The making of a magnet

Fisheries research today shows a powerful connection between “wood in the water" and a lake's fish populations. Trees fallen over from the bank and into the lake provide cover that protects fish fry from predators so they can grow up. How much wood is in your water?

Birch Lake, near Harshaw, where I live, is relatively barren of fallen timber, although I got to watch one specimen make the transformation from shade provider to fish haven, Just down the shore from our pier stood a tall white pine, its roots right at the waterline, its imposing trunk angled over the water at about 30 degrees from the vertical. We wondered if it ever would tip into the water -- it seemed to be defying the tug of gravity.

Well, two years ago, we got our answer. By early summer, the tree had tipped to about 45 degrees, and as I paddled by in a canoe one day I noticed a large, lengthwise crack at the base of the trunk. After a few weeks, the old pine came down, but not with a spectacular splash. It eased down, like a staccato second-hand on a watch, tick, tick, tick.  

During a couple of quiet evenings, sitting on the screen porch, I could hear the periodic cracking noises as the tree kept ticking down. Then one morning the tree lay in the water, extending out some 60 or 70 feet from shore. It was sad to see a venerable pine go down, but the plus side is that the tree now lies in what already was a fair walleye hole, just off the edge of a bed of emergent reeds, at a U-shaped dropoff that anglers like to call an inside turn. Snorkeling around the tree soon after it fell, I saw young-of-the-year smallmouth bass darting amid the twigs and still-green needles. The old pine was becoming a fish magnet. 

Of course, if we want more fish magnets on our lakes – more wood in the water – we have to do more than let nature take its course. The state Department of Natural Resources now promotes “fish sticks” – placing whole trees, or bundles of trees, in the shallows – as a fish habitat builder. Maybe if your lake isn’t rich in sunken timber along shore, it’s worth having your lake association consider a “fish sticks” project.