In early October, we went fishing for Chinook Salmon, also called King Salmon. They come into the rivers at that time to spawn. Most of their life is spent in Lake Michigan, then they return to the river or creek where they were born to spawn. They only spawn once and then they die.
They start coming up in September and are done in October. The fish aren’t eating anymore, so they don’t take the bait to eat it. It’s illegal to snag them so basically, you try to cast in front of them and get your line to drift into their mouths or tick them off enough to grab your lure and move it off of their nests.
You usually wear waders and stand in the water while casting toward the nests. It involves a lot of casting and if you do well, you might hook a few fish a day. There are days when you don’t get anything all day. The excitement that makes it worthwhile comes when you hook one.
That’s when your blood starts to race. I’ve never caught fish as strong as these. They will pull, run downstream, turn around and run upstream, and occasionally jump clear out of the water. It’s safe to say that most of the fish that are hooked, never get landed.
Some years, they average larger than other years. Last year, our largest fish was 28 lbs. this year it was 14 lbs. We also caught more last year.
In the video above, if you look close, you can see a fish swim away.
The scenery can be beautiful also. It all depends on where you are fishing. We are fishing near the Manistee River. Sometimes we fish just below the dam and sometimes we fish a creek called Bear Creek. There are more fish below the dam, but there are more people there as well.
If you want to try to do this, it is difficult to find lodging there. We stay in Brethren Michigan and reserve our room a year in advance. Even then, there are very few openings available.
It really is a good time, but it takes patience and willingness to work hard to catch fish. What makes it worth it is when you finally hook one. Then you may be the one that is hooked.
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