Table 2. --Summary of exploratory fishing 

 effort in southern Lake Michigan by depth, 

 1962-65 



Table A. --Summary of exploratory fishing 

 effort in southern Lake Michigan by month, 

 1962-65 



Table 3. — Suiiimary of exploratory fishing 

 effort in southern Lake Michigan by port, 

 1962-65 



TRAWLING GROUNDS 



Gordon (1963) described the relation of 

 botton-i conditions to trawling in southern Lake 

 Michigan. Grounds trawled during this study 

 are shown in figure 2. 



In general the bottom was more suitable for 

 trawling along the east shore than along the 

 west shore. Gear was damaged nnost frequently 

 while fishing the rough bottom along the west 

 shore inside the ZO-fathom contour at all 

 stations from Manitowoc to Milwaukee. Other 

 areas with frequent snags were off Waukegan 

 in 20 to 25 fathoms, off Manitowoc in 35 to 40 

 fathonns, and near shore due west of the piers 

 at Ludington. Better bottom for trawling was 

 found off Ludington just south of the piers out 

 to 35 fathoms. Gear was seldom damaged along 

 the east shore south of Pentwater, Mich. 



SPECIES COMPOSITION OF THE 

 CATCH 



The combined catch of alewives and chubs 

 constituted over 95 percent of the total catch 

 by weight (table 5). Alewives donninated the 

 catch (51.4 percent) followed by chubs (44.0 

 percent), yellow perch (1.9 percent), sculpins 

 (1.5 percent), and smelt (0.8 percent). Ten 

 additional species composed less than 0.5 per- 

 cent of the catch by weight. 



The species composition of the trawl catch 

 changed annually during the survey (fig. 3 and 

 table 6). Each year the percentage of alewives 

 in the catch increased while the percentage of 

 chubs decreased. In 1964 alewives surpassed 

 chubs in the catch by 38 percent. Noticeable 



