Sterling State Park Report

Scamaniac and Coho Joe (5 guys) fished out of the state park Saturday-Tuesday June 30-July 3. Saturday pm was beautiful on the lake and we caught several small ones off Stoney Point. Scamaniac managed 3 fish over 17 inches, but most were right at 14. Coho Joe only had 3 keepers in his boat. Nice local fireworks display after dark.

Sunday we tried off the Twin Stacks in 18-22 and didn't find them so we headed off Stoney Pt where word was they were hitting good. We managed to boat a couple before the big wind hit and ran us off the lake. It was a rough ride back and there were several relatively small boats struggling in the 3 foot wind chop. Not fun. A Cabela's outing that afternoon raised our spirits, and a fresh fish dinner topped off a great day.

Monday was another beautiful day with a very cool start with temps in the 40s. The fishing was slow. No one seemed to be doing very good. We ended up with 22 fish but most were pretty small. Coho Joe's boat got the biggest and most that day. We did best in front of Fermi towards the north in 22-25 ft of water. Floating weeds were a bit of a headache.

Tuesday was a bust. S-SW winds had 3-5 ft rollers just outside the harbor. Some boats were going out off Stoney and reported good catches, but we weren't willing to risk our lives and equipment (and the kids) for a few fish, so we went back to camp and contemplated our next move. Made a phone call back home(ish) and lo and behold, the steelhead had moved into the Michigan City pier! It took us about 15 minutes to break camp, load up and head out. A quick stop at Cabela's on the way cost us a few hundred (more) bucks and we were on the road to Lake Michigan. Got to MC about 8 pm and booked a room at the Dirty Dollar Inn (worst hotel room I've ever stayed in, but cheap. Had to make up for spending so much at Cabela's.)

Wednesday am we headed out into the Lake and trolled but couldn't find the fish. Finally figured out that they all seemed to be in the harbor. We started trolling from the end of the west wall to the DNR flatlining crankbaits and the typcial orange spoon. We ended up landing 7 beautiful steelhead 28-30 inches each and losing several others. Also caught a couple of drum. All steelhead were caught on the same secret lure "Cheap Blue". It was a bit trying to troll amongst the holiday pleasure boating, non-fishing crowd, but overall it wasn't too bad. There was usually an audience and cheers when a fish was landed. Great fun and a perfect way to end a really nice short vacation. We'll be doing that again! Hope you all have similar memories from the weekend. Thanks again to everyone for the advice.
Bordy