Steelhead Fishing on Lake Huron

The generalist that survived

When Lake Huron’s alewife population collapsed in 2003 and 2004, chinook salmon went with it. Steelhead did not. A chinook in this system is close to an obligate alewife eater; a steelhead will take mayflies off the surface in June, chase smelt in April, eat round goby off the rocks and pick terrestrials out of a floating debris line in July. That flexibility is why Huron still has a real steelhead fishery while its king fishery is a memory.

It also means the fish are healthy. Huron steelhead are in good condition, they are spread across both the northern rock shoreline and the Saginaw Bay drainage, and they see a fraction of the pressure that Michigan-side or Erie fish do.

Rivers on the sunrise side

The Au Sable at Oscoda is the anchor. Fish enter from the lake in fall and again in spring, and the water from the mouth up to Foote Dam holds them through the winter. Bank access in the lower river is good and the run is dependable.

The Rifle River at Omer is the other name that matters — a Saginaw Bay tributary, small enough to wade and read, with a spring run that peaks in March and April. The Tittabawassee and the wider Saginaw system carry steelhead too, in big stained water where they mix with the walleye run.

Farther north, the Ocqueoc near Rogers City and the Thunder Bay River at Alpena have smaller runs and almost no crowd.

The offshore fishery nobody fishes

This is the real opportunity on Huron. From June through August, steelhead live in the top 15 feet of open water, over 100 to 300 feet, in 58 to 62 degree surface temperature, feeding along floating debris lines. The technique is identical to the Lake Michigan scum-line program: run out, find the debris, put bright spoons on long leads behind planer boards, and troll faster than feels right — 2.5 to 3.0 mph.

On Lake Michigan you share that water with a hundred boats. On Huron, the fleet is inshore chasing walleye or on bottom chasing lake trout. You will often have the surface to yourself.

What changed under the water

Huron’s food web reorganized twice: first when zebra and quagga mussels stripped plankton out of the water column and cleared the lake, then when the alewives went. Round goby filled the bottom, walleye exploded in Saginaw Bay, and lake trout began reproducing naturally for the first time since the sea lamprey era. Steelhead threaded through all of it because they were never specialists.

Understanding this makes you a better angler on Huron specifically: match a varied forage base rather than one baitfish, and be willing to fish top to bottom in the same day.

Spring river tactics

March is the month. Water at 40 to 48 degrees puts fish in the moderate runs and makes them take. Drift a spawn sac or bead under a float, 12 to 24 inches off bottom, at current speed. Cover water — three or four good drifts per run and move on.

In February, with water in the mid-30s, the fish sit in the deepest slowest holes and want the bait almost on the bottom, drifted slowly. In April, drop-backs heading downstream will chase a streamer or a spinner and give you the easiest fishing of the year.

Big empty water

Huron has more shoreline than any Great Lake and long stretches without a harbor, particularly north of Alpena. An offshore steelhead run in July puts you several miles out with a lot of nothing around. Carry a VHF, wear a PFD underway, and respect a northwest wind on a lake with this much fetch.