Salmon study lacks local focus

I keep wondering how the following information can help us find more salmon on Lake Michigan, especially when we don't have any streams for spawning fish?

A new study recently published in the journal Current Biology by Oregon State University researchers indicates migrating salmon utilize the earth's magnetic field to navigate across thousands of miles of open ocean to locate their river of origin before journeying upstream to spawn.

“What we think happens is that when salmon leave the river system as juveniles and enter the ocean, they imprint the magnetic field, logging it in as a waypoint,” said Nathan Putman, a post-doctoral researcher at OSU.

Dinner canceled:From the Outdoor Pressroom comes a story with typical bureaucratic strings attached.Outdoor sportsmen in this area hold a number of wild game dinners in various locations to help raise funds for charities, but in a certain New York county it really got wild.The Madison County, New York, Health Department shut down the 28th annual Open Door Baptist Church wild game dinner scheduled for Feb. 9 for sanitary code violations because dishes including crow, venison and woodchuck were offered for public consumption. A sanitarian dispatched to the event deemed the food in violation because it was not FDA approved.Fishing update:Ice anglers have never been labeled #8220;pansies#8221; just because the mercury dipped to extreme lows. But the latest Arctic blast has caused some icers to stay inside and keep the home fires burning. Although the cold winds are harsh, some diehards have been catching fish.On the Fox Chain's Petite Lake, big walleyes are being taken from 14-foot depth on large minnows dropped a half foot off the bottom. Most of the action comes at night on 8 inches of ice.Channel Lake bluegills continue to binge on spikes and wax worms on the far north end.Bangs Lake walleyes suddenly appear on fish finders at night in 8 feet of water.#376;Contact Mike Jackson at angler88@comcast.net, and catch his radio show 6-7 a.m. Sundays on WSBC 1240-AM and live-streamed at www.mikejacksonoutdoors.com.