Summer or Fall?

Lately, I’ve been wondering if we’re ever going to see a real heat wave or if this abnormally cool summer will transition right into Fall.  With more salmon sightings in harbors, and even some rivers, I believe the Fall is coming fast.  With that in mind I start thinking of steelhead, and how lucky I am to have the opportunity to fish for them; wild or not.  While some west coast anglers might scowl at the idea of a stocked fishery in a major metropolitan area, I am grateful to have these “city ditches”.  These rivers, and the fish that run up them from the great lakes are as close to ocean fish as you’ll find in the Midwest.  No warm water fish in the midwest, other than a huge carp, can rip off hundreds of feet of line in a few seconds.  That combined with leaps sometimes 5 feet above the water is why anglers put up with cold, wet, or even frozen conditions to pursue these lake-run trout.  Fortunately, we also have an amazing summer run steelhead fishery in southern Michigan and NW Indiana.  This summer run adds about 4 more months of steelhead opportunity to anglers in the Chicago area.  The summer run has been underway for about a month, but the rain and cool weather always helps get the fish active.  Looking at this rain I may have decided where I might be fishing this week.