Fresh spawn

Solid fish from Lake Huron there bro, nice!

You can launch right at the mouth there, very nice docks. They've caught a lot of steelhead out there this summer, and more salmon than normal.

So weird, but I've did just fine whacking fish on Vanish. I've landed kings, cohos, and all seasons of steelhead on it. I ran Seaguar flouro(4lb) back in spring of 2003 for the first time. I broke off two big hens at shore on back to back drifts at the mouth of the Au Sable one morning, and never used it again. All around, I like green Max.

Although kings are fun, you can't beat a solid mixed fishery like Huron!

Nice work! Does it seem like the atlantics are a bit behind schedule?

Nice fish. I love LRB's, they're my second favorite to steelhead. I've got a 28 and 23lber, and a handful in the 15-18lb range. I've gotten to the point where anything under 20 no big deal. All my big browns were from the East side of the state.

Need to hit HB, GS or PA; from the sounds of other reports, it's pretty decent. Kings, coho, and steelhead, and of course grease trout.

Sure been some solid spring kings from Lake Huron this year, there must've been a fair uptick in smelt.

Nice. I caught my first steelhead from ol' 9th st, always fun to fish there.

Nice dude! Are you sure that bigger "coho" isn't a steelhead? Really looks like it, but hard to tell. The other two kings are nice spring fish as well.

You boaters are boxing limit after limit every weekend, who eats that many? I hope there's only 3 limits in the freezer.

Port Austin, Tawas, Oscoda, Alpena and Rogers City are all spots to try for brown trout in the spring in Lake Huron. We used to do great along the shoreline out from Singing Bridge, but haven't tried in years.

The great thing about Lake Huron at those spots in the spring, is atlantic salmon, as well as steelhead are caught with the browns. They get a lot of coho around the Thumb as well, during spring.

but they were pretty unreluctant to bite. Not sure if the storm had em shut down or what.

The Bay wasn't the only place, same thing seemed to be happening on the Au Sable last week as well bro, fish just seemed off the bite. We got fish, but all but 2 were after the storm passed. The fish in the morning were very light on the bite and felt like they were just mouthing it.

The strain of steelhead collected from the Little Manistee are actually just called Michigan steelhead. The Skamania are raised by Indiana, and Michigan trades for them, they are only planted below Tippy, but no eggs are taken there. Don't know where Indiana gets eggs from.

Yeah, I worded it a bit confusing. I meant that as the Big Man is the only skam plant. I know it's the MI strain, just being specific. I believe IN gets their broodstock from Trail Creek and the Joe, below Berrien.

Wisconsin and Michigan both plant 3 to 6 varieties of steelhead

MI only stocks Little Manistee strain and Skamania(Big Manistee). WI plants a few kinds though, and we get them in the NW here every year. I caught a pretty Kamloops a couple years ago in March.

Smart man releasing those brown plants, glad to see someone with some sense. Great job on the steelhead, sounds fun.

Bob, how's landing a chromer by hand with a tip up? I bet it's a chore at times huh?

I don't think Kings will ever be back to anything near what they once were on Lake Huron. There will just be a few, healthy chinook around. I think they should focus on atlantics, LRB's and steelhead more for Lake Huron, as far as salmonoids. I wish they(FEDS) would cutback on the laker plants for a few years, there's a TON of them. It would be cool if cohos could get more established on the MI side of the lake. There's a few that run certain rivers every fall, but they're in pretty small numbers.

No, lack of Alewives combined with too many salmon was the downfall of Lake Huron's chinook fishery. Mussels have hit Lake Huron very, very significantly. Browns, lakers, steelhead, walleyes etc all are willing to feed on a more varied diet, which chinook are not. Lake Huron has large browns, lakers are getting bigger, but steelhead are smaller then they used to be. Walleyes are still large in certain areas, but the huge numbers around the Sag Bay area has dropped the overall numbers of larger fish in that part of the lake. Atlantics seem solid as far as health, and the runs seem better each year.

Just read local newspaper today. A new world record brown trout was caught in Racine Wisconsin July 16th. It weighed a whopping 41 pounds 8 ounces

That fish topped a 41-7 caught on the MI side of the pond last year(which topped a 36+ a couple before that). Both sides have huge fish, but WI has great numbers. They seem to put a lot more effort into their brown fishery then we do. MI seems to focus the more on kings, which I think sucks.

I agree fully with the poster above.

It's great to see our DNR trying different things to better the fishery. It's been proven LRB's do very well once they survive to a year. Although they are planting less numbers overall, the 12-13" size and fall plant is going to vastly improve the numbers that make it to maturity; as long as pier guys don't keep them.

Great fish, I'll be on the East side next week!

The average size up there is much larger then Saginaw

There and around the Thumb(Grindstone/Port Austin). The bay has almost to many walleye anymore, you see some scrawny ones all through the year. The heavy angler harvest(and it is HEAVY) is probably a good thing, and is what keeps them from over-eating. Between them and the overabundance of lakers, the bait pods take quite the hit.

Lake Huron has really slid mostly for kings, everything else has been fair. You get a crazy mixed bag up in the northern basin(everything, often on the same trip) and walleyes, lakers, steelhead in the southern basin. There's been a few guys who've stuck it out, and have did well as they've adapted to the new Lake Huron. Lake Huron's alewife/salmon crash really showed who the "fisherman" were; as soon as the easy fishing was gone, so were 95% of the people. Unfortunanetly, Lake Michigan will fall as well, despite what everyone over here thinks.