By Dylan Engels
The Department of Natural Resources is collecting steelhead eggs to move to other hatcheries either in the state or in a state nearby.
The department plans to collect 4.5 million eggs, with 3.7 million being sent to the Thompson State Fish Hatchery in Manistique and the Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery in Mattawan. Ohio and Indiana will each receive 400,000 eggs.
The Thompson hatchery also supplies Chinook salmon and walleye.
The collection began in mid-April and takes place at the Little Manistee River Weir in Stronach, located in Manistee County. The weir is the only egg take facility in the state.
“The Little Manistee River Weir plays a critical role in fish population management,” said Sammie Lukaskiewicz, the executive director of the Manistee County Tourism Authority.
“The weir itself helps educate the public about sustainable fishing practices and the importance of preserving aquatic ecosystems,” Lukaskiewicz said.
Once the hatchery receives eggs, that begins the process of getting them from egg to being released a year later.
“When the eggs come in, they’re disinfected before being put into incubators,” said Dan Sampson, the northern area hatchery manager for the Thompson hatchery. “During the process, we get an estimate on the population of eggs.”
Sampson said that the eggs are left in an incubator for several weeks while they start to develop. Once they reach the “eyed” stage – when the eyes are all developed and you can see them through the wall of the egg – that’s when the DNR can start to handle the fish.
“Once the eyes are well developed, those fish become very strong,” said Sampson. If we handle them before that, they’re very fragile and they’ll die.”
Sampson said that once the steelhead hatch, they will be incubated another month before the DNR starts to feed them and release them in April 2026.
From year to year, the Thompson hatchery 70% to 80% of its steelhead survive and make it to release.
Matthew Hughes, a natural resources manager at Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery, deals with the same process, except that his facility releases steelhead two times a year.
“I plan to stock 755,000 yearlings and an additional 170,000 fall yearlings out of that,” said Hughes.