They are back!!!!-Summer Steelhead Great Lakes style!!!-Join in on the Skamania mania

( Dr. Matt Zaccheo with a massive summer run St. Joe beasty mykiss )

It's been 23 years now that I've been chasing , guiding  and have a insatiable passion for Great Lakes summer Skamania Steelhead. And I'm so fortunate that I still sake with excitement when I see these magnificent Washington State transplants form the Washougal river- they are truly the most beautiful steelhead on this planet-bar none! Nowhere do steelhead get to be this large-(mid teens-20lb range) other than B.C., and fight with such a venomous power and aerial acrobatics as our Indiana/St .Joseph strain summer steelhead. They take swinging flies on two handers, sight nymphing and YES!, we occasionally get them to take foam beetles/terrestrials in the meniscus!

                                        ( Indiana spring creeks, the St. Jospeh and Big Manistee rivers get the largest runs of summer steels, and I'm very familiar with them all)

                                     ( Christina from New Jersey with her fisrt summer run)
 So if you are a steelheader that has experienced the cold blistering lake-effect snow and wind chills, you must have a run in with steelhead with shorts and sandals with they amazing beasts- the sheer aggression to the fly these fish have when fresh run is startling!

                                                ( Good client and friend, Gene Kelly from Boston , that had a spectacular day last summer 2017- it was an excellent run of very, very large steels, since Chinook populations are smaller, but everything is running bigger due to less competition for bait fish )

                                          ( Saltwater GT master, Chris Bamford, with a beast of a mykiss, on my Mykiss/mysis shrimp)

Ill be doing the Skamania steelhead tributaries with my Stealthcraft perfectly suited for all types of waters during late June, and all of July , August and into early September.

The fish that have been showing up at the piers this year are following the trend of large and well-fed which bods well for the summer. Indiana/Michigan stocks close to million summer steelhead smolts in three states, and they are alpha steelhead on steriods. 

                            ( Good client and summer fanatic Jeb from Virginia )

You can stay at the Inn/Resort at Harbor Shores right on Silver Beach, St. Joseph Michigan- one hour and 45 minute drive from Chicago.

                 link: https://www.innatharborshores.com/index.php

I highly recommend this resort and have done some hotel consulting there.They have a PGA (Senior open) golf course, outstanding outdoor dining/ restaurants, luxury rooms and spas, stunning sandy beaches ....lots of my clients bring their wife's and families since there is so much to do there. I'm fishing very close to there- plus a casino down the road- Four Winds New Buffalo....tons of fun for everybody- plus the outlet malls and Chicago are very close-by.

I still have a few prime openings in July and August...none of that cold/freezing weather stuff here- this is tropical steelheading!!!..Hope to see you this summer- email or call us for more info.....cheers!...more pics of beetles for Skamania/swinging

( Beetlegeuse !!!)

Cheers!,,,hope to see you this summer!!!

Matt

Posted in: Big Manistee , gray drake lodge , Great Lakes summer steelhead , Indiana Skamania , Skagit swinging , st.joe skamania , summer skamania steelhead