Photo By Dick Swan.

Skamania trout have been attracting a solid following of dedicated anglers for their summer migration up Lake Michigan tributaries for years. It's no surprise. These fish are hard-hitting, bait-slashing brutes that will tear up light fishing gear.

"The average-sized Skamania in the summer is approaching about 10 pounds and measuring 28 to 29 inches," said fisheries biologist Brian Breidert of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Lake Michigan office. "Fish reaching from 32 to 36 inches are taken every year."

According to Breidert, the trout numbers were down a little last year and the fishing was a little slow, but there were still good numbers of fish.

Skamania start staging near the shoreline in the Burns Ditch and Trail Creek areas when the wind is in a southerly direction. The wind pushes the warm, shallow water out into the lake and pulls the cooler Lake Michigan water in underneath it. The steelhead will follow the cooler water in, and when the streams flood, the fish will head upstream. Given enough rain, Skamania will continue moving up into Trail Creek and Burns Ditch throughout the summer months and into the fall.

"Watching the weather and wind patterns is the key to successful lakefront steelhead fishing," Breidert said. "When the fish move upstream, they'll be found under logjams and in the deeper pools. They'll go as far upstream as they need to go to find suitable gravel substrate for spawning. When they're moving, they'll be spread out the length of the rivers from one end to the other."

By late June, these trout start returning to the streams where they were stocked by the DNR and the action usually picks up in July. Spawning takes place in February and March, and though most of the fish will move back out into the deeper Lake Michigan waters, many of the trout will stay upstream in the Trail Creek, Burns Ditch Calumet River waterways to create a year-round fishery.

Over 226,000 Skamania were stocked in 2005 and this year-class should be joining the spawning runs this summer.

The offshore areas near Trail Creek and Burns Ditch are major holding areas. The fish will stack up until the rivers rise and they move upstream in droves. Within hours, the new arrivals will start stacking up again to wait their turn.

"The nearshore Burns area is where I usually take my steelhead-seeking clients in July and August," said Captain Doug Iliff of Anglers-Adventure Fishing Charters.