Great Lakes Bass Fishing Forum

Just before the October Natural Resources Committee meeting on Thursday, October 9 in the Upper Peninsula, Commissioner John Walters added in an amendment to Fisheries Order 206 – "Bass - Closed bass CIR season from May 1 – Friday before the third Saturday in June for Burt, Mullet, Crooked, Pickerel, and Black Lakes and their connecting waters."

This means NO bass fishing on the Inland Waterway from May 1 until the third Saturday in June. I've been sick with bronchitis so I missed this until the night of the NRC meeting. Thank goodness the NRC tabled this amendment for input and clarification until at least the November 6, 2025 meeting.

This is coming out of the so-called Burt Lake Preservation Association (lake association really) pushing the MDNR hard to do something about the changes they think they are seeing in shallow beds on Burt Lake and they are blaming gobies.

This is a great case of reverse scientific method. Unfortunately, despite multiple times being told there's nothing that need to be done about this by the Michigan DNR, this group is being relentless. They say they are not anti-tournament, but that's the type of fishing they keep mentioning the most. They are not clear on many things including thinking there were regular bass tournaments in mid-May, which is of course, not true.

Commissioner Walters is from there and knows these people so he is doing this for them despite DNR and MUCC opposition.

To be clear, this is NOT the MDNR doing this. It is one NRC Commissioner. Unfortunately, they have the authority over all fish and game regulations so they could adopt this.

If you do not like this type of loss of fishing - a complete closure again for about 7 weeks, and especially if you are worried about this being expanded to more goby waters, please take action. I am posting an action alert that will be on the home page of this website shortly with how to act and information that might be helpful.

You can always email nrc@michigan.gov and tell them what you think. That will get to the entire 7 Commissioners. They rarely hear from bass anglers, yet they have complete authority. You can find out more about the NRC and the Commissioners at michigan.gov/nrc.

I kind of forget that the Commissioner just threw Black Lake in here, but we aren't actually sure Black Lake even has any gobies. The DNR isn't aware of them and other anglers who fish there a lot said they haven't seen them. There is a dam on the Black River in the way. Regardless, just another example of how haphazard this whole issue is.

Good news! Science has prevailed this time! Commissioner Walters withdrew his bass season closure amendment when it became clear in comments by Commissioners Nyberg, Fewins and Eardley that a vote on the amendment would fail!

No change for now to Michigan bass seasons. I don't expect the Burt Lake lake association will give and would not be surprised if Walters tries something else at some point even though the Michigan DNR Fisheries Division testified that no change was needed or wanted.

The summary article:
https://www.greatlakesbass.com/news/conservation/closures/inland-waterway-bass-fishing-closure-defeated/

We will need to keep an eye on this from now on. Pretty easy to keep track of what the NRC is up to by visiting michigan.gov/nrc and viewing meeting dates/times and proposed agendas. It doesn't take a lot of time to view them. The Natural Resources Commission has sole authority to amend and pass fishing and hunting regulations. They can definitely affect your fishing with a simple majority vote out of the 7 Commissioners.

Big thanks to the Michigan DNR Fisheries Division for bringing the science. We would not have been successful without that presentation. Big thanks to Kevin VanDam and Mark Zona for getting the word out before the meeting, and so many other people who submitted comments and came to the meeting to speak in opposition of the amendment.