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It may be time to take the other road with the salmon picture     For years I’ve watched certain members of the Illinois State Legislature display a cavalier attitude about the interests of outdoor sportsmen, especially anglers who fish Lake Michigan. I’ve also observed questionable behavior from some officials in the Illinois DNR when the constituency attempts to get straight answers. Not to be a Johnny-Come-Lately, but rather more of an observer following the Lake Michigan salmon issue, I have strong beliefs that many bureaucrats hate to admit when they’ve made mistakes. I also believe these same bureaucrats don’t have it within their mental framework to say they don’t know the correct answers regarding certain issues. Countless local anglers complain to me they’re tired of driving to Lake Erie, Little Bay De Noc, Green Bay, and Sturgeon Bay to fish for big walleyes. Numerous anglers continue to ask me why the Illinois DNR appears to be so unresponsive to its constituency regarding the planting of walleyes in Illinois waters of Lake Michigan? I don’t have any official answers, just personal feelings and thoughts. Full-time Lake Michigan charter boat captains have relied upon the coho and king salmon fisheries to help them make a living during the good years of the mid 1980s and before that. These same captains stuck around during the lean years, supplementing their catches with lake trout and steelhead when the Chinook and coho salmon got into trouble because of disease and forage problems. But small-time anglers with small boats and little fishing budgets still have a desire to enjoy the big lake’s bounty. These are the vocal groups continuing to clamor for the DNR to stock Illinois waters with walleyes. DNR Lake Michigan biologists have been doing their best to side step this issue, quite often claiming that introduction of another aggressive sport fish will upset the apple cart and interfere with a questionable forage base. Fisheries Chief Mike Conlin once argued with me, "How can we introduce another game species into the lake when the present situation is highly questionable? This is complicated stuff going on." Good question Mr. Conlin. It seems we are led to believe our input isn’t worth the breath used to plead our case. I assume that because we don’t work for the DNR and are not biologists, what we say and think about the introduction of walleyes in to the big lake doesn’t carry any weight with the powers-that-be. And I say that’s where the problem is to start with. Aren’t these safe-keepers of the realm supposed to have our best interests at heart? It appears the Chinook salmon population continues to teeter on the edge of that deep chasm of grief and aggravation with disease and food sources in question. If in fact king salmon continue their downward skid, why bother to foster a fishery that’s destined for doom and gloom? Those are reasonable questions readers and listeners ask me through their e-mail. And if things are so bad, doesn’t it make sense to say, "We (DNR biologists and fisheries experts) made a mistake and can’t seem to correct it. We guessed wrong and still can’t nail it down as to why the Chinook crisis is so cyclic." DNR lake Michigan specialist and biologist Rich Hess said "it was an embarrassment" to be left in a lurch about the great Chinook decline. So I ask, why not get out before the entire fishery collapses and start over with walleyes? What’s wrong with that tack? I don’t think I’ve read in any state journal or official handbook that if a state government bureaucrat admits failure with a project, he or she is then ordered to fall on their sword. I cut my eye teeth on coho salmon when they were first planted in the lake in 1965, and later on with kings as well. I have the pictures of the monsters I caught off of Manistee, Michigan and the Chicago lakefront. I know many of you have similar pictorial treasures. I’m asking for the DNR to be open minded to change if the ways of the past aren’t working. If there’s a forage problem for the present populations of game fish, perhaps the experts can implement a plan to add food to the lake to help feed walleyes and the remaining species. I was sworn to secrecy by one charter boat operator who told me, "Mike, we already have planer boards and downriggers for suspended schools of fish. We even have crankbaits. We would need spinner rigs and nightcrawlers. We could easily switch over to catching walleyes like the charter boats on Lake Erie. So what’s the big deal?" You got me Captain. If all we get are excuses though, maybe it’s not just time for a change of fish species but also some changes in the hierarchy of the fisheries division.