PHOTO BY TOM BERG

They show up like clockwork -- give or take a week or two. They’re sleek and powerful, with 20 or more pounds of solid muscle acquired from years of gorging on baitfish. The silvery sheen begins to slightly tarnish, giving way to a faint bronze cast. The male’s kype takes on a more pronounced hook to compliment his increasingly ornery demeanor. The hens’ bellies bulge, swollen from the skeins of roe growing and maturing inside. One day, there is just a trickle, with the odd fish here and there. Experience a change in wind direction or a soaking rain and suddenly schools of chinook salmon materialize out of nowhere. The kings are stacked top to bottom as they converge on the pierheads before muscling their way upriver.

Labor Day had been a traditional peak for targeting mature chinook salmon near Lake Michigan pierheads, but nowadays the kings can show up as early as mid-July, and August usually produces some exceptional fishing. Wind direction and water levels play an important role in triggering salmon runs. Offshore winds push warm, tepid water out into the lake and bring cooler water in toward the pierheads -- and silvery salmon with it. East winds also push river water farther out into the lake, which leaves a scent trail for returning salmon to home in on. Timely late-summer and fall rains cool and increase river flows, which trigger salmon runs. The added volume helps salmon zero in on their natal streams and rivers.

Once in the shallows, the kings are out of their element. Used to the security of deep water and structure, pre-spawn salmon are skittish, edgy and out of their normal realm when trapped in 20 to 40 feet of water. But as the urge to procreate overwhelms them, they are forced to overcome their shyness and wary nature and stick their noses into the fray.

Savvy anglers take advantage of this silvery opportunity at these locations.

ST. JOSEPH
“Sometimes they’re there for a day, other times they might hang around for a month,” said charter Capt. Kevin Ender when asked when and for how long the chinooks will hang at the St. Joe pierheads. “A lot depends on the flow of the river and water temperature. If the water is too warm, a lot of times the salmon just school up out in 100 feet of water and sit there. They usually show up about the second or third week in September. There are kings off the pierheads every morning then. We had very good fishing for two or three weeks last year.”

The port of St. Joe/Benton Harbor produces some incredible chinook fishing in the spring, and those same fish make for an impressive pierhead fishery during the late summer and fall when they return. Upwards of 150,000 chinooks are planted annually at St. Joe. Because of unusually warm temperatures, how many naturally reproduced fish the St. Joe pumps out is in question, but undoubtedly, kings spawn successfully in the tributaries to the river, and thus add to the mix.