These fingerlings quickly swim downstream and out into the cold waters of the open lake. By the time they escape the river, the temperature of Lake Michigan's water is bottomed out for the winter. The next summer these fish, called 1-plus year age fish by fish biologists because they are between 1 and 2 years of age, start to feed. Initially, insects make up a large part of their diet. It's not until they grow 12 inches or more in length that they gain the capacity to feast on alewives or other forage fish that are present in the lake.

Lake Michigan is 300 miles long, which is plenty big enough to ensure the climate at the north end to be much different than the weather on the Indiana end. Accordingly, as fall turns to winter, the water at the northern end of the lake cools off more quickly than the water in the southern basin. Cohos prefer water in the lower 50-degree range, so when the water offshore in the northern lake dumps down into the 40s, cohos start looking for warmer seas to swim.

Remember, cohos evolved in the Pacific Ocean. A swim down the length of Lake Michigan is a walk in the park. As the lake cools, the cohos head south -- all the way to Indiana. That's why hatchery cutbacks in Michigan can play a significant role to Indiana's famed spring coho action. A large percentage of the catch we reel in is off Michigan City, East Chicago and Portage in the spring. Many of these fish are the result of Michigan DNR stockings.

HOMEGROWN PROBLEMS
Last summer, the Indiana DNR, like Michigan, announced it, too, would be cutting back on the number of fish coming out of its hatchery system for the next couple of years. These cuts, however, weren't because of budget restraints, but to keep other more significant problems from cropping up in the future.

Indiana has two fish hatcheries capable of producing trout and salmon fingerlings. The older of the two, the Mixsawbah Hatchery, was constructed 30 years ago using welded steel piping for the hatchery's water supply system. Since built, the hatchery has been in operation 12 months a year, all day, every day and as with anything mechanical, time takes a toll.

Structural engineers examined all of Indiana's state fish hatcheries to list upgrades, repairs and rehabilitation needed to keep them online and at peak efficiency. Mixsawbah's pipes popped up as the number one infrastructure concern in the state's hatchery system. Hatchery manager Tom Schwartz said, "Much of the steel piping has corroded. It's just a matter of time before a serious failure occurs. Temporary repairs have kept production going so far."

In short, we have been working on borrowed time and band-aids. Mixsawbah is expected to shut down for a year while the old steel pipes are replaced with modern plastic plumbing. It's a great investment for the future of Indiana's Lake Michigan fishing, but during the shutdown, there won't be any kings, cohos or steelhead reared at the facility to stock the lake.