It wasn't a good day at Heather Seites' "office." It was very windy and there was a storm brewing over Lake Michigan, and that meant there were few anglers out fishing on this July day.

Seites' office is a public marina in picturesque Frankfort on Lake Michigan. She takes up her post near the fish cleaning station, waiting for anglers to come in off the lake so she can ask them a few questions and count, weigh and measure their catch.

Seites is a Department of Natural Resources creel clerk, and she's responsible for collecting data from recreational anglers in the Frankfort/Elberta area in the northwest Lower Peninsula. She monitors the municipal marina and other locations in Frankfort and a private marina across the channel in Elberta, talking to anglers, collecting data about the fish they caught or the fish they intentionally released.

The objective of the program is to obtain a continuous record of sport catch, catch rates, and catch composition for the Great Lakes and important river fisheries. Coupled with fish marking studies, the data obtained by creel clerks identify Great Lakes and anadromous fish stocks and determine their distribution, movements and contribution to various sport fisheries.

Angler surveys are conducted annually on selected waters of the Great Lakes, and have been since 1983. The DNR uses the data collected by Seites and the other 40 creel clerks positioned on Great Lakes sites and inland lakes around the state to evaluate the health of fish populations and to determine if changes in regulations, stocking, or other management actions are warranted.

For Seites, 24, being a creel clerk is an entry level position in her career in fish and wildlife management. She has a degree in fish and wildlife management from Lake Superior State University, and this is her third year as a creel clerk. Creel clerks work from about mid-March to early November in most parts of the state. In some parts of the state, they will also collect data during ice fishing season as well.

Every year, DNR creel clerks will survey between 50,000 and 75,000 anglers. Most of those will be surveyed in the spring, summer and fall months, but about 25 percent are interviewed during the ice fishing season. Anglers are surveyed on all the Great Lakes. On Lake Michigan, creel clerks are stationed from New Buffalo to Harbor Springs. The entire angling day -- from dawn to one hour past dusk -- is covered.

"The creel survey program is a vital, core process of fisheries management," said Kelley Smith, chief of the DNR Fisheries Division. "To understand what is happening with fish populations and with fishing each year, we must at least have knowledge of the number of fish harvested, how long it takes anglers to harvest these fish, and basic data on the overall health of the fish.

"Biological information, including at a minimum samples of scales or other bony structures for aging the fish, length, and weight are the most important factors we need to manage fish in the state's lakes and rivers. Without the creel survey program, these most basic parameters describing fish health and survival would be unavailable to us," Smith added.

Every day, Seites performs two counts, walking the piers to determine how many boats are going out and how many anglers are out fishing on the piers or from shore. She also conducts many short interviews asking anglers how many fish they caught, how many they released and then collects data from harvested fish, such as weight and length. Every month, she also collects a certain number of biological samples from the fish, usually some of its scales so DNR fisheries staff can age the fish.

She talks to anglers actively fishing at piers and who come back into the marinas on boats. She only talks to anglers who are fishing in Lake Michigan, and not in the channel leading out to the lake.

In the brief interview, Seites collects data from the anglers, asking them how far they came from to fish that day, how long they were out fishing, what fish they were trying to catch, how many fish they caught, and how many they released. In July, she collected biological data from 20 king salmon and 30 lake trout. In August, she will collect biological data from 40 Coho salmon and 60 king salmon. She weighs each fish, measures it, checks the fish for lamprey scars or external DNR tags, and then collects a sample of its scales if she needs them for her monthly quota.

She enters the information into a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), and it later is analyzed by the Fisheries Division to determine how well fish are growing and surviving in the lake, and whether stocking efforts are providing a return to sport anglers.

Seites also often acts as an informed source of fishing information for local and visiting anglers.

"People ask where others are catching fish, what color of lures are working, the (water) depths people are catching at and lots of regulation questions," Seites said, noting most anglers are very friendly and interested in the work she is doing. "Sometimes, they will chase me down and show me what they caught."

In mid-July, Seites could report to anglers that king salmon between 15 and 20 pounds seemed to be the popular catch off of Frankfort.

Data collected by Seites and other creel clerks helps the DNR make important fisheries management decisions, even if it just seems like small talk after a day on the water.

To learn more about the DNR's Fisheries Division, visit them online at www.michigan.gov/dnr and click on the Fishing section.