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By Louie Stout

This has been a winter to remember — or forget, depending upon your perspective.

It’s been one of the iffiest ice seasons we’ve had in a long time. Yet, the anglers who kept their boats out of storage have enjoyed an extended fishing season on the St. Joseph River.

And as we await spring, there’s hope it comes early and without the flood waters that occasionally temper those early season desires.

Nobody wants stable weather more than the river anglers who chase steelhead.

Lake Michigan Biologist Ben Dickinson says 210 fish moved upstream through the South Bend Ladder in January and another 439 in February through Thursday. And remember, those steelhead that moved in last fall — and didn’t get caught — are still there.

“We haven’t read the tapes recently because of the weather, but I would imagine several more fish have moved up since Feb. 10,” he said. “The gradual warmup in the forecast for early March should really jumpstart the spring steelhead run.”

The spring run also is weather dependent. The trout move up river to spawn and get active once the water temps steady at 39 degrees or above. The river was holding around 38 degrees late last week.

The steelhead will start spawning once the water temps get into the high 40s and the run typically peaks between the last two weeks of March and early April.

“Since we didn’t have much ice on Lake Michigan this winter, I would think that things could occur earlier,” Dickinson said.

Last fall’s crazy weather hampered the fall steelhead run. Those Michigan winter-run steelhead that stayed in Lake Michigan or in the lower St. Joe should move up and provide Hoosier anglers more opportunities.

There are indications that is happening. Steelhead angler Darrin Schaap of Clear H2o in Edwardsburg says river fishing has slowed for anglers fishing Berrien Springs, Mich. waters.

“With the steelhead numbers climbing at the South Bend dam, that tells me the fish in Michigan waters are starting to spread out,” he said. “A few fish are being caught from the lower river sections, but not in great numbers.”

Another bright spot has been the coho fishing for boat and shore anglers. Dickinson said the best fishing in Indiana waters has occurred in northwest Indiana waters while Michigan City has provided a few good days as well. He noted that Brad’s Thin Fish has produced best for boat anglers while shore anglers are picking up fish on spawn sacks, shrimp and jigs with waxworms.

Schaap said he’s hearing about good coho catches around southwest Michigan ports as well.

“They’ve been catching coho for the past month at St. Joseph, Mich. and other nearby ports,” he said.
“I’ve heard of several limits taken off the piers.”

Ice fishing

At the time of this writing, the ice fishing season remained in limbo. Some anglers were still venturing out on channels Thursday and Friday, but ice conditions were deteriorating.

And with the warmup expected today and tomorrow, it could be a sign that it’s all over.

“If you are going out, you better take a spud and check the ice and use a lot of common sense,” said Schaap. “When this ice goes, it will be gone for the year.”

Unfortunately, the winter’s best ice fishing occurred in mid-February when anglers were getting out on the main lakes as well as the channels. There were consistent reports of four to six inches of good ice and the panfishing was excellent.

“That was the most ice I’ve heard of all year and then the rains came,” said a dejected Brendon Sutter of the Tackle Shack in Middlebury, Ind.

Joe Denton of the Tackle Box in North Webster, Ind. said ice anglers were doing well for crappies and perch from Webster, Syracuse and Wawasee lakes before the rain.

But that’s probably not the case now. The shoreline ice was eroding on several area lakes and the heavy snow hasn’t helped.

That leaves the St. Joseph River as your best and safest prospect for fishing in the near future. It was the ace in the hole for diehards this winter.

For example, Sutter said smallmouth bass anglers with boats had a good winter on the upper Elkhart stretch.

“They weren’t catching a lot of fish, but they were getting good ones, like three-pounders,” he said. “They were using finesse baits, such as Ned rigs or other small profile plastics. They were fishing them very slow, right on the bottom.”

Denton noted he was getting good reports of walleye catches on the St. Joseph as well. Successful walleye anglers were fishing with minnows.