By Louie Stout

The warm fall weather hasn’t been kind to the trout and salmon run on the St. Joseph River this year.

Warm, dry weather, followed by copious amounts of rain, have limited the number of coho and steelhead running into the St. Joseph River.

Not that it’s been bad; it’s just that many hoped for a better return.

Lake Michigan Biologist Ben Dickinson noted this week that the numbers of fish passing through the South Bend Fish Ladder – so far - are in line with the long-term average.

About 1,600 steelhead and 1,250 coho have been counted through the ladder as of Thursday. The river also has seen 36 kings and 6 browns.

Last year those numbers were quite similar, yet the previous two years they were considerably higher.

And while the coho run is pretty much history, Dickinson still holds hope a few more Skamania will move up-river along with the traditional winter run of Michigan steelhead.

“The river temps have been so warm, and then we may have gotten too much rain and that hampered fishing,” he said. “The water temperatures have been coming down substantially and cool weather remains in the forecast so we could see some more fish move in.”

The average water temperature in September from 2011 through 2017 was 69 but the river ran 71 through most of September this year. The first week of October the river was 66 and the long-term average is 62.

If that doesn’t seem like much, it can make a difference.

The somewhat disappoint numbers of steelhead returning to streams during the fall isn’t strictly an Indiana problem. Dickinson said biologists around the lake have noted a similar trend, along with rising numbers of steelhead during the spring.

“Some anglers and biologists speculate it is temperature related and that the steelhead are staying in the lake longer and not making the spawning run until spring,” says Dickinson. “But at this point, no one really knows.”

On a brighter spot, he said the Skamania moving into the river have been good size and quite a few big ones were caught in the lake last summer.