat the fish they catch out of the river. James, 23, from Ypsilanti, said he eats fish almost every day, including catfish, walleye, bass, bluegill, and suckers from the Huron. He likes to grill, pan fry, or bake his catch depending on the species. Dana, 34, of Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor resident James, 31, said they sometimes eat smallmouth bass out of the river.
Another old-timer, 74-year-old Henry, fishes every weekend at the Barton Dam when the weather is nice and eats virtually all the fish he catches. He likes to pan fry (sometimes bake) his catch with a cornmeal coating.
Very few of the people I talked to could explain to me why or even if some fish were more unsafe than others to eat. When and if one gets a fishing license (I always do), it is standard to also receive the "Michigan Fishing Guide" for the year. In the back of this 64-page booklet of rules and regulations is the Michigan Department of Community Health's "Advisory on Mercury in Inland Lakes and Reservoirs" which most definitely applies to the entire Huron River system, its 136-mile main stem and adjoining lakes, as well as 24 major tributaries:
"Since 1988, the MDCH has issued a special advisory concerning all inland lakes and reservoirs in Michigan due to mercury pollution.
"No one should eat more than one meal a week of fish of the following kinds and sizes from any of Michigan's inland lakes and reservoirs: rock bass, yellow perch, or crappie over 9 inches in length; bass, walleye, northern pike, or muskellunge of any size. Mothers who are breast feeding, pregnant women, women who intend to have children, and children under the age of 15 should not eat more than one meal per month of the fish listed above."
According to a 1990 article in the Huron River Watershed Council's newsletter, mercury, when ingested in high doses, primarily affects the nervous system, reducing speech capabilities, hearing and muscle coordination. It can also cause birth defects and kidney damage. "Mercury, unlike organic toxins," the article goes on to say, "eventually passes from the human body over time and does not bioaccumulate. Its concentration within the human body is related to body weight, so special precautions should be taken for children."
I asked Seelbach about some of the fish people catch and eat from the river which are not listed at all in the advisory, like catfish, suckers, and bullheads. "I don't think that I would be going against the spirit of the advisory by suggesting that the larger catfish -- the channel catfish and flathead catfish -- ought to be on the list," Seelbach said, "primarily because they are fish eaters."
Chemical contamination in fish generally increases as you go further up the food chain.
Mercury probably arrived on the surface waters of the river system as an industrially-emitted airborne pollutant. Once in the river it eventually settled on the bottom where plants grow and bugs hatch. The smallest fish eat the "hot" bugs, the bigger fish eat the little fish, and the biggest fish eat them. If you think in these terms, the safest fish for anglers to consume from inland Michigan waters are the smaller panfish -- bluegills, perch, crappie, and rock bass -- which below 9" in size are primarily bug eaters. Pike and walleye are examples of fish that only eat other fish. Smallmouth bass in the river eat some fish, Seelbach said, but they eat largely crayfish.
The general rule is that smaller, bug-eating fish are the least contaminated.
At least as far as mercury is concerned. Of course, if you fish the Huron River chances are you probably fish elsewhere in the state as well, including the Great Lakes. You should be aware that the advisory on the consumption of salmon and trout in the 1997 Michigan Fishing Guide has been deemed inadequate by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which has issued its own guidelines. To be on the safe side you should get a copy of this supplementary advisory (1-800-621-8431) and use it along with the state advisory (1-800-648-6942).
Could Be Better
"Pollutants of concern that the Watershed Council spends a great deal of time working on to reduce are not health risks," Rentschler explained. "They do not bioaccumulate in the fish but do limit the recreational use of the river."
Ann Arbor's main contribution to the river's pollution is in the form of nutrients and sediments; the two main sources being our wastewater treatment plant and our storm sewer system. The effects on the river from urban watersheds like Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti happen incrementally. "It comes down to what we do day by day," said Rentschler. Fortunately, as individuals, we can make a difference in reducing the amount of pollution that gets collectively dumped into the river on a daily basis.
When it comes to nutrient pollution locally, Rentschler explained, the main culprit is phosphorus. Found primarily in fertilizer and some soaps, it makes its way into the river through our wastewater discharges and stormwater runoff. Though it doesn't directly affect human health or contaminate the fish per se, the loading of phosphorus into the river generally fouls up the fishery and limits recreational uses like swimming (poor visibility) and boating by promoting excessive growth of aquatic plant life.
The wastewater treatment plant contributes only 47% of the phosphorus input, the other 53%, Rentschler said, "is from us."
Us. You and me. And all the people in the watershed who, as individuals, are a significant part of a problem referred to as "non-point pollution." In the context of phosphorus pollution, non-point sources would include agricultural fields, urban and suburban construction sites, parking lots, golf course, and the homes and yards where we live (to name a few).
"We think the primary source of phosphorus input from stormwater runoff is fertilizers off our lawns," explained Rentschler. "When it rains," he said, "excess or freshly applied fertilizer moves with the water that runs off our lawns, goes down the driveway to the curb and into the gutter which drains to a grate. That grate in the gutter is a direct link to the river; it's basically a tributary to the river in a pipe."
This concept, that our lawns and driveways, parking lots and downtown streets and alleys are all direct tributaries to the river, is central to understanding the concept of a watershed and how human behavior fits into the pollution equation. The carelessly flicked cigarette butt, used motor oil casually poured in a storm sewer, toxic-laden home-cleaning and maintenance products ignorantly disposed of, over-fertilized lawns--it all adds up!
Since the Clean Water Act of 1972 many municipal and industrial point-source polluters have been brought under control and water quality in general has improved greatly. Significant progress has been made but our rivers and lakes are not nearly as clean as they could be. Much of the work that remains is in our hands, as homeowners, farmers, developers,
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business owners, students and workers.
If you want to become part of the effort to improve the health of the Huron River, or if you just want to learn more about this precious resource, I strongly urge you to contact the Huron River Watershed Council, located at The NEW Center, 1100 N. Main St. (on the banks of Argo Pond).
They have numerous activities you can become involved in including their popular Adopt-A-Stream program. Currently over 300 volunteers help monitor water quality in 45 sites across the baisin. The HRWC also publishes a very informative newsletter, "Huron River Report," from which you can learn practical ways to reduce your home's phosphorus output, for example. A subscription comes with membership which is highly recommended. Call 769-5123 for more information.
Whether your thing is fishing, canoeing, swimming, motor-boating, kayaking, rowing, wind-surfing, sailing, picnicking, nature study, bird-watching, hunting, trapping, or just hanging out, the river provides both opportunities and problems. This article's focus on the Huron River's fishery is just one way of trying to illustrate the direct connections between us and our environment, between our gutters, parking lots, and construction sites and the quality of the water in our river for our not only our own use and enjoyment, but for those downstream from us as well.
FRONT COVER PHOTO: Michael Meyers wading in the river just behind U-M Hospital; INSET (top) A2 resident, James, at the Argo Dam; (bottom) Eric of Ypsilanti just below the Barton Dam. (Front cover photos by Ted Sylvester.)