Indiana has forty five miles of Lake Michigan shoreline and the strangest steelhead in the Great Lakes: a summer running strain the state developed itself, which turns a winter fishery into a year round one.
Seasons, limits and licence rules are set by your state agency.
Each bar below spans January to December, with today marked, and draws the quoted sentence underneath it. Where an agency describes a run by season rather than by month, the card carries the sentence without a bar.
A summer migrating strain Indiana developed in southern Lake Michigan. The fish come in during the heat of the year and then simply stay, which is not how steelhead are supposed to work.
"Skamania" is the unique strain of summer-migrating steelhead trout that Indiana has developed in southern Lake Michigan.
The conventional run, arriving as the Skamania fish are still in the river.
Steelhead (Michigan or Winter-run) pier stream late October- to March
| River | Water temp | Flow | Measured |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trail Creekat Michigan City | Loading | Loading | |
| Little Calumet Riverat Porter | Loading | Loading | |
| Salt Creekat Valparaiso | Loading | Loading | |
| St. Joseph Riverat South Bend | Loading | Loading |
Source: USGS Water Services (National Water Information System). Instantaneous values service. U.S. Geological Survey data are works of the United States Government and are in the public domain. Gauge list verified 2026-08-24.
Because the summer fish arrive in June and stay until they spawn the following spring, and the winter fish arrive on top of them in late October, Indiana ends up with steelhead in its rivers for very nearly the whole year. Trail Creek, Salt Creek, the East Branch of the Little Calumet and the St. Joseph all carry them.
Once these fish enter the rivers, they become accessible to local anglers until the following spring, when they spawn and migrate back into the lake. This unique fish provides a nearly 12-month steelhead fishery.
Fish passage counts are published by the programmes that run the counting stations, linked below with what each one reports.
Run windows on this page are quoted from the agency named beside each one. River conditions come from the U.S. Geological Survey and are readings, not forecasts and not fish counts. Fishing seasons, bag limits, gear rules and licence requirements for Indiana are set by the agency linked here, and a run window is not an open season. For rules, see Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Fish and Wildlife. National picture: every state with a salmon or steelhead run →
Hero image: “Trail Creek upstream from Winding Creek Cove Bridge, Michigan City” by Schmiebel, CC BY-SA 3.0