Sunday, February 6, 2005

David Coates / The Detroit News The Michigan Department of Natural Resources will release 25,000 steelhead trout in the Clinton River this spring.

Clinton River swims in fish

Steelhead, brown trout and salmon jump in what was once a polluted waterway.

By Gene Schabath / The Detroit News

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SHELBY TOWNSHIP -- The much-maligned, coffee-colored Clinton River, known more for bacteria pollution and logjams, is becoming a hot spot for trout and salmon fishing.

The state Department of Natural Resources will stock 25,000 steelhead trout in the Clinton this spring, a 40 percent increase from the 15,000 young trout released into the stream last year.

About the time the fish are put in the stream at River Bend Park in Shelby Township in March is when state fish biologists expect another school of 2-foot long steelhead will begin migrating from Lake Huron up the Clinton.

If that isn't enough, anglers can also go after brown trout and Chinook salmon in the upper reaches of the Clinton in Shelby Township, Sterling Heights and Rochester, where the water is far superior to the contaminated area in the lower stretches of the stream.

Dan Keifer is one of the anglers who have been enjoying Metro Detroit's best-kept fishing secrets.

"I started a few years ago and have caught rainbow trout and brown trout," said Keifer, developmental director for the Clinton River Watershed Council. "Like a lot of people, I never gave it a second thought to fish in the Clinton River. I always thought I had to go north.

"It means two things," Keifer said. "Number one, it shows there is a whole lot of fishing recreation going on close to home with this steelhead fishing in the Clinton. But is also says something about the river that it is good enough to support a nice fishery, especially trout. This kind of wakes people up about the river."

The migrating steelhead are from a school of 30,000 8-inch-long fingerlings planted in the Clinton in 2003. The fish plantings are to establish a quality urban trout fishing program in Metro Detroit,said Jim Francis, DNR fish biologist. The DNR also planted 5,000 brown trout last year and plans on stocking the river with 4,500 browns annually.

You can reach Gene Schabath at (586) 468-3614 or gschabath@detnews.com.