# 2021 St Joe River Fish Ladder Updates



## wilsonm

We checked and cleaned the ladders today and Paddle and Pole got the web cam back on for the 2021 season. Fish are moving through Berrien at a decent clip. There were about 40 to 50 in the ladder this morning. A mix of fresh and winter fish. Some real brutes in there as well. Good luck!






Berrien Springs Fish Camera


View the Fish Ladder Camera at the Berrien Springs Dam. Watch in real time as Steelhead and Salmon make their migratory journey through the fish ladder.



paddleandpole.com


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## riverbob

wow that a lot fish moving through for march 2, i wonder if there's a pod coming through or just a bunch of fish that were stacked up behind a clogged ladder, what say mr. wilsonm


wilsonm said:


> We checked and cleaned the ladders today and Paddle and Pole got the web cam back on for the 2021 season. Fish are moving through Berrien at a decent clip. There were about 40 to 50 in the ladder this morning. A mix of fresh and winter fish. Some real brutes in there as well. Good luck!
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> Berrien Springs Fish Camera
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> View the Fish Ladder Camera at the Berrien Springs Dam. Watch in real time as Steelhead and Salmon make their migratory journey through the fish ladder.
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> paddleandpole.com


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## wilsonm

riverbob said:


> wow that a lot fish moving through for march 2, i wonder if there's a pod coming through or just a bunch of fish that were stacked up behind a clogged ladder, what say mr. wilsonm


By looking at the 4 pm and 5pm hour slot, a bunch of fish are moving through. The ladder has been open the whole time so it's not like we were backing them up. River temp just hit 40 degrees today at Niles. For any that aren't aware, once the fish cam is playing, if you right click on the video, then left click "this frame", then left click "show only this frame" you can view previous hour time blocks at various speeds.


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## riverbob

wilsonm said:


> By looking at the 4 pm and 5pm hour slot, a bunch of fish are moving through. The ladder has been open the whole time so it's not like we were backing them up. River temp just hit 40 degrees today at Niles. For any that aren't aware, once the fish cam is playing, if you right click on the video, then left click "this frame", then left click "show only this frame" you can view previous hour time blocks at various speeds.


 Thanks Mike, but now u made me jumpy, (thinkin all them fish r shooting by me on the grand) I guess i'll put the electric on the boat n shoot down to the creek n have a look see tomorrow, thanks again


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## Directrix

This is really, really cool. Thanks for sharing!


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## wilsonm

riverbob said:


> Thanks Mike, but now u made me jumpy, (thinkin all them fish r shooting by me on the grand) I guess i'll put the electric on the boat n shoot down to the creek n have a look see tomorrow, thanks again


We will be opening up Weber, Portland and Grand Ledge tommorow. Eastmanville USGS gauge got up to 35 degrees on the Grand today so it's 5 degrees behind the Joe. That 39 - 40 degree mark really gets them moving.

And a real big shout out to Pete from Paddle and Pole who makes this web cam possible for all of us. He has and still puts a lot of his own money into it to make it happen.


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## mjh4

Wow, they are really on the move. I just put the ice fishing gear away, time to break out the steelie rods. 


Sent from my iPhone using Michigan Sportsman


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## slowpaya

well,after the incident on tamarack lake,done with ice fishing down here.probably drag the battery(god its heavy)back out for the motorboat


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## wilsonm

Good numbers of steelhead in the ladder yesterday and a fair number of boats and shore fisherman at Berrien.


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## PTPD2312

Fished the river the other day. Water is way way down and only saw 2 steelhead caught in 10 hours of fishing. Lots of suckers being caught. Looks like the first push of fish happened about two weeks ago. Hopefully it isn't over yet...


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## riverbob

PTPD2312 said:


> Fished the river the other day. Water is way way down and only saw 2 steelhead caught in 10 hours of fishing. Lots of suckers being caught. Looks like the first push of fish happened about two weeks ago. Hopefully it isn't over yet...


seen quite a few going threw in the night time, must b the year, of the no biters


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## slowpaya

PTPD2312 said:


> Fished the river the other day. Water is way way down


the usgs michigan site is covered in orange and red dots ,looks really bad for springtime
word gets around about RBob,they are trying to sneak by him at night . but he has security cams set on the riffles
on top of everything else its the sunniest march on record


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## PTPD2312

Seems like these fish are just passing on by instead of the normal staging. One of these days I'll figure them out.


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## wilsonm

Missed a couple updates as others were checking and cleaning the ladders and we were in full spring field season mode. Checked the ladders today. There were about 7 to 10 adult steelhead in the upper wells of Berrien Springs ladder with at least a couple being fresh chrome and a few others being in the river not much longer than that. The ladder was filled with steelhead smolts migrating downstream although they weren't sure which way to go when the water was lowered. Hundreds of them in the upper wells. View the noon block on the webcam today to see all of them on the drawdown when I as cleaning. I did see 2 or 3 adult steelhead each in Buchanan and Niles also although it's hard to spot them in those ladders during cleaning.


