Lake Superior is the most northern of the great lakes and is a huge expanse of water that warms very slowly through the spring. Consequently, as it drains out of the main basin and through the locks, dams and St. Mary's Rapids of Sault Ste Marie and down into Lake Huron, the steelhead spawning run from Lake Huron up into the rapids is probably the last run of the spring. For those that don't know, Sault Ste Marie is actually two towns, one either side of the Michigan, USA/Ontario, Canada border which just happens to be the St Mary's River. For a number of reasons the rapids are only fishable from the Canadian side and having never fished such intimidating water we took the advise offered to us from a number of sources and booked a guide for our first day.
After a 10 hour drive we checked in at our hotel, got our fishing licences, grabbed a bite to eat then headed for our first look at the rapids. Within minutes of getting our first glimpse we saw a steelhead porpoise and watched an angler land a nice fish down the berm wall. We were definitely ready for the coming day. Johnny Giuliani met us in the lobby at 4:30am and sped us down to the river. He quickly rigged us up and put us on our first spot for the day. Within the first minute Ted hooked up for the first time. That fish didn't come to hand but a minute or so later he was on again, then again. Only one of those fish came to hand but it took him on a wild chase down stream into some rough water and was a bautiful fish - the first of the day.
A few minutes later and I hooked up on my first fish of the day, a beautiful silver hen that sped back through our hole and took me deep into my backing before we had to chase that fish downstream as well. Talk about hot fish. When we finally got the fish her throat was chock full of steelhead eggs she'd been gorging on. The sun wasn't up and we were already having the best steelheading of our lives.
Soon after that Johnny had us moving out to some other water on the outside of the berm in some fantastic looking tailouts. It wasn't long before I was hooked up again, with another fresh, chrome hen. Although this classic holding water had been hot just a few days before we only got the one fish from it (well, there were heaps of suckers up there spawning but we don't count them) which clearly meant the steelhead were jumping up onto the gravel and the aggressive fish were sitting behind them gorging on eggs.
We had them dialed in now. However, although we knew where the fish were, there were some centerpinners from Michigan that were monopolizing the hole and a whole army of guys from Toronto in set up in the other prime lies so we had to pick and choose some other water to fish, but we still caught fish.
After Johnny left for the morning (he breaks his day into two sessions of 5am-9am and 5pm-9pm) we explored a little and fished behind and to visible fish on beds. Although there were fish sparring we couldn't hook any fish that weren't foul hooked. The wind kicked up with the rain and we opted to grab some lunch and get some sleep before heading out for the afternoon session.
When we arrived in the afternoon the run we wanted to fish was open and we set up. It only took a few drifts and I was on again and landed a nice fish. At this point my memory gets a little hazy. The fishing was so amazing I can't put it together. We were hooking up every few minutes and the fish were aggressively slamming the green caddis and other offerings we'd present with wild abandon. We lost count of fish hooked and landed but it was between 25-30 hookups each!!! My poor old seven weight was underpowered against some of the hotter fish and Ted's eight couldn't hold a true monster that went somewhere around fifteen pounds. The session was phenomenal until the fish again turned off just after 9pm. My arm, elbow and shoulder was sore, but in the best possible way. We couldn't wait until tomorrow.
After a brief time wondering about in the dense fog and darkness of pre-dawn after missing our trail out to the rapids (we got up at 3:30am) we were soon set up in our run again. It was too dark to see and in no time Ted had a fish landed. We swapped positions and soon I also hooked up but came undone. At the exact moment you could finally see your indicator the Michigan centerpinners turned up and again set up in the prime drifting lanes. They were nice enough guys but they were going to fish in "their" spot no matter who was fishing there. We continued to catch fish but not like we had the evening before (still much better than aything else we've experienced chasing steelhead). Ted seemed OK fishing in the crowded conditions because he was still hooking fish but I went off in search of other fish. Unfortunately I didn't find any. A nasty storm front pushed through around 9am so we headed back to our rooms for some sleep.
The afternoon was frustrating. The weather was cold, very windy and tough. All of the good spots were crowded with anglers so I decided to head back out into the main rapids and try my luck with a big streamer - to no avail. Then I switched to an indicator rig with the same results. Despite a large number of fish visibly swimming around the weather had caused them to lock up and no more fish would be caught.
The following morning we were heading back home, very well satiated with our spring steelheading. Of course, having woken up in my own bed monday morning I was already itching to get back out there and catch just one more steelhead. I can't wait until the fall!!!
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