![]() When snow cover is gone, the muddy currents from the river are visible, changing the color of the ice. Big thaws that muddy the river create mudlines. Runoff affects locations around wild river mouths. Depthfinders tend to spook fish in water this shallow however, if the water's cloudy, having one on hand can prove useful. If you're on a shoal, walk six feet straight toward or away from shore, drill, and check again. So, after drilling a hole, you can usually see whether you're on top of a shoal or in the trough. Generally, in these clear waters of the Great Lakes, visibility is about 8 feet. Steelhead like to travel in the troughs, especially when the tops of these shoals are less than 5 feet deep. Those rolling rills are formed by wave action during the open-water months. Where rivers enter directly into a Great Lake, the depth tends to range from 4 to 10 feet deep and substrates consist mostly of sand, but even gravel and rock beaches can have wave shoals. Most days, the key to location is simple: Drill holes as close to the open water of the river mouth as safely possible. "Most rivers don't have enough ground flow to moderate temperature, so all steelhead that run those rivers stage all through spring." "It takes a special kind of river to entertain a fall run of steelhead here," Beeksma says. The Slammer was developed for steelhead, but it works great for walleyes, pike and other species, too. The rod is bent and loaded, and when a fish strikes, it pulls the rod tip off a peg. The device works like much a trap, hence the moniker. "A good fall run generally means ice-fishing isn't as good," says Matt Schalk, designer of the Slamco Slammer, a tip-up that employs a rod holder. This is especially true when heavy fishing pressure pushes steelhead away from the river mouths. ![]() The difference in winter being when ice covers the surrounding areas, steelhead filter back under it and roam the shallows under the protection of a snow-covered ceiling. As the sun rises, they slowly back off, just as they do in open water around piers. Steelhead like to nose into the current of the river in the pre-dawn darkness. They come and go, arriving silently in packs, tripping several traps at once. They roam up and down the shorelines, haunting the beaches like silver ghosts. Staging steelhead don't just sit around and wait, though. In some river mouths they numbered in the thousands. It meant from late winter though early spring, steelhead spent more time staging than running rivers. Winters like that one a few years ago were perfect for setting traps-bitter cold, with ice covering more than 95 percent of the Great Lakes. Traps allow anglers to keep their distance from the holes. Standing or sitting a few feet over their heads, shuffling feet on the ice and throwing shadows over the holes is a good recipe for getting skunked. The rationale for using them is simple: Steelhead are spooky. The traps in question were Slamco Slammers and Automatic Fishermen-tools of the trade for ice-bound steelheaders. When that doesn’t happen until spring, scenes like the one above become a common wintertime occurrence around the Upper Midwest. ![]() However, when conditions in rivers are poor-low and clear, high and muddy or extremely cold-the fish stage at river mouths in great numbers and wait for things to get right. In fall, Great Lakes steelhead run rivers to spawn, and when conditions are right, many tributaries see big runs. Other times they made screaming runs back to the depths of the main lake. Sometimes they headed for the river, leaping in the open water. ![]() Under our feet, big-water rainbows peeled line from reels set with light drags. We scrambled to grab them before they tipped over and vanished. Limber ice rods waved and thrashed in holders over open holes. Suddenly, several "traps" sprang at once and pandemonium ensued. A quiet two hours passed as we watched the twisting ghosts. Snow devils came whirling across a white expanse that extended to the horizon.
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