Bringing Back The Giants

Wisconsin DNR's Stephen Schram submits that because lake trout spawning reefs are far off shore and splake haven't been seen on them, and because brook trout don't appear to be utilizing nearshore areas, splake stocking is "a nonissue." Other biologists disagree.

Dr. Casey Huckins, who teaches biological sciences at Michigan Technological University, told me this: "I don't believe it's a good idea to stock a hybrid of two species you're trying to rehabilitate. There's the potential for interbreeding, and I also question it on ecological grounds. Splake could potentially compete and predate; and there's angler confusion as to what they have when they catch one." Henry Quinlan, the Fish and Wildlife Service biologist working on coaster rehabilitation at Whittlesey Creek, and Ed Baker, a research biologist with the Michigan DNR, heartily agree with Huckins.

Schram vows that if coaster recovery starts to happen in Wisconsin, his agency will abandon its splake program. But this is easier said than done. When I asked Baker why Michigan, which has three self-sustaining coaster populations, hasn't been able to do this he said: "Because anglers want splake." To me (and doubtless to Baker, who used the word "unfortunately" when he told me splake stocking was still underway) that's not an answer. Leading the public toward an ecological conscience and a refined taste in natural objects is, after all, why state resource agencies have information-and-education sections. But if you start giving anglers something, even something as offensive as splake, you have to be a lot tougher than your average DNR director to take it away from them. Michigan's internal review of its splake program has already spawned splake-defense groups. One, in Copper Harbor, is passing out caps bearing the shibboleth "I'd rather be splake fishing." And Doug Miron, president of the Alger County Fish and Game Alliance, is quoted by the Associated Press as intoning: "Do whatever you want with your coasters, just don't take away our splake."

We're still making major mistakes with coaster management. Unleashing splake in Lake Superior is pure insanity, as is killing generous limits of potential coasters in the feeder streams of Michigan and Wisconsin. And while the new lake-wide US regulation of one coaster over 20 inches (and the Ontario reg of one fish over 22 inches everywhere) is frankly better than most anyone had dared hope for, it should be remembered that in order to kill a trophy of this size one has to release a few dozen under that size. So a single, barbless-hook regulation like the one that exists in Lake Nipigon is desperately needed in Superior. So is a bait ban. Also, I remain unconvinced that you can kill any brook trout-even one a day-and expect a truly healthy population over the long term.

Still, at this writing coaster rehabilitation looks as if it's going to happen in Lake Superior-provided anglers don't get impatient (as they have with Atlantic salmon restoration in New England, for example). And it's easier to be patient if one is realistic in one's expectations. Coaster rehabilitation in the biggest char habitat on earth-now seething with exotic species and charter boats-doesn't mean a return to the days when businessman were checking into the posh Chequamegon Hotel on Friday, catching and killing 100 coasters over four pounds, then taking the train back to Chicago on Sunday night.

But it does mean that coasters can again be a significant part of the big lake's biota. And it means that, if everyone keeps on track, you will have an excellent chance of going out with a big streamer or a mayfly pattern in still or moving water and landing a truly giant brook trout-on purpose instead of by mistake.