steeliebob

I got 11 of them a week ago up north a couple of hogs in the bunch. A couple of good frys worth mmmm.

All the more reason to just keep dumping them in the lake.

So I can have a freezer full of lake trout, ha no thanks. They do make a good garden though.

At 2:00 pm yesterday the water was like glass in St Ignace not a wave anywhere. I wondered where it all went.

Everyone seems to think that the lake trout are there for native american commercial fishermen. There has to be a market for them otherwise they are no good. Lately there has not been much of a market for them. My neighbor is a commercial fisherman and he is always asking me if I want a lake trout.

Spawning steelhead are very much like a salmon they will take advantage of river conditions. If a river is high and muddy a steelhead will go upstream 100 miles or more in a couple of days if it can. They will spawn fast and use the high muddy water to escape and go back into the lake. Once the water is back to normal you will see lots of redds with few fish on them. Some of these fish will hole up so instead of fishing gravel get on the holes.

With less salmon migrating the fall steelhead are coming into the river later in the fall. The ones that I am catching are much larger but the numbers of fish are down. In the 1990's I used to land 10+ river steelhead pretty much every trip. Right now it is a skunk with a few caught here and there. I don't think that I have landed a steelhead under 5 lbs this fall. Not a problem catching spring steelhead I think that they come to Northern Michigan from all over the state due to colder and higher water. I know of places where if a guy wants to hike in to untouched waters you can see spawning steelhead by the thousands. They are there you just have to find them.

Alewives are an Atlantic Ocean fish. So how does a Pacific Ocean fish become so dependent on them? Also the Chinook and Coho have great spawning success in the Canadian and UP waters. Their success was so great that the Canadians quit planting them about 10 or so years ago. As for Lake Trout I keep every legal one that I can boat. I don't eat many of them but I find someone that will. If they want to get rid of the lake trout lower the size limit, increase the catch limit, and expand the season. There is no reason that they should have a closed season on them except maybe November and December.

Walleye and Pike have treated me good so far this summer. The salmon fishing in the straits has gone south so I hope that there is some steelhead to be caught.

I think that they are including a number of hypothermia cases to get the numbers up for their cause. If they save just one persons life their cause is very worthwhile.

You can count the number of fishing boats at the St Ignace boat launch on any given Saturday on three fingers or less. I have done it several times this summer.

When the bigger pike hit I thought I had a salmon for the first 15 minutes of the battle. It made a couple of screaming runs into the lake peeling off 100 yards of 8lb test in seconds. Then there was several shorter runs and eventually I saw what I hooked into.

Most of the guys on this site do not remember when alewives were out of control. They used heavy equipment on a daily basis to clean them off from the beaches in southern lake Michigan. Every wave deposited thousands of dead alewives, gulls could not eat them fast enough. At that time you could not find a gull unless it was on the shoreline eating alewives. I have seen them 3 feet deep and 25 feet back on the shore.

Looking at the postings on this site and other sites there seems to be plenty of alewives. If the DNR continues to stock less kings for the next two or three years the alewives will over run the lakes again. By the time the DNR gets back to 5 million salmon it will be too late because it takes them a couple of years before they do any damage to the alewives.

This is the way it is......So you have a $35000 boat and $15000 worth of gear designed for catching salmon. Sell it all for $20000 and suck up the loss or you be happy to catch lake trout, browns, steelhead, and atlantics. I think that the biologists have to get their head out of the mud because the alewives will rebound. When they do it will be faster and harder than the DNR anticipates them to. In other words they won't be able to plant enough salmon fast enough. The guys that quit salmon fishing and sell out are not going to turn around and get new gear.

I would like to have all of the money that the DNR will be losing in the next few years. I know that I sure have saved lots of money since the salmon numbers went south.

Does anyone know how the Wisconsin fishing is compared to the Michigan side of Lake Michigan? I would assume their experiences would be the same as ours.

Fair numbers in NE Wisconsin.

You think that the salmon are going to Canada to spawn. If they are coming up from Lake Huron and Lake Michigan you would think that the fishing would be good in the Straits. Good salmon fishermen are getting one fish per 7 trips. So far this year I have heard of two kings being caught out of St Ignace. Last year I caught 8 kings in a local river all fall August 1 through October 30. Don't hold your breath that they are spawning in the UP and Canada as they have to show up first. A great spawning year would help even with low numbers of salmon.

There is life after the salmon fishing has died. These were caught last night casting from shore. The bigger one weighed 15 pounds 38 inches and the smaller one was 12 pounds 34 inches. On light tackle they fight like a salmon and are pretty good eating.

The DNR is trying to sell everyone on Atlantic salmon. I don't think that many people will bite and it will be a big bust costing the DNR millions of dollars. If people sell their boats and get out of fishing for salmon they won't buy another boat to fish for atlantics that weigh on average 8 pounds. That is a joke. If the DNR wants atlantics they need to get the true atlantic salmon planted not the landlocked ones that currently get planted. People want salmon that grow to 30 pounds and rip line of from your reel. Most people don't want the lake trout either, they can't even free the hook from a release.

I quit salmon fishing, well not quite but close. I am having just as much fun catching pike that are just about as big as the salmon and are very good eating. THe ones in the photo are from last night 38 inch 15 pounds and 34 inches 12 pounds.

I checked everything out a few months ago be prepared to drop hundreds here there and everywhere. I strongly recommend getting a good business plan before you invest a dime. At age 18 I would join the coast guard and get my captains license through them. You will also get plenty of water time.You will also have a full time job at a location near water where you can start as a captain.

Nobody wants to talk about nets. I will throw my hat in the ring. Lots of salmon still going in tribal nets. I live by the Indians they take fish we plant and spend $ on

nobody can dispute this see it first hand

sure would be good if they stuck to the fish the great spirit planted vs the ones our license $ planted

I know lots of tribal fishermen and I asked them first hand on how many salmon that they caught last fall. Most pulled their nets early because the salmon were not there. In years when the tribal members caught loads of salmon I had no problem catching all that I wanted. Sure some get caught in the nets but there has always been enough for everyone. The big problem is that guys want to fish for salmon when the sun is blazing on the lake or river and they don't bite then.

I carry two extras but it helps when you put one of them in the boat before you launch. The boat filled with water so fast that I had to jump in the lake and put the plug in. I had to pull it back out and spent 20 minutes waiting for the water to drain out of it.

I was on the ice for the last time on 04/11 and got skunked. What a nice day to be out on Lake Michigan fishing for steelhead though. The temperature was 45 degrees and the sun was beating down on me. I watched a total of 13 golden and bald eagles throughout the morning. A variety of ducks and geese were landing on the open water. Time to put the tip ups and ice rods away for the next several months and get ready for some soft water action. I am sure that the spring runs will be starting up by the weekend. There are some nice pressure cracks out there so it is better to be safe than to go for a helicopter ride.

I managed to get on the hard water for a couple of days of Steelhead fishing. I changed techniques and managed to ice 4 of them and missed some more but it was fun. There is still plenty of ice but I don't expect it to last too long. We saw lots of wildlife between catching fish too. A great fishing weekend.

Going out ice fishing for them tomorrow. I really hope that they cooperate.