DaytonDailyNews.com

CEDARVILLE, Mich. — Sound carries afar over the water on a still day in August.

A young boy and his father were on the other side of a bay, yet they easily could be heard.

"I got him," the boy cried out as he lifted a fish over the side of the boat.

"And it's a big one," the father acknowledged.

The father and son are among hundreds of anglers who have returned to Les Cheneaux Islands area, about 30 miles east of St. Ignace in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

A popular area for boating and once a choice place to fish, the Les Cheneauxs consist of a group of islands and fishing waters between Cedarville and Hessel off the north shore of Lake Huron.

Four years ago, nearly everyone who fished the area gave up on catching any perch, smallmouth bass, rock bass, redear sunfish and northern pike. The fish had vanished.

Residents and resort owners in the Les Cheneaux area said the problem was related to an escalation in the number of double-crested cormorants, a large, dark-colored, fish-eating bird.

It was estimated the population of these fish eaters had swelled to 14,000 or more and the birds were targeting schools of perch, plus bass, pike, rock bass, sunfish and other species.

As cormorant numbers grew, sport fishing declined. The game fish population hit rock bottom in 2004.

Yet could anyone seriously blame a bird for this? It must be something else, the "experts" said.

They suggested the problem might be pollution, an increase in boating activity, or a natural cycle.

Biologists were slow to respond. Their early research found cormorants were not responsible. But a more thorough study came to a different conclusion.

War on cormorants was declared, and the federal government approved of a cormorant control program. Michigan was authorized to reduce the numbers of these fish-eating birds by oiling cormorant eggs in nests to prevent them from hatching. Adult birds were shot by selected marksmen.

After three years of the bird war, the number of cormorants in the area has been reduced greatly. Some of the birds are still seen, but not in significant numbers.

Meanwhile, over the last three years, fishing returned faster than anyone could have imagined. Fishing was a little better three years ago, last year it was much better and this year it is looking more like the good old days.

Tom Zobrist, manager of Fisherman Quarters in Dayton, is among those who have witnessed the turnaround. He and I fished the area earlier this month and we caught a number of perch, smallmouth bass, redear sunfish and rock bass. Pike anglers also were doing much better.

It now can be said fishing has come back to the Les Cheneauxs. And what a good morning it is when you can hear a boy cry out from across the bay:

"I got one!"

And his father answers, "It's a big one."

Contact Jim Robey at Dayton Daily News, 1611 S. Main St., Dayton, OH 45409.