Iliff begins trolling in a zigzag pattern in the mouth of Burns Ditch and moves west along the beach, usually running planner boards and a two-color lead-core line as a flat line out the back. Rapalas in green and orange and dodgers in orange and chrome colors with blue-and-pearl colored flies are good, but his two top producers in shallow water are the red Artie crankbait and a small red walleye-sized dodger that he puts black dots on. His favorite is a small hand-made red fly that looks like a cluster of ladybugs.

Staging steelhead along the beach all tend to be the same distance out from the shoreline, and every day it will be different. If Iliff doesn't connect with fish, he moves out into deeper water and continues to zigzag his way across the beach area. The first couple of rock points and the breakwall are also worth a try.

"It's feast-or-famine fishing," Iliff said. "Fishing success here, as well as other creek mouths, is directly related to the flow of water coming out of the creeks. If it rains during the evening, they're upstream and gone."

Over the last couple of seasons, Iliff has found the trout offshore in 50-foot depths. The winning patterns for the largest fish have been Fishlander's Sister Sledge, Water Melon Glow and Yellow Tail spoons a foot off the bottom. The trout have been full of gobies, a fact that has surprised Iliff.

"I don't know how these top-feeders found the bottom, but they have, and in good numbers," Iliff said. "It's a changing fishery and anglers have to change with it."

Captain Mike Tapper of N' Pursuit Adventure Charters guides in this area as well.

"The fish will stage here until the ditch swells with fresh rainwater," Tapper said. "A light rain will move them upriver, while others come in to replace them from just offshore."

The mouth of the ditch and the beach areas west to the U.S. Steel breakwall has been top producers for Tapper. Planer boards, dodgers, flies and spoons on lead-core line trolled at about 3 knots are the mainstay. After the fish move up into the ditch, smaller boats can follow into the area west of the "Y" where it meets the Calumet River.

Fish will stage right in front of the breakwall, by the No. 4 marker at the Port of Indiana and the No. 2 marker at the port's entrance.

Anglers wanting to boat inland on Burns Ditch won't be able to go far, according to Mike Ryan of the Northwest Indiana Steelheaders. Boat access is fairly good for about half a mile upstream, but then the logjams can make the river impassable for larger boats. Bank-fishing and wading are about the only way to effectively fish the upper reaches of the ditch and then up into the Calumet.