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By Louie Stout
Steelhead, crappies and coho are providing Michiana anglers with the best action this week as area waters start to slowly warm up.
The St. Joseph River trout and salmon run is pushing record portions. Indiana Lake Michigan Biologist Brian Breidert said this week that the 2017-18 river migration is the second greatest since stocking efforts began some 20 years ago.
From June through April 5, more than 20,000 trout and salmon have passed through the South Bend fish ladder. That includes more than 6,000 coho that came and left last fall.
The steelhead numbers are what counts right now. Since June of last year, nearly 8,000 steelhead have moved up river. As good as that is, this season still trails last year when nearly 15,000 passed.
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By Louie Stout
Indiana’s St. Joe River Producing Quality Pike
Most people know the St. Joseph River provides excellent bass fishing throughout most of Indiana and Michigan waters.
They also know that, from the Twin Branch Dam to Lake Michigan, trout and salmon fishing can be spectacular during the spring, fall and into the winter.
It’s also well known that the river has developed a pretty good walleye fishery thanks to stocking efforts and that bluegill fishing has improved remarkably throughout the river system.
But one fish that isn’t getting the recognition it deserves is the northern pike.
Mike Boisseau of South Bend wants to change that.
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By Louie Stout
The weather may be cold and damp but the fishing is red hot for trout and salmon anglers.
The steelhead run in Indiana waters is shaping up to be one of the best ever while inshore coho fishing on Lake Michigan has been on fire.
More than 5,000 steelhead swam through the South Bend ladder this month to join several thousand that swam upriver last fall.
“This is the best March we’ve had since we started keeping records in 2008,” said Lake Michigan Biologist Brian Breidert. “From March 1 through the 27th, we averaged 191 steelhead (passing through the South Bend ladder) a day.”
Fish are being caught, too, although not many anglers are taking advantage of it given the colder weather.
Mike McNulty of Midway Bait in Osceola said the best action seems to be at Twin Branch and in Central Park. Spawn and inline spinners are producing best.
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By Louie Stout
Good fishing isn’t entirely dependent on fish stockings or bag and size limits.
The challenges facing fish managers of today have less to do with those matters and more to do with what is happening on land around our waters.
As in land management.
Admittedly, that topic isn’t as stimulating as reports of big fish catches, large stockings or successful spawns.
But it has a direct affect, and perhaps a serious adverse effect, on the future of successful fishing.
Think about it: water runs off farm fields, parking lots and neighborhood developments, trickles into rivers and ditches and ultimately wind up in lakes connected to those streams. That water carries sediment, phosphates and nitrates, all of which have a negative effect on habitat and water quality, which in turn affects fish, especially during and after the spawn.
Federal, state, and county conservation districts have worked hard for year to get land users to alter their practices that would reduce runoff and allow our waters to improve.