STEELHEAD TROUT
Lake Michigan is home to two different strains of steelhead trout: summer-run Skamania strain steelhead and winter-run Michigan strain fish. In reality, steelhead are actually nothing more than rainbow trout. Rainbows are trout that live their entire lives in small lakes or rivers, while steelhead are rainbow trout that live out in the ocean and migrate into rivers and streams to spawn. Lake Michigan takes the place of the ocean for our steelhead, and they migrate into Lake Michigan’s tributaries to spawn. Like their saltwater counter-parts, our steelhead get big!

According to biologist Breidert, the steelhead fishing this year should be excellent, too.

“In 2008, steelhead anglers should find very good fishing in the streams,” he said. “More fish were released in the fall of 2005 to offset the year that Mixsawbah was under construction.”

A quick look at the stocking numbers tells it all: In 2004, nearly 335,000 steelhead were stocked in Lake Michigan tributaries. In 2005, a whopping 645,576 steelhead were planted. That’s an incredible number of steelies!

Boat anglers will catch a few steelhead in the spring, but most of the steelhead action out on the lake usually doesn’t start in June. That’s when the first summer-run Skamania begin to show up at the creek mouths in Michigan City (Trail Creek) and Portage (Little Calumet River). When they appear, the lake comes alive with leaping fish as fishermen hook up and yell, “Fish on!”

Skamania-strain steelhead are long and slender, and grow to larger sizes than their Michigan-strain cousins. They love to become airborne once hooked, and they are difficult to land successfully. The average-sized Skamania is about 10 pounds, and 15-pounders are definitely possible during the height of the run.

Summer-run Skamania arrive in June, but they may not enter the creeks until July or even August, especially if the water temperature in the streams is too high. If that’s the case this year, they will mill around in near the creek mouth until conditions improve -- providing an extended period of exciting fishing for lucky anglers nearby. The first heavy rain, however, is usually enough to send them upstream in a flash.

While the steelhead are staging in front of the creek mouths, two types of lures are generally the most productive for trollers. The most popular is a thin trolling spoon, painted fluorescent red on both sides. Another favorite spoon color is silver with a splash of red or silver on one side and orange on the other. The other type of lure favored by Skamania hunters is the body-bait. Either slender jointed models or rattling crankbait types, as long as they are red or orange, they will catch fish!

Winter-run steelhead, as the name implies, do not appear for their spawning run until the cold weather of winter is upon us. They can still be caught out in the wide expanses of the lake, though, and they will hit many of the same baits that anglers use for Skamania-strain steelhead.

BROWN TROUT
Last year was the sixth year in a row that our state’s biologists stocked brown trout into Indiana waters, which is a very good thing. Before 2002, it had been decades since Indiana had stocked browns in our own waters. Through a deal worked out with the Illinois DNR, however, Indiana’s biologists have been able to stock anywhere from 35,000 to 46,000 brown trout per year right here in our own back