Walleyes Chicago eyes Lake Michigan

A group of Chicago anglers continue to dream big about the days when walleye will be stocked, legally, in Lake Michigan.

And while Walleyes Chicago has an upcoming fund-raiser (Walleyes Chicago Friday Nite Fish Fry & Fundraiser at Murphy’s Bleachers from 8-11 p.m. this Friday), the likelihood of seeing legal stockings in Lake Michigan remains slim.

As Dale Bowman of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote in his Sunday column (in part in reference to the catch of a 7-pound, 5.5-ounce walleye caught last September by Mike Osuch off Northerly Island):

Illinois Department of Natural Resources biologists have adamantly opposed stocking walleye in Lake Michigan for years.

After Osuch’s catch, enough calls came for walleye stockings that IDNR honchos in Springfield required the Lake Michigan Program biologists to prepare a paper on the subject. It was a reiteration of what they have said for years: Walleye would be one too many predators in a lake already struggling with the forage base.

Bowman writes that Walleyes Chicago is now “taking a softer approach and pushing for more research on the idea.” But the dream remains the same: more big walleye in Lake Michigan.

Click here to read the rest of Bowman’s column.