Skamania and a New Record

July has been good!!! Browns including a few giants, some Steelheads, and a couple Kings. Until last week’s deluge, things were pretty consistent and we caught a lot of fish on alewives, jigging spoons, and tube jigs. As usual for July, pearl tubes are hot and I did the August column for Midwest outdoors on the subject.

Also right now, I have an article running in The In-Fisherman (August-September Issue) on the basics of collecting, keeping, and fishing live alewives for trout and salmon. So, there is my shameless plug for all the articles I have running right now.

Skamania Steelhead

I was asked to talk a little about catching Skamania. For starters, catch’em up now while you can. They stopped stocking them a couple years ago for VHS reasons. Right now they are stocking the traditional Chambers Creek and Ganaraska. Those are also great steelhead, but they aren’t a Skamania.

You know when you hook one. It will spend just as much time out of the water as in the water and is probably one of the fastest fish out there in Lake Michigan. I remember one of the biggest one I ever caught, a fish near 40”, I had hooked near the Summerfest grounds. I was working a spoon deep along the bottom when it crushed it. It set the hook on this fish in 20+ feet of water, my line buried straight down in the depths. I signaled fish-on to my father and within two seconds there is a huge steelhead leaping from the water about three feet into the air. I said, “There’s another one jumping”. Well, it wasn’t another one. It was the same one. My rod still buried in front of me and a giant Skamania leaping out 100 feet away. That fish went from the bottom to air-born so quick that my line couldn’t keep up. After a few more seconds I was finally able to get the belly out of the line and stay connected where she made five or six more leaps and tore up the surface. Mike Schwister described a typical steelhead fight he had last week while fishing out of his kayak. I got him.. no I lost him, no I still got him…. They run away from you, at you, leap, and start all over again. I have always said that it is easier to land a 30 pound King than a 10 pound Steelhead. Fighting a Skamania is like watching those professional bull riders. You hook up and hang on for dear life for the first 8-10 seconds. If you make it through that, you have a good chance at whipping them.

They are strange feeders. They typically want to be near the surface and will follow cold water if it is near the surface. You hear about charters having to go out to 300-350 feet of water in order to find the right temps in the top 25 feet of water.

As far as targeting them near shore, like anything else the water temps need to be right. Upper fifties are perfect, but any warmer and they will be non-biters even if they choose to stay. Down in Michigan City in the hay-days of Skamania, anglers used night crawlers under a slip-float for them. I tried that here and never had any success. Spoons and spinners are probably the best artificial with a live alewife being the best live bait. The biggest one I ever saw taken from shore was caught on an alewife fillet suspended below a float. Yes, just slice a fillet off an alewife and put a hook through one end. The gentle bouncing of the waves makes the fillet look pretty tantalizing. But they do love spinners. Big spinners like #5 Mepps. There was a craze out on the pier for a while to make a plain silver spinner using a big size 6 or 7 fluted Musky blade. It really works. Some big Steelhead and even salmon were taken on this big hard pulling flasher. You can get the blades at Reinkes. Its big hardware, but they love it at times.

The World Record Brown Trout

How can I not mention that WE (Wisconsin) now can claim to be the holder of the world record Brown Trout. Forty one pounds 8 ounces smashing the state record by 5 pounds! Just nudging the old world record by an ounce, now the world is taking notice. We are now the Flaming Gorge, the Tierra del Fuego Argentina, the White River Arkansas. Those were the destinations for the biggest Brown Trout in the world. Now it’s right here, Lake Michigan.

Wisconsin has the record! I haven’t been this excited since the High Flyers took back the belt from the Heenan family (back when it was real… wink)

I have a few speculations I will share with you next time along with some insight from fish scientist and goby guru Dr. John Jannsen.

The water got a little warm as of late. West winds will have us back in action. Try some smallie fishing till things cool off.

Till next time, tight lines and smooth drags!
Marc

McKinley Musky

OK, if you haven’t seen it yet here it is. A 48” Musky that was caught off the McKinley Breakwall on Wednesday July 6th. (Photo by Jim La Rose) I got word now that the angler was identified so maybe some information can be collected from it.

It appears to be a Great Lakes Spotted Musky, but where did it come from. Did it migrate from the Green Bay area recently? Did it migrate 10 years ago and live in our harbor all this time. Unless the DNR can make some type of positive ID, we will never know.

But it does make for some interesting speculation. Everything else in our harbor, inner-harbor, and adjoining rivers thrive here. World class brown trout, steelhead, salmon, giant pike, and even bass and walleyes these days. Why not muskies? Plenty of habitat. A warm water sanctuary in the winter. And, more than enough to eat. Alewives, big gobies, loads of suckers, perch, small trout, and all winter long huge gizzard shad. And, thousands of acres of water without leaving the harbor.

A musky is about the only thing that I haven’t caught along our Lake Michigan shoreline in the past 38 years, but maybe it isn’t all that crazy. Back in the late 1970’s I’d have never believed that you could catch a smallmouth bass here in our harbor, and look at that fishery now. The same with Walleyes. You can actually target these species and catch them now. Jeeze, they held the Bassmaster Classic in Chicago’s harbor. That would have been a science fiction story back in 1978.

It isn’t the first I’ve heard about Muskies in the area. Years ago the DNR would find one here and there in the fyke nets they placed out in front of the old Pieces O Eight. That area that the old timers always called Oyster Bay has always been a great Pike spot and even one of the consistent places to hunt them back in the 1980’s. It was always one of the few areas that held weeds. Now weed growth is back and Pike and Bass populations are up. It is possible that a few Muskies could be roaming those weed beds too.

So is it a fluke? Ya, probably. You won’t see me out there chucking a custom painted Baby Brown Trout Suick (although I will have them available at http://www.jacksonlures.com/......... Just kidding, caaalm down!) in hopes that lightning will strike twice, but it sure made people sit up and take notice. There will be a lot of water cooler and tackle shop counter talk about this one. I haven’t seen a photo passed around the internet this fast since Paris Hilton made a home movie.

To the angler who caught it, bravo to you. Yes, he whacked it and could have released it… blah, blah, blah, whatever. I’m not going there. It’s a legendary fish for the pier. Scott Walker should pony up $600 for the guy to get it mounted and hang it in the McKinley pavilion for everyone to see. Just like the meat department at Trigs in Eagle River! Who doesn’t stop to look at a Musky hanging on the wall, right! It’s Wisconsin. We love a stuffed Musky as much as we love rummage sales, cream puffs, the booze paddle game at the church festival, and the chicken dance (Bob Kames, god rest his soul).

So next time you get bit off without a tug, get an alewife back that is shredded to ribbons, or see one of those big gizzard shad float up in the inner-harbor that look like Freddy Krueger went medieval on it, you will just have to wonder now.

Tight lines and smooth drags…….
Marc