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By Louie Stout
Best Year Ever for River Steelhead?
This year’s St. Joseph River trout and salmon fishery is more like what fish managers envisioned when the ladders between Mishawaka and Lake Michigan were opened in 1993.
“It’s been one of the best fall runs, if not the very best for steelhead, going back to the 1990s,” said Lake Michigan biologist Brian Breidert.
The numbers bear that out. Through October, we’ve had 5,400 steelhead, 6,000 coho and a few kings and brown trout move above the South Bend dam. That’s more than 11,000 fish with a month to go in the fall/winter run.
During that same period in 2016, a total of 6,090 trout/salmon were in the upper St. Joe – about half as many as what we’re seeing this year.
And the fish are still coming. More than 1,000 fish ran through the South Bend ladder the last week of October alone.
Remember, says Breidert, November could be phenomenal.
“We average around 1,000 steelhead in November, so we should see that number climb even higher,” added Breidert. “We’re on track to have about 18,000 fish pass through South Bend before this fall/winter run ends.”
They’re being caught, too.
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By Louie Stout
Are You Making These Bow Hunting Mistakes?
Are you a bow hunter who continues to have problems finding and connecting with deer this fall?
Byron Ferguson, longtime bow hunting expert and book author, says he could probably pinpoint why.
In his book, “Become the Arrow,” (available from www.targetcommbooks.com) he outlines the 10 major bow hunting mistakes hunters make.
And with gun season only a couple of weeks away, many of these tips apply to all types of deer hunting.
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By Louie Stout
More Walleye Stocked in Indiana St. Joe
St. Joseph River walleye fishing got another shot in the arm last week with a strong stocking of hatchery fish.
Walleyes are planted in the Indiana section of the St. Joe every other year. Michigan plants them on upstream and downstream sections in alternate years.
Last week’s stocking consisted of 9,260 by the Indiana DNR at Maggies Landing in Mishawaka and another 2,000 compliments of the Michiana Walleye Association at Midway Bait and Tackle boat ramp in Osceola. The DNR stocking was about 1,000 more fish than it stocked in 2015. The club stocking remained the same as 2015.
All of the fish were purchased from the Gollon Fish Hatchery in Wisconsin which has provided the river walleye stockings for the past few years.
The recently stocked fish averaged 7 inches long with some larger.
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By Louie Stout
If you love to fish and can handle the cold weather, it's a good time to be on the water.
Especially the St. Joseph River.
A combination of steelhead and coho are providing an excellent fall run with more steelhead coming in daily.
Last week alone, there were 154 coho and 564 steelhead counted swimming past the South Bend ladder. That brings the October total to 1,448 steelhead and 1,465 coho. Throw in September numbers, and we've seen an influx of 2,329 steelhead and 6,023 coho between Twin Branch and South Bend dams over the past two months.
And since June, nearly 4,400 steelhead have moved upriver and will remain there until next spring.
Mike McNulty of Midway Bait and Tackle in Osceola says fishing for the trout and salmon has been pretty darn good.
"I had a guy tell me last weekend that the Twin Branch area was packed with anglers and nearly every one of them had caught a fish or two," said McNulty.
Spawn bags and inline spinners have been the hot baits.