I must admit after bow seasons over my life slows down quite a bit, January is a difficult month for me. I’m not a die hard ice fisherman, although I do enjoy a trip or two on the Saginaw River. Rabbit, Varmint, and  Preserve hunting is all a lot of fun, but it’s not an obsession, I can get by without. Now steelhead fishing on the other hand, it’s like bow hunting for me, I crave for it. The problem with steelheading in January is the weather play’s such a major factor. Most of the time there’s either to much slush, anchor, or shelf ice to fish. But the beauty of January steelhead fishing is lighter crowds and hungry steelies. 

It didn’t take my friend Steve much time to convince me that the warmer days coming up were gonna be great steelheading days. We planned on hitting the Grand River on a Friday after work, we both work 3^rd shift so that would put us on the river at daylight. That would also give me a few days to get my boat ready, more unstuck than ready, it’s always ready, but it was buried behind a wall of snow. Friday morning we met after work at Johnson Park launch, Steve was waiting and ready to go. After the boat was launched I took the air temperature it was 28 degrees, I told Steve he may want an extra jacket for the 10 minute ride upstream, he agreed. Shortly after took off we spotted a Bald eagle, unbelievable mature as can be, what a sight. We stopped and watched for a bit, but he really wasn’t interested in us too much, I think we were messing up his fishing. 

We ran all the way to 6^th street dam, a very popular steelheading area on the Grand River. We started off fishing what is called the trough, a narrow quick run that both Steve and I have a caught many winter steelhead from. After an hour of casting spawn and yarn with no luck, we decided to drop back to the Post office hole. Again an hour passed and no luck. Where’s all the fish Steve asked, I suggested we head down stream, to some of the slower deeper holes below Fulton Street. After two hours on the river with no strikes I began to wonder if today was not the day. We made our way down river, sipping some coffee and eating a donut to one of our honey holes, Steve said this is the spot. I dropped the anchor and set out a couple of plugging rods, not my favorite way to fish, but it can be very productive. It didn’t take long, the wondering was over, we had the first steelhead of the day on. I grabbed the rod and handed it to Steve, shortly after we had landed a fresh chrome hen.

Wow what a fish it’s got to be 10 pounds, there’s more down there I said, lets get after em’. Steve took a few minutes to revive and release the fish and we were back at it. I repositioned the boat at the top off the run and set the rods again. We were running two plugging rods, I was working the motor and Steve was casting a spinner, we backed in to the deepest area of the hole, I told Steve that I was gonna cast some spawn. I grabbed my 10’ Loomis, a fresh spawn sac, made one cast and Bam ! The second steelhead of the day was on. This fish took off like a bullet, a fresh 10-pound male, I lightened up my drag pulled anchor and we went after him. After a 15 minute battle, and several classic steelhead runs I brought the steelie to the net. Steve and I had intended on keeping two fish, one male for my grill and one female, for his dad, who loves to spring time pier fish and needed the fresh spawn. We stuck the male in the cooler, and got back at it. After Steve found out they wanted spawn it was all over, we battled and fought 7 more fish in the next two hours, it was turning out to be a great day. It was now around 3 o’clock, I looked at Steve as he yawned, and asked what do you think Steve. I knew he was tried, and we had been up the whole night, I suggested we make the run back to the launch. I knew Steve didn’t want to go, but the ice that broke up from upstream had made our decision a little easier, lets go find our eagle he said. With that I said I started up the Mercury and we headed down stream. On the back to the launch we saw plenty of mallards and even blue crane, but no Bald eagle. 

After we launched the boat, I noticed Steve’s eyes were getting heavy, I said let’s take one picture before we go, something for the scrape book. Steve quickly snapped a picture of me and took off, he was tried and ready for a nap. I had to take care of a few things on the boat before I could leave. After finishing up with the boat cover I checked the time, it was almost 5 o’clock it had been a long day. Just before I opened my truck door, I noticed a large bird flying up river no doubt it was the eagle. I waited a minute to watch him pass, wondering if he had as good as day fishing as we did.