Fish at Sleeping Bear Dunes

On our second day we biked out to a fishing weir on Platte River. There were no signs or displays to explain what was going on but we talked to a few people that seemed to know what they were talking about. There is a hatchery near here that brought salmon eggs from Oregon back in the 1960’s. Salmon adapted to the area and are still doing well in Lake Michigan. The adult salmon come in from Lake Michigan to spawn in Platte River in the fall and luckily we were here at the right time. They control the flow of fish back to the hatchery from this weir and only allow 20,000 or so fish in during a season. The center gate is opened to allow a few thousand in every few days. Somehow they keep a count of them. A sign said they had let in 10,000 so far.

The rest are harvested at this weir.

The day we saw them (9/27/18) there were several thousand salmon trying to get up the river but stopped by the fence. The solid dark mass is all the fish with some swimming separately on the edges. 

Everyone once in a while a fish would jump up in the air. We've never seen so many fish in one area and these were big fish so it was quite fascinating.

There were kayakers who were floating just outside the ropes. We were told this stresses them and isn’t a great thing for the fish.

Upstream were a bunch of people fishing (we saw 22 people). The fish they catch can be huge. The salmon were ~3 feet long and can weigh 30 pounds.