Indiana’s Oct. 15 sheet: about 800 steelhead through South Bend, and the pier salmon bite is mostly done

Northwest Indiana’s fall salmonid run is a trickle, not a flood. The Department of Natural Resources fishing report dated Oct. 15, 2026, says about 800 steelhead have gone through the South Bend fish ladder on the St. Joseph River below Twin Branch Dam since Sept. 1. Water temperatures there are described as good for aggressive feeding. The same note still lists smallmouth bass on crankbaits, jerkbaits, Ned rigs, and low-light topwater, and says those bass will start sliding toward deeper wintering holes.

On Lake Michigan, the boat report for the same date says effort has been light and that a storm on Friday, Oct. 16, will churn the lake and reset whatever pattern was there. Most salmon action is called done except far offshore fishing for immature fish. Lake trout are expected near structure once the lake is 55 degrees or cooler, which the report says could happen in the next couple of weeks. Smallmouth are expected to feed as the water cools. The shore note says action has been slow, that shore fishing will be unsafe for a couple of days around that Friday, and that the bulk of the pier salmon bite is likely finished. A few kings are in East Chicago harbor, and a few fish are being caught at Portage and Michigan City.

The tributary line for Trail Creek, the Little Calumet, and Salt Creek is mostly unchanged from the week before: a few coho, kings, and steelhead, including in Deep River, but no large run. The report points anglers lower in the streams for fish fresh from the lake, and at deeper, less-pressured pools for fish that have already moved up. The South Bend fish-passage dashboard is listed as working again after earlier technical trouble.

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: Indiana DNR — Fishing reports (St. Joseph River, Lake Michigan boat and shore, and Lake Michigan tributaries, dated Oct. 15, 2026).