THEY'RE BACK!!!.........AND BIGGER-SUMMER CHROME IS COMING HOME!

Yes my friends, the summer Skamania run is looking "real good" so far this year! After a dismal run in 2010 with extreme heat, almost non- existent water flows and a boiling hot lake with what was feared to have few bait fish, man how things can change in a year.
 Summer runs have been showing up in the St. Joseph for about 3 weeks now, and after this heat spell, temperatures are going to rebound to more cooler, seasonal weather.
 And the fish are running really big- on the huge size! My sources have confirmed bruiser steelhead and Brian Breidert of the Indiana DNR is really impressed with the size of fish so far. He told me he has heard and seen reports of fish from 17-22 lbs-( like the old days-99'-2001) when alewife bait fish populations were at a high. Fish have already been taken in South Bend which is very impressive for this time of year! A cool spring with lots of rain and water has accelerated things and brought the run somewhat back to normal like the 90's. 
Over the past four years we've seen some smaller Skamania- but not this year.
This link at Michigan Live may be telling the 'good news"- tons of bait fish in the big lake which as we all know is extremely cyclical. But for now, there are a shit load of bait and the steelhead have been chowing down on them. On the Muskegon at Croton Dam, the bait and hardware guys have been picking up stray summer run steelhead also at the 6th street Dam in Grand Rapids. This usually is a good sign of a diversity of strong year classes in the fish and good precipitation and flows.

 This is a great sign for the rest of the summer and what fall will bring. Brian has said he is seeing Coho salmon up to 13 lbs!........can't wait for late summer/ fall!

 We still have some dates available for summer steelhead and you owe it to yourself to hook into these massive chrome "great lakes tarpon"- they are one of the hardest fighting fish we have in the Great Lakes and absolutely spectacular raw beauty!thttp://www.mlive.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2011/07/alewives_show_up_in_force_alon.html

Posted in: gray drake lodge , Indiana Skamania , michigan fly fishing , muskegon trout steelhead , st.joe skamania , summer steelhead , trout eagle lodge and outfitters