THE SALMON CATCH WAS UP IN MICHIGAN in 2006, but only 18 made the Department of Natural Resources Master Angler list.

"Numberswise, the Lake Michigan fishery was phenomenal in 2006. It's the best I've seen," Tom Rozich, the DNR's Cadillac district fisheries supervisor, said. Rozich tracks how many big salmon, steelhead and brown trout turn up at Lake Michigan ports and tributaries.

"Weightwise, they were all three to five pounds heavier than in 2005.

"But the number of Master Angler fish we get depends on the amount of forage we have out there."

And those numbers have been down in recent years, according to Rozich.

I didn't get out on the big lake this past summer, though maybe I'll give it a go again this year.