# The Au Sable 12/11



## kienbaumer (Jan 29, 2001)

Decided to hit it today being my first two east side choices aren't that good when its sunny. Went 1-4, hooking fish in the upper middle and lower section. (go figure) The one i landed looked like a steelie, but it was on a redd with a partner. i hooked both only landing the hen. Well when i opened her up she had little spawn left. It wasn't a king either, it was still on the silver side and had a white mouth. The spawn, which was loose, looked just like steelie spawn. Was it a spawned out steelie or maybe a coho?


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## kienbaumer (Jan 29, 2001)

must have been a steelie with the all white mouth. No "x" marks just so "5" and "w" thats how you know if it a steelie. If its got "6" and "z" marks its a coho  Tightlines


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## sideshow (Jan 25, 2001)

Hey mike...... get out there and fish some more this week... I need eggs... must have eggs... hehe. You fishing on friday? Drop me an email @ [email protected] my buddy ay not go now... so Im open to suggestions.


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## kroppe (May 7, 2000)

kienbaumer, 

Did you hook any trout? I am heading to the South Branch after Christmas and want to have an idea of what to expect for cold weather trout. Thanks for any info you wish to pass along.


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## kienbaumer (Jan 29, 2001)

I did catch any trout. I was fishing below foote damn so there are to many trout in that section of the river. As for the south branch try HTTP://WWW.GATESLODGE.COM


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## kienbaumer (Jan 29, 2001)

Fished the river again today. 0-0 but i only fished for an hour. Stop by wellmans to get some waxies and he said they were getting a few. I did go 3-6 on another east side hotspot. To bad i only had ten spawn bags with me . What really made me mad was every spawn bag was smashed by a fish. Sorry Joe i didn't get a hen. Two bucks and a whitefish.


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## silverbullet (Dec 13, 2001)

Steelhead do not spawn in the fall, sorry Splitshot don't mean to contradict you, but steelhead will run in the fall because they follow salmon to eat eggs and sometimes to overwinter but in 29 years of fishing and research of the species I've never seen proof of fall spawning steelhead. Skamania will sometimes run in the fall and spawn as early as January if the water temps reach 40, but this is a rarity. As for the mystery fish, count anal fin rays and you'll have a much better idea of what it was. Perhaps it was on the gravel eating eggs and just appeared to be spawning?


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## kienbaumer (Jan 29, 2001)

No this fish was a steelhead and it was spawning. The bottom fins were torn up from it spawning. There was still some spawn left in it that looked like or i should say was steelie spawn. It looked just like a spawned out steelhead. It was probaly just messed up.


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## silverbullet (Dec 13, 2001)

A DNR fisheries biologist would probably have liked to have seen this fish. Very interesting I will admit. I'm wondering.........I have seen some Cohos that have very little color to the mouth. In fact, almost white with just HINT of grey around the gums........proof would be in the number of anal fin rays or a piloric secum inspection but that would mean killing it. I would have loved to have seen this fish. Did it have any pink to the sides? Every spawning steelie I've ever seen had some amount of color to it.


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## kienbaumer (Jan 29, 2001)

ya it had some pink, espically in the cheeks. Do you happen to know what coho spawn looks like? Because the spawn in this fish looked identical to steelie spawn.


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## sideshow (Jan 25, 2001)

Hey Kienbaumer.. theres fall spawners in most east side rivers we catch them every year.. Ive never seen one on a bed but usually catch one or two every fall. Its a nice addition to the fall spawn collection. You know what a steelhead looks like. You wouldnt confuse it with a coho... you got a steelie that had a weird biological clock.

Joe


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## Spanky (Mar 21, 2001)

I gotta agree with the rest of the guys too silverbullet! I can't believe you haven't come across this weird type of steely in 29 yrs of fishing I know of a few good anglers who manage 1 or two a year, and have myself caught a couple also .Nothing in nature is guaranteed! Thats what the biologists are gonna tell ya too! Again welcome to the site.


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## sideshow (Jan 25, 2001)

Have you ever stumbled across kings on a bed in lets say.. april? I have.. These fish arent supposed to be here.. sometimes they get their heads banged up in the hatceries.. but the ones Ive caught.. mostly in early december on a certain piece of water have not been fin clips... so who knows. They may be the reason that some fish return to the ausuable. The eggs they lay in the fall have enough time to hatch before the water temps kill all the eggs or fry.. I dont know about you guys but I have never caught a steelie smolt in the ausuable for as much as I fish it.. Im from Augres!! Never never never have I caught one... Im sure some happen to make it but not enough to maintain even a fraction of the run. On an interesting note.... georgian bay tribs have over half their returning fish with right fin clips this year.. go figure!! 
Think about that one.

Joe


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## Steve (Jan 15, 2000)

Splitshot, I haven't forgot your article but the server upgrade and now some personal computer problems have kept me from it. Then there's Christmas shopping and well you get the picture.


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## silverbullet (Dec 13, 2001)

Well I can see If I even tried to argue I would lose! Sounds like you guys are knowledgable enough to know what you're seeing on your rivers. I did not mean to insult the intelligence of anyone, but I see people on rivers all the time that wouldn't know a carp from a coaster. Maybe, since 90% of my steelheading has been on U.P. streams and in Canada, I'm not seeing these fall spawners like you guys are. Maybe its a natural selection thing as the recent falls and winters in this state have been very warm. Its very interesting to me, since fall spawning fish may naturally reproduce in rivers that are too warm in summer to allow parr to survive. The parr may leave the river before it gets too warm. Thanks guys, this site has already proved informative. Splitshot, I think I've read some of your posts in tha past on another forum, I wouldn't confuse sarcasm with a savvy steelheader trying to have some fun. I think your comments give the site some UUMMMPPHHHH! FISH ON.


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## scoot (Jul 4, 2001)

Im kinda knew to steelhead fishing but some of the steelhead Ive caught have been absolutely gorged on salmon spawn. Maybe the one caught was on the redd chowin down Also some cohos can look a lot like steelhead and I've seen some cohos with totally white gums.


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## silverbullet (Dec 13, 2001)

Uh oh, look out man, you're asking for from the locals around here. He he, fact is I'm gonna eat crow again and say that, without qouting him directly, I have a friend/fishing buddy who happens to also be a DNR fisheries biologist and the most savvy steelheader I've ever known. I've picked his brain lately. He said that he's seen chinooks spawning in April in the St. Mary's and steelhead spawning just about in every month of the year. In the hatcheries they've controlled the fishes' biological clocks by altering their light/darkness schedules and made them spawn whenever they want. I'm sure some of this occurs naturally as well, especially with the mixing of all the different strains of steelies and natural reproduction that I know is occuring all over the state in off the wall streams from stray planted and wild fish. I personally caught four different strains of planted and wild fish in one of my favorite rivers and the plants came from wisconsin as well as michigan. Wow, what a great place this is to live for a steelhead freak like me.


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