By Louie Stout

How weather has stymied what was a pretty good steelhead push into Lake Michigan tributaries, but it seems to be heating up the perch bite on Lake Michigan.

Lake Michigan Biologist Ben Dickinson said anglers had been catching steelhead pretty good off the pier and by trolling the 40- to 70-foot zone the past few weeks but it has slowed down with the rising water temperatures.

The same is true for the steelhead run up the St. Joseph River. A couple hundred fish were counted passing through the South Bend Ladder but higher river temperatures has slowed the progression of fish into the river.

Trail Creek in Michigan City, Ind., which runs cooler than the St. Joe, was getting a pretty good run.

“We started collecting brood stock Monday and got quite a few, but the water temps got into the 70s and we stopped trapping them,” Dickinson said of the Trail Creek run. “We need some cooler weather and rain in our tributaries to get the fish moving again.”

The perch fishery on Lake Michigan has been kind of a hit and miss thing but the fish being caught are dandies. Dickinson said he hasn’t heard of a lot limit catches but the fish being caught are running 10 to 13 inches with an occasional 14.

“They’re getting a lot of nice ones over in the western part of the state, too,” he added.

That’s where trout and salmon action seems to be more consistent as well. Michigan City area has fewer fish, he said, but the East Chicago area has produced good catches of 7- to 9-pound coho, a few kings and some brown trout.