Caught on a night crawler just off the Michigan DNR docks
An angler fishing the Thunder Bay River in Alpena, MI, caught a 5" ruffe on August 4, which was subsequently confirmed by local USFWF biologists. Caught on a night crawler just off the Michigan DNR docks, the angler immediately recognized it and discarded it into the grass behind him. The location is 1/4 mile upstream from the mouth of the river, on the western shore of Lake Huron.
Alpena Fisheries Resource Office supervisor, Jerry McClain happened down there and confirmed the critter was a Ruffe. Then confirmed the angler advised him he had been getting other bites in the same vicinity.
Meeting in Alpena on July 30-31 the Ruffe Control Committee had been told surveys and trawls conducted by the USFWS AND NBS up till then had shown no new areas were found to contain Ruffe. Interestingly, McClain stated "intense trawling has produced no new Ruffe, but chances of having found the only three ruffe in Thunder Bay (last year) are slim". FWS biologist Angie Hintz said the agency has been gill netting in the bay on a continuing basis. and trawling the harbor bottom and Thunder Bay River.
A full report will follow in the September Basin Report
