salmon in the river!

[davetclown]

I am 150 miles down wind of all them salmon running up the river, I can smell them from my house... Man do I have the itch,... and a cold snap for the weekend to boot...

AAARRRRGGG Gas prices are killing me.....
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[Bassomatic76]

Sounds great. I'm a newbie hoping to get a salmon this year for eating. I live in the Newego area. Any recommendations on salmon areas?

I'm prob going to hit one of these rivers this week when the weather gets colder: Pere Marquette, Manistee River, Au Sable river
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[davetclown]

Au Sable river, they have stopped planting salmon over there some years back. salmon are getting caught there, the ones that are are native. they are planting walleye there so you may just come up with an extra taisty morsel.

Manistee River, they plant this one regularly tho only half of what they used to plant. the other half goes over to the Milwalkee river in wisconson. (sory spelling) Manistee has a great number of holes that you can easily access from shore or waders and a half dozen boat ramps to launch small boats from, It has become my favorite place place to go since the plantings have stopped on the east side.

most all the west side rivers get salmon runs from grand rapids on up, starting with northern rivers first working downwards and temps drop.

Grand Rapids gets a lot of steelhead action this time of year
Flat rock gets a steelhead run now.
Stoney creek gets planted with steelhead a couple times a year.

most all of the fishing and tackle shops will be happy to tell you when the runs are in and what is being caught. (they want your patronage and would just asoon be closed when the runs are off to save money)

I do love fresh salmon, or home processed salmon that I have done myself. it always seems to taist better than store bought for some reason....[:p]
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[Bassomatic76]

Thanks for the reply. Maybe I'll try Manistee next. Today I tried out Pere Marquette. It was great, I could see many big fish going up river, and I'm guessing they were king salmon or large trout.

But I didn't catch any. Like I said I'm an ultra newbie and even though I haven't fished in maybe 15-20 yrs I stupidly went straight for the big fish haha. I have not even picked up a fishing pole in 15-20 yrs.

But at least I knew it was dumb of me to go for the salmon w/out any practice so my expectations were very low. I have never even tried a spinning reel until today. I worked it out though and was casting ok after a few tries.

I tried a little drift-casting trying both real salmon eggs and fake with some yarn on a size 1 octopus hook. They just ignored it. But it was a nice cool day anyway and it was cool watching them fly up river all day.
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[davetclown]

I get days on end like that some times, and other days I cant get them to leave the hook alone..[angelic] 4-5 hookups and one landed I call a good day.

I would say you saw coho's or brown's. I think it is a little early for the kings....

this is a king "my personal favorite"
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here is a brown
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here is a couple coho
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here is a steelhead
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[Bassomatic76]

Ya they could have been anything, I'm not good at identification yet especially while there still in the water.

Nice pics. Hoping to catch me some like that at some point.
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[davetclown]

we had a frost last night, that will get them moving. [cool]

I am sertian that you will, those are about average size. 10-15 pounds. the trick is being there at the same time they are. having a good stout reel and arms strong enough to hold on to the pole.[:p]
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[davetclown]

the time of year will help you identify schools of salmon moving up the river, note the time stamps on some of my pics. Those time stamps will give you a rough idea of what to expect around that time.

rain and temps also play in to the factors as well, so you could go +or- two to three weeks but genneraly look for the same species around the same time each year.

getting to know the fish you catch and eat will give you a lot of respect for them as well as inhance your pleasure of fishing for them. Pluss there are a lot of interesting facts that you may not have been aware of.
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[davetclown]

rain and cold and salmon in the river go hand in hand. [:p]
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[Bassomatic76]

Ya unfortunately I've been busy on the good days the last few weeks. I'll prob miss the opportunity this year. What approximate date do you think salmon fishing will be over in the rivers this year?
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[davetclown]

steelhead you can target all the way though December if you can stand the cold. Then guys will be right back on them again in March.

There are guys who will target steelhead in January at stoney creek park on the east side of the state on a nice winter day.

There is quite a number of guys who fish for steelhead salmon though the ice in Catallac. "the lake"

So basicly if it is a nice day and the season is open, there are oppertunites available to catch a salmon.

A lot of guys love to hit the salmon runs because they want to stock up... I have seen salmom sized walleye come out of those rivers during the same time salmon are in full run and when they are not.

to answer your question, it is always best to call a local tackle shop in the area if your intrests is only hitting the main runs.
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[emal7717]

9/28/2012 on the St. Maries River at the Soo...

Need help inserting a picture - suffice it to say it was a 15# Coho caught on a Green Butt Skunk size 2.

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[davetclown]

tks for the share,

nice lookin Coho.

My neighbor is headed up that way this week, he is hopin for to find a few smelt. it is probably a bit early, but ya know how it is, once ya got the itch ya gotta go...
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[emal7717]

I love smelt It is the season for them...When I would go dipping I would use one to cast out off the breakwall at frankfort for the brown trout. Its a twofer...
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[davetclown]

smelt are pretty taisty. [:p]

I made it out for the opener of trout season managed one trout for the whole night. I also caught a 6 inch chanel cat...

will post the trout pic soon
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[emal7717]

Congradulations!
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