Lake Michigan stocking plan includes new ‘herd’ of cohos from Illinois

It’s a little like herding cattle, the annual roundup at the Jake Wolf Fish Hatchery in Mason County: Illinois DNR staff ease their way down holding pens, using panels to crowd the “herd” toward transport trucks for weighing and loading. That’s a poor analogy, sure, but it may be the best way to describe what takes place at the hatchery before fish are relocated to lakes around the state. If you’ve ever hooked a salmon in Lake Michigan, odds are you can credit the “cowboys” – hatchery staff, that is – at Jake Wolf.