GRANT TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - Michigan’s five-day fishing season for lake sturgeon, making a comeback after years of shrinking numbers in the Great Lakes region, will open Feb. 1 on Black Lake in the northern Lower Peninsula.
The Department of Natural Resources announced Monday that anglers can start fishing at 8 a.m. that date. The lake is mainly in Cheboygan County’s Grand and Waverly townships, about 15 miles southeast of Cheboygan.
Fishing hours are 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day.
Sturgeon can grow to 8 feet, weigh 200 pounds and live 150 years. They once were abundant in the Great Lakes region and are the subject of decadeslong restoration efforts. They primarily live in large river and lake systems in the Mississippi River, Hudson Bay and Great Lakes basins.
Lake sturgeon are classified as a threatened species in Michigan and either threatened or endangered by 19 of the 20 states within its original range in the U.S., according to the DNR.
Last year, 268 people got licenses for the Black Lake sturgeon season, the DNR said. It said anglers caught six sturgeon - males weighing 11, 13 and 54 pounds and females weighing 18, 42 and 67 pounds.
“The Black Lake sturgeon fishery is truly a conservation success story,” Brenda Archambo, president of the Black Lake Chapter of Sturgeon For Tomorrow, said in a statement at the time. “We have proven we can collaboratively manage the growth of the overall population while sustaining our longstanding investment in our outdoor heritage.”
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Online:
https://www.michigan.gov/dnr
DNR sturgeon page: https://1.usa.gov/121zuoQ
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