SKAMANIA ? Muskegon

[rainman67]

Last night I caught what I'm pretty sure was the second 10# plus skamania out of Muskegon in the past week. These females both had remnants of tiny underdeveloped eggs with just a few fully developed eggs left attached to the skane. That indicate a summer run fish. The fillet is also much whiter than the standard steelhead. Has anyone else caught any of these? They both had longer body and a bit different shaped head than a standard steelhead. Both surprised me when I got them in the net thinking they were good kings, since they fought with the drive of a king all the way in. I'm not sure where they came from. Unless they are natural reproduction coming back out of Muskegon or the Grand river. I checked the dnr site and it shows they only get planted in a couple of the big rivers at the south of the state anymore. The St Joe and the Kalamazoo I believe? Anyone with info on these? Thanks

[Get Away]

Caught my first one last weekend in Ludington... Last fish of the night on the rigger! I too was surprised how white the meat is!

[smoke on the reelz]

Also caught a couple of them last week outta Holland.

[Capt. Brian]

I have picked up quite a few out of Muskegon in the past 3 weeks

[sparky30]

They hang out where they hang out, not as big of a drive to return the river they were planted in as other salmon or steelhead, they follow bait and water temps more than anything. Female steelhead both skams and little man(spring runs) often have whiter meat and with skams they have a tendancy to run into warmer water alot making them darker and meat lighter. The egss are so small beacause as they do run in the summer but they do not spawn until jan-feb. There natural reproduction according to the dnr is very very low. They are awsome fighters and very nomadic, you can find them in 30 or 300 ft. In any port.

[SeaCatMich]

About half of the steelhead caught in my last two trips out of Holland have had the very light colored flesh. Didn't see anything different about them until at the cleaning table. Tastes fine too.

Have seen color variations in almost all species over the years. Mostly caused by water temps and what they are feeding on. Most of the steelhead caught in those trips were taken deeper (70' and deeper) than usual... maybe that is a factor too.

[rainman67]

They hang out where they hang out, not as big of a drive to return the river they were planted in as other salmon or steelhead, they follow bait and water temps more than anything. Female steelhead both skams and little man(spring runs) often have whiter meat and with skams they have a tendancy to run into warmer water alot making them darker and meat lighter. The egss are so small beacause as they do run in the summer but they do not spawn until jan-feb. There natural reproduction according to the dnr is very very low. They are awsome fighters and very nomadic, you can find them in 30 or 300 ft. In any port.

Thanks for the info- If they run up their river in the summer, but do not spawn until jan-feb, do they stay in the river all fall until jan-feb? I read in the dnr site that they are named after the Skamania hatchery in Indiana and they clip either the adipose or a pectorial fin for marking age. The ones I caught were missing nothing?

[SeaCatMich]

Thanks for the info- If they run up their river in the summer, but do not spawn until jan-feb, do they stay in the river all fall until jan-feb? I read in the dnr site that they are named after the Skamania hatchery in Indiana and they clip either the adipose or a pectorial fin for marking age. The ones I caught were missing nothing?

They stay in the river until they spawn.

The Skamania hatchery is actually in Washington. it was there that the summer run strain was developed. Indiana first started planting them in the St. Joe in 1971. They now raise them in the Bodine hatchery and plant ~240,000 in the St. Joe annually . Michigan used to plant them in many other rivers (especially the Big Manistee) but discontinued plants in the late '90s due to concerns they would mix with the traditional winter/spring run strain of steelhead.

While there may be some summer run steelhead in Michigan rivers, they are not planted by the DNR. There are also rivers that get early (summer) runs of Chinook salmon but the DNR does not plant a summer run variety. It is natural selection in play.

[rainman67]

Thanks alot for the info Ryan, your the man.

[highpointdf]

We have caught a half dozen or more. They are fun and good sized. We fish out of GH.

[mj6131]

In 2014, 31,000 Skamania were planted at Tippy on 4-17.

[sparky30]

Big Man and the Joe are the only 2 rivers that get a stock, all west side rivers get a run though.

[SeaCatMich]

Sorry, but I misread the MiDNR page about the summer run steelhead (https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10364_53405-217036--,00.html). Michigan has stopped rearing summer run fish, but continues to plant them -- see the last paragraph in the link. The fish are all being raised in Indiana hatcheries.