By Marc Schollett
Monday, October 05, 2009 at 10:15 a.m.
Read more: Local, Fact, Finder, Hatchery, Orsini, Dnr, Steelhead, Marc, Schollett, Fact Finder
When it comes to explaining the lure of raising the trophy fish of tomorrow at his privately owned hatchery, Frank Orsini sounds an awful lot like a proud parent. "It's just a great experience. I like to see these little critters, just feeding them and watching them grow, and to know what they are going to do. From here they go up to the big lake, and then all the sport fishermen are able to reap the benefits."
This time of year, Orsini should be a pretty busy man, cleaning tanks and raceways used to raise steel heads in Manistee County. Orsini explains "the fish arrive here around the second week of November and they are 2 to 4 inches long. We will take those fish and raise them all until they are 6 to 10 inches long. The idea is by the time they hit the Betsie the bigger fish will go out right away the smaller fish may stay for awhile, might stay till next spring, but hopefully we want to see them go out to the big lake, Lake Michigan and people will fish them in the river and in the lake."
For years, Orsini has been able to watch those fish grow over the winter, sometimes in numbers that are staggering. As Orsini recalls, "there have been years when we have had as many as 50,000, but the last 3 to 4 years we have been somewhat less, 30 to 35, and the last couple of years the high 20's, 26 or 27 thousand."
But this year, the scene looks very different at one of the few private fish hatcheries in the entire state. The reason is money. In the past the DNR has provided the hatchery with the tens of thousands of fry, and covered the cost of trucking, food, fin clipping and some of the electrical costs for raising the fish till spring, when they would be released. Orsini says "We just don't have the funding this year that we need. The DNR is down and they have a cutback from the state of Michigan, so we don't know exactly what they can and can not do at this point."
But the bigger problem in terms of money is spelled out clearly in a letter from the Manistee County Sport Fishing Association. The association's board voted against funding the $15,000 needed to cover this year's fish expenses as they have in the past. This year they voted instead to mothball the Orsini hatchery project for the fall's fish cycle, citing their own budget shortfalls. Orsini says he understands the economic situation for both the DNR and the Sports Fishing Association, but worries what the long term impact will be. The DNR already has hatched the tiny fish that were slated to be delivered to the hatchery in November. So if the Orsini Hatchery doesn't have the money to raise them this year, the DNR says they will most likely just release the fish this fall and Orsini says "at that little fry stage they survival rate is going to be far far less then if they were 6 to 8 inches long."
So it appears, unless an individual or group comes forward to fund the project in the next few days, these tanks will sit empty this fall and fish won't be released come next spring on the Betsie. While that might not impact the fishing this year, Orsini believes it will when the trophies are no longer out in Lake Michigan, "the impact is not going to be this year and it might not be next year but it will be the 3rd and 4th year when there is that many less fish that got big."
So what do you think? Let me know. Leave a comment below.
