DNR Advises Anglers to Lookout

Michigan Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologists are reminding Lake Superior anglers to keep an eye out for Chinook salmon with missing adipose fins. In 2012, the DNR’s Fisheries Division began stocking clipped Chinook salmon as a means to track and evaluate the proportion of fish caught that originated in hatcheries or through natural reproduction. Now, as two-year-old fish, these clipped Chinook will begin to show up in the fishery. The adipose fin is the small fleshy lobe found on the back of the fish, just forward of the tail fin. The data on clipped fish will be collected by Lake Superior creel clerks who interact with anglers at boat landings and other fishing locations to collect this key data.