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Natural
Attractions
During summer, early-run steelhead enter the Galien,
St. Joseph, and sometimes other southern Lake Michigan
rivers to spawn. A combination of water temperature
and flow volume attracts these exciting fish anytime
from early July through September. In addition, chinook
salmon make commando-like raids on river mouths, where
they seek minnows, insects, and other food sluicing
along with the current. Breakwater anglers catch them
in the inky darkness before dawn.
Even during daylight hours, though, fishing can be
highly productive at times. Menominee, channel catfish,
yellow perch, walleye, northern pike, and smallmouth
bass are other species attracted to the open cupboard
door. Food is a magnet, along with temperature changes
because the rivers are usually warmer than the lake
in spring and colder than the lake in early fall.
At any time, game fish may suddenly appear when a shift
in wind direction sends a plume of discolored river
water into the cleaner lake at a different angle than
usual. At times this milky water, often called the “color
line,” even washes back toward shore along the
structure edges. Because the darker water helps to camouflage
their approach, predators move in close enough for landed
anglers to cast to them.
Wave troughs, those depressions caused by the pounding
surf, run parallel to shore and attract spring trout
and salmon searching for baitfish that sometimes flock
here in schools. The troughs are typically 6 to 12 feet
wide and 3 to 8 feet deep. Wading surf anglers cast
spoons into the trough or fish bait on bottom there.
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