THE CHROME HEN STEELHEAD HAVE COME HOME TO ROOST!........AND WHAT TO DO WITH LEFT OVER SALMON FILLETS!

As the swallows come home to Capistrano, the first new year arrivals of fresh chrome hen steelhead always happens around the third week of January aligned with the howling wolf full moon cycle. Despite below zero temperatures and near freezing and low water levels on the rivers, the power of steelhead migration perseveres.
The magic of the steelhead's neuroendocrine pineal gland( the transparent brain window in the dermis) which measures light photo-period of daylight length, is triggered by the ever increasing length of daylight as the sun is now setting longer and longer each day.Despite there being ice on Muskegon Lake and Lake Michigan, this powerful gland which measures and synthesises melatonin through the enzyme hydroxyindole-o-methyltransperase (HIOMT),starts to trigger egg production and hormonal development. Steelhead and migrating salmonids are truly amazing organisms.

We are expecting a nice warm-up in the 30'sas the water levels continue to much appreciated rise-up to 1,610 cfs. Water temp anywhere from 34 to 36 Degree F depending on where you are at in the fishery.I posted a beautiful image of a hen steelhead taken  at last night's dusk. It took a cerise pink Matt's Great Lakes shrimp(Otter braid sucker spawn Tangerine with cerise and Krystal pearl flash-black mono eyes).Orvis Spey Rod, Airflo Delta floating line, Thill strike indicator and indy spey mending, This is very effective for very slow , near shore bubble line lies where this hen was found.
ALSO..........what to do with left over Atlantic/Pacific salmon pieces/end tails. Having our culinary weekend just passed, we did grilled farm-raised Chilean Atlantic salmon Provencale in my last blog. I had several end pieces of fillets left, so for something different, do a pasta dish!
Linguine with pesto, roasted red bell pepper, artichokes and olive, grill the salmon fillets and BHAM!......you got a great Mediterranean pasta! Flake off the salmon into the pasta, plenty of crushed black ground pepper and you have a killer dish----as Rach would say.........Delish!

 Or next Culinary weekend is the Valentine's Italian Amore with Chef Frank - we have 4 couples signed up and we have room for two more. It will be Tuscan cuisine at its finest and there should be more steelhead in the river- next full moon is a Valentine's moon and that's when the pretty lady steelhead really start their migration

Posted in: atlantic salmon , cuisine/cooking , gray drake , michigan steelhead , muskegon river , Otter eggs , pasta , pineal gland , spey fishing , trout eagle lodge and outfitters , winter steelhead fly fishing