Muskegon River anglers asked to release tagged lake whitefish and leave receivers alone

Anglers who fish the Muskegon River between Croton Dam and the river mouth at Lake Michigan may start running into tagged lake whitefish this fall. The Michigan DNR said Oct. 20 that adult whitefish will be fitted with acoustic telemetry tags and stocked in the river in November. Receiver stations anchored on the river bottom at several spots along that stretch will log the fish as they swim past.

The project is testing whether whitefish can use rivers like the Muskegon to spawn. If they can, juvenile fish could grow up with more food than they find in Lakes Michigan and Huron, where quagga mussels and other changes to the food web have hit young whitefish hard. The Nature Conservancy's Matt Herbert said whitefish stocks have dropped sharply since their 1990s peak and that commercial catches are at their lowest in 30 years. The DNR, The Nature Conservancy, Grand Valley State University and the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians and Bay Mills Indian Community are working on it together.

The tags are about the width of an AA battery and sit near the dorsal fin. If you catch a tagged whitefish, the DNR asks you to release it alive if you can. If you keep one, report it to the DNR's Scott Heintzelman (231-433-9782) or TNC's Matt Herbert (517-316-2283), and use the same contacts to report a damaged receiver. Boaters should not move the receiver stations, which were placed so they don't block navigation.

Photo: Acoustic telemetry tag on a lake whitefish, courtesy of The Nature Conservancy in Michigan, via Michigan DNR.

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: Michigan DNR — Angler assistance needed for Muskegon River whitefish study (Oct. 20, 2026).