# Egg wagon!



## Far Beyond Driven (Jan 23, 2006)

Yet two years ago a 13# steelie didn't raise an eye-brow out of Holland. We took a 12# in a kid's tournament in June and thought we had big steelie locked up, no, it was 4th for steel with several right behind it as well.


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## Robert Holmes (Oct 13, 2008)

Far Beyond Driven said:


> Yet two years ago a 13# steelie didn't raise an eye-brow out of Holland. We took a 12# in a kid's tournament in June and thought we had big steelie locked up, no, it was 4th for steel with several right behind it as well.


The lack of prey fish might have something to do with that. Just as the salmon are getting smaller so are the steelhead. I think that anything above 10# is a great fish regardless of where it is caught.


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## ericzerka24 (Aug 12, 2010)

Robert Holmes said:


> I don't think that you will find too many real big steelhead in the SW or SE part of the state due to the competition for food among the trout and salmon. The NLP, UP, and Canada on the other hand 10+ steelhead are quite common. I landed a 12 pound male on a tip up a week ago in the UP.


I've caught quite a few big dark males that I would have liked to thrown on a scale but I refused to carry one bank fishing because my vest already weighed too much! It will be nice having one in the boat now to see how big some of them fish really are.


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## Far Beyond Driven (Jan 23, 2006)

This past year was completely different. Whereas you needed 15# to get on the top 3 in our year long derby in 2014, third place this year was 8.5#. Wish I'd been watching that closer as I released a 9# hen (my best this year) over Christmas break.

The fish we caught this year were healthy. Spring 2014 I caught a lot of small steel on a temp break half way to Wisconsin that were thin.


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## Robert Holmes (Oct 13, 2008)

Far Beyond Driven said:


> This past year was completely different. Whereas you needed 15# to get on the top 3 in our year long derby in 2014, third place this year was 8.5#. Wish I'd been watching that closer as I released a 9# hen (my best this year) over Christmas break.
> 
> The fish we caught this year were healthy. Spring 2014 I caught a lot of small steel on a temp break half way to Wisconsin that were thin.


You might do better this year as they are getting fat on wigglers, crayfish, and gobies. Everyone that I have caught through the ice this winter is loaded with a combination of the three. Most of the steelhead that I have pulled through the ice are 7 pound or larger fish. I have caught a few that were 10# plus. Without many salmon to compete with for food I do believe that the steelhead in the NLP and UP will be larger fish. Even the smaller steelhead that I am catching are pretty chunky fish.


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## nighttime (Nov 25, 2007)

Robert Holmes said:


> I don't think that you will find too many real big steelhead in the SW or SE part of the state due to the competition for food among the trout and salmon. The NLP, UP, and Canada on the other hand 10+ steelhead are quite common. I landed a 12 pound male on a tip up a week ago in the UP.


You'd be surprised


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## Multispeciestamer (Jan 27, 2010)

Id like to attempt to elaborate on the subject. More opinion then anything so take it for what it is. Mr. Holmes I dont think you have spent much time in the SW part of Lake Michigan or at least not in recent years. The Southern Basin is probably one of the most fertile areas in the lake excluding some bays in the north such as Traverse, Green Bay, Big Bay De Noc, etc. But those bays get far to warm for Steelhead in the Summer months unlike the Southern Basin where they can stay and feed the entire year. There may be more competition but its well warranted because the food is here and there is plenty of it to go around and I dont mean just whats left of the Alewife. Part of the reason the NLP rivers produce more bigger fish has nothing to do with food or forage at all it is completely due to age. With less man made obstacles and the number of anglers that practice catch and release the fish themselves stand a far better chance at living longer and thus growing larger and returning multiple seasons. Genetics is another contributing factor, raising our hatchery steelhead and not being selective enough. We are breeding a population of fish that mature a year earlier then the steelhead of the near but distant past used to. Instead of being 4 year olds they are 2-3 year olds on their first adult spawning runs. I will say while this years steelhead do seem to be much smaller there is most certainly a good sign for the future, majority of these fish are stocky SOBS. The few that I have kept have had some serious fat content. I have high hopes next years fall 2016-spring 2017 run will be the run of the giants again, but probably fewer total fish due to increased pressure by the charter fleet.


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## ericzerka24 (Aug 12, 2010)

I haven't been disappointed with the average size fish I've been catching that last couple years. Seem to be pretty normal to me. I don't fish the east side at all though.


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## GRUNDY (Jun 18, 2005)

All last spring and part of this winter the majority of my steelhead have weighed 8-10lbs. There are 3 of maybe 15 total that I can think of that did not make 8lbs, but they were not wanting for food...

I'm not convinced the food chain in Lk.MI is as bad as some claim. My cousin runs a charter out of Holland. Had to run a laker program all summer to keep clients on fish. He claims they were puking up their share of alewives...

Regards,

B


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## Robert Holmes (Oct 13, 2008)

You are right multispecies about the north not having as many boats targeting trout and salmon this is a factor that I did not consider. They are pretty safe up here giving them a longer lifespan allowing them to get bigger. It is also much further from boat launches St Ignace to Manistique is 78 miles. On the SW side there are probably 20+ launch sites in that distance. I don't know about Manistique but St Ignace probably has 5 boats per day fishing. Mackinaw City is about the same. Not much fishing pressure the same reason that the DNR does not plant many Steelhead up here. Most of our fish 99 to 1 are wild fish even the DNR census takers I know say that they never see a tagged steelhead. The last fin clipped steelhead that I caught was about 5 years ago. Less fishing pressure, and plenty of food is going to produce bigger fish.


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## Robert Holmes (Oct 13, 2008)

I do fish out of South Haven once in awhile. The salmon in opinion are not that big 7 to 11 pounds is about average. Once in awhile you get one over 15 not too common though. We have caught some nice steelhead in close in the spring. We usually do not have any problem catching lots of fish. That is why I have no problem driving 6 hours to go fishing there.


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