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Northern Indiana?

3K views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  Pat Bahan 
#1 ·
I've been off the forum for a couple years. Cancer, then the flood of '08:Eyecrazy:
I can't believe how dead this forum is. Has anyone seen any sign of summer run fish in Northern IN? I've been rebuilding since '08 and am about ready to loose my cookies. I ordered a new spey rod today to sooth my nerves:smokin:
Now I need chrome to try it on.
 
#2 ·
Hi,
Yeah. Except for Stripers and Coastal Gamefish, this Forum has become a bit of a dead-zone. Thanks for returning and posting, especially on a nearly forgotten topic.

I had no idea there were Steelhead in northern Indiana. What rivers are they in and what is the stock's origin? From your post, I gather at least some of these fish must be late summer runs.

Curious in Waldport
 
#3 ·
I'm new to this site. Glad your feeling better Pat, at least your thinking about fishing so that's a good thing. What spey rod did you end up ordering? I fish the Salmon River in NY and I just started fishing the two hander for them after years of single handed and even used a noodle rod for a season. I really like getting them on the swing though.
 
#4 ·
Eric said:
Hi,
Yeah. Except for Stripers and Coastal Gamefish, this Forum has become a bit of a dead-zone. Thanks for returning and posting, especially on a nearly forgotten topic.

I had no idea there were Steelhead in northern Indiana. What rivers are they in and what is the stock's origin? From your post, I gather at least some of these fish must be late summer runs.

Curious in Waldport
I haven't fished there in quite some time, but the two rivers I used to fish were Trail Creek and Burns Ditch. Neither were truly rivers, but the water was usually clear and the steelhead of good size. Most of the Indiana fish I think are Skamanias with a few Little Manistee strain fish as well. I haven't fished it, but the St. Joe is also a very well known steelhead river in Indiana that stretches from South Bend all the way into Michigan. That's a true river, for sure. I'm betting there's more.
 
#5 ·
OK, where to start. First there is the St. Joe in the South Bend/Michiwaka area(steelies are stopped from upriver migration at the Michiwaka dam). Then there are the rivers/streems in the Northwest corner of Indiana, Trail Creek, Calamet, Little Calamet, etc. As was said, St. Joe is a real river, and where I have done most of my steelie fishing. St. Joe can require some long casting when wading, which is all I do there. That's why I want to master the Spey rod. To this point I have used a 10' 8/9 wt, one hand rod, that I built from a Cabela's green blank many years ago. It gets pretty good distance, and definately has the backbone, but there are times I can't reach the places I need to hit there because depth prevents me from wading further.
I have fished some of the Trail Creek tributaries. One place shown to me by an IDNR biologist, was no more than 20' across at the wide places but had big steelies in all the holes. A short rod was the rule rather than the exception. Its really hard to convince oneself to let them run out of the pool and down the runs in there, but of course popping off is all horsing them got me. :tsk_tsk:
As far as the strains, IDNR has worked to maintain a mix of summer run Skamania and winter run fish. This should in theory keep fish in the rivers a good deal of the year. In a hot dry year like this however, the water temps/levels delay tne runs. That was the original thrust of my quiry. I was hoping that someone had started to find fish in one of the rivers, esp. the St Joe, but if they have they aint sayin' :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
 
#6 ·
caddisfly4

I ordered the Cabela's 1409. (The rod has arived but I haven't gotten it on the water yet) I have a St. Croix 15' 11wt in the closit, that I never mastered. I thought I might do better with a lighter wt rod. I have been watching all the clips on-line that I could find since I placed the order. I have concluded that most of my distance problems with the St. Croix were in my technique. I may not have had the best line on it for that rod ether. I have been on the spey-pages the last week. I finally recieved some good info but all I was getting for a while was "sell one of your rods and take a lesson in spey casting". I was getting a bit frustrated until someone finally directed me to the RIO web page on speyrod/line matchups. I have also ordered an instructional dvd so hopefully I can clean up my technique a bit and begin to enjoy the two handd rods.
 
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