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## slowpaya

cool,thanks Mike


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## CaughtMoreCatfishOnTinder

Been seeing quite a few chrome skams moving through the ladder camera this past couple days. Looks like most the steelhead that were staging out front made there way into the river. This week of forecasted rain is going to push all these guys up i'd expect.


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## riverbob

CaughtMoreCatfishOnTinder said:


> Been seeing quite a few chrome skams moving through the ladder camera this past couple days. Looks like most the steelhead that were staging out front made there way into the river. This week of forecasted rain is going to push all these guys up i'd expect.


sure is a lot of them, i think when the river here (grand) calms down, i'll go out in see if i can't find a few of them, st. joe strays


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## CaughtMoreCatfishOnTinder

Seeing another pod of Fish pushing through


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## wilsonm

About 20 in the ladder at Berrien yesterday when I cleaned it and lots going thru late this afternoon and this evening


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## slowpaya

thanks for cleaning that up Mike,had a time identifying some.one was a catfish,,the rest prob all SRSH


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## slowpaya

fri morn;lots of activity this morn,just checked 5-7 am,5-6 pretty good,6-7 loaded with them,picked the hrs then ran it 30 frames per sec to scan
sat morn:6-7 am entertaining,about 1 a minute....8:19,a brown moved thru


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## Steve61

Hi @wilsonm , any chance the window at Berrien will be cleaned soon? It's all gummed up.

Thanks


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## riverbob

Steve61 said:


> Hi @wilsonm , any chance the window at Berrien will be cleaned soon? It's all gummed up.
> 
> Thanks


ya, it's dirty again, boy this year, that window seem to gum real quick, it like a full time job, hang in there wilsonm,


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## slowpaya

kings in 5pm loop,mixed bag 6pm


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## TroutFishingBear

slowpaya said:


> kings in 5pm loop,mixed bag 6pm


Where do they go


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## slowpaya

upriver, where they can hide


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## mjh4

Just checked this evenings cam footage and quite a few heading up river.


Sent from my iPhone using Michigan Sportsman


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## slowpaya

9/8
oh yes yes,definitely an uptick in activity,quite a few ballooned silver hos too
9/9
good mix(kings/sh/and johos)...brn trt solo show at 6;03 pm,then sporadic brn activity thru 7 pm


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## mjh4

Quite a few ran the ladder this afternoon.


Sent from my iPhone using Michigan Sportsman


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## wilsonm

Quite a few kings going through this evening.


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## TroutFishingBear

Where should a shorebound angler start fishing for kings or cohos? Just me, nobody else...pm welcome?


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## mjh4

wilsonm said:


> Quite a few kings going through this evening.


There are some good size ones running the ladder this year!


Sent from my iPhone using Michigan Sportsman


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## wilsonm

Cleaned the ladders yesterday. Not much in them with the water temps where they were. Cooler weather today has brought a few silver fish thru Berrien today


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## slowpaya

thanks for cleaning up the window guys.run slacking off but some xtra large(and tiny)cohos trickling in.brn trt 6;30 am.they were sure piling thru the day you guys were there...


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## slowpaya

11/9/21 not much activity on the leaf counter
11/12/21 heavy downed foliage noted,leaf pics slowed cam to crawl,1 andromonous , sh or joho,couldnt tell,window fouled,all leaf movement downstream
11/14/21 water temp 45.5 degrees,doesnt seem low enough to totally inhibit fish movement but, again nothing noted at prime time veiwing.
predominance of leaf litter has changed from silver maple to oak
11/16 8am 42.8 degrees,no fish noted


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## trekronor

I may have some time to kill tomorrow and was thinking of hitting the river for the first time this year. It sounds like not much action right now though. I watched the fish cam and saw a good number of leaves, but I could catch those in my backyard. 

Anyone been having any luck or seeing anything the past week?

I'm going to have my boat on the back of my truck in route to storage for the winter. I'm half tempted to launch it somewhere to fish for...anything, but I just haven't had any luck in SW MI inland lakes.


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## surfstalker

This is a great time of year for panfish in SW Mi inland lakes


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## riverbob

seen my first steelhead go through the ladder, about 10 minutes ago


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## Fishndude

I dropped in for a few minutes last week, and saw a nice fish scoot by quickly. I couple/few weeks ago there was a pretty good shot of fish that went through.


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## riverbob

been seeing quite a few fish going threw in the last few days, thinking about breaking out the steelhead fish food, here on the grand n give it a try, haven't heard about any at 6th. st. yet


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