It's not too early to think about going fishing.

The state is stocking rivers - including the Grand River in Lansing - with millions of fish.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment released 325,000 coho salmon into the Grand River this week at the city boat launch near St. Joseph Street in downtown Lansing, fish biologist Jan Sapak said.

Once in the river, they will migrate to Lake Michigan, where they will spend most of their adult lives.

The fish will return to the Grand River to spawn in fall 2011 and will die shortly afterward, officials said. "Our predominant goal is to create a sport fishery," Sapak said.

"They reproduce some naturally, but not enough to sustain the sports fishing that takes place in Lake Michigan."

The salmon - raised at the DNRE's Platte River State Fish Hatchery in Honor, west of Traverse City - are native to the Pacific Ocean and were introduced to Lake Michigan in the 1960s for the fishing industry, she said.

The DNRE this spring is stocking about 1.6 million coho salmon in Lake Michigan tributaries and has stocked the Grand River almost every year for decades, Sapak said.

Each fish costs the state about $1, she said.