Fishing On The St. Joe River
If there is one river that I would pick to be number 1, it would be the St. Joe river in Michigan. The St. Joe is a beautiful river with many winding turns and great scenery in many spots along the sandy banks. It’s a great river to float on while you’re fishing for smallmouth, walleye, salmon or panfish.
| I have caught my biggest salmon on this river while I was fishing for the wiley walleye at the dam at Berrian Springs. I was fishing with a floating red jig and a night crawler when I thought my line was snagged, when all of a sudden my line started to move away. This was a big thrill for my as I thought I had a monster walleye on the other end. As it pulled more and more of my 6 lb. line out from my reel, I thought I would lose it in the fast moving current. Lucky for me that I was able to turn it back towards me, and after about fifteen minutes of tug a war. I finally seen my fish, not disappointed at all that it was not a walleye but a steelhead salmon in the river to spawn. |
 |
Now fishing became a new passion for me. This fish was about 33 inches long and weighed in at 14 ½ lbs. It was a female and was spewing eggs all over my boat when we finally got her in. She must have been in the river for a while because she was a dark shade of green instead of the shiny silver, that they usually have.
| This was a great day for fishing, a cool November morning right around Thanksgiving. There were many bank fisherman fishing below the dam, some casting flies and others drifting spawn sacks full of fish roe. That day I was also lucky enough to catch a couple of lake trout in the deep water hole made by the dam. These were also a lot of fun to fish for. Nothing big, but fun to go fishing for with fish style baits. |
 |
I have also gone fishing on the St. Joe in the summer time in July, when there is the summer run of Skamania salmon in the river. These fish are so acrobatic when you hook them that they spend more time out of the water than in. Fishing for them is great if you can find the little streams and creeks that flow into the river. My biggest one of these was about 8 lbs and I caught it on spoon casted up river past the mouth of the creek.
| Drift fishing on the river is another great way to spend a day. You can put in at the launch at Shamrock campground and drift lazily down river all the way to Lake Michigan if you like. The end of that journey takes you to St Joseph Michigan where you can stop along one of the many eateries and eat lunch or dinner and watch the peaceful river flow by or admire some of the beautiful boats that will pass. |
 |
All in all the St. Joe river has a lot to offer for fishing or just to get away from the daily grind. Take day and visit it ,You’ll be delighted and refreshed.
Thanks for your interest. T. Smola Be sure to visit my website at www.turkeyfinder.info for more stories and articles. e-mail turkeyfinder@comcast.net
Urgent Warning: Do not buy another piece of fishing equipment...
...until you have seen this hidden discovery from the 1940's that
has just been revealed!
http://www.eveningsecretfishing.com/sub/cmd.asp?Clk=2078396 
