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Sweet congrats

Good going. What harbor?

If you pull out a $20 bill, I'll give you a hint...
Other wise I'm going to have to "stonewall" you.

I was just curious, not $20 worth of curious or even $2.00 worth since I'm not planning a night trip to cast for them.

So here's my $.02 guess.

I've heard of salmon in the Portage Marina and Michigan City marina but those are misdirected fish, so probably not many there and catching four or five would be exceptional. Probably a better bet is the Hammond Marina, at least it used to be when the DNR stocked at nearby Whiting Park. I believe that was stopped long enough ago to move Hammond down the list. I'm not sure if IL still stocks at Cal Harbor.

So my best guess is EC marina. It's was good when the DNR stocked at the Hole in the Wall and there's no reason it wouldn't attract Buffington stocked fish. Just wondering if my two cents made sense....

A salmon in the Portage or Michigan City marina would be no more misdirected than a salmon in the East Chicago marina, for what its worth, given that both of those locations are about 4 tail shakes from the tributary they were stocked in

Ben: True, but they are attracted by current and not much eb or flow from Portage or MC. No current at Hammond or EC and no river to ascend so they wander around in those areas hopelessly horney and looking for their path to nirvana, eventually getting trapped in the marinas.

Back in the day we used to make good catches inside the Port of Indiana during the fall run and excellent catches at the Indiana Harbor. I always thought the Port fish were those who ended up there mistakenly and were attracted to the discharge in the east slip. We caught 'em in the west slip as well. I figured them as "lost" fish trying to escape.

At the Ship Canal, there were both discharges and I guessed a lot of the Whiting stocked fish imprinted on the ship canal water.

I'm sticking with my 2-cent guess.

I do remember WAY back in the day when EC was just the inner harbor and on north wind days the water at the old boat ramps would rise and fall rapidly seeing kings trying to swim up the boat ramps each time the water ran down the ramp back into the lake. Fun stuff, but it didn't take much to be entertaining back when we pulled our boats with teams of horses.

In Mich City the water flows in and out of the harbor constsntly. For a period of time the water is flowing into the harbor then it will flow out of the harbor. I have fished that wall many times and it's amazing how much current there is at times right at the harbor mouth. There is also a very large hole right at the outlet of the harbor mouth. I could easily see a salmon being tricked into thinking they are entering the creek then getting trapped swimming around the harbor.

I've seen major ebb and flow at both Hammond and EC marinas. I'm also pretty sure there are some sewers that drain into all the harbors. EC in particular usually gets really dirty inside after a good rain. I wasn't at either of them though. I am glad they moved the stocking back to EC, at least shorefishermen have access there. As for those fish in the ship canal, I know most of them are stockers, but I remember there being a study that documented natural reproduction in the EC wastewater discharge several years ago. The harbor I was at isn't fed by a stream, but I'd be shocked if there isn't significant groundwater and runoff coming into it. The $20 bill is a dead giveaway. Those fish were all clipped and I'd venture to guess non of them were lost. If you haven't figure it out pm me and I'll share, you'll re read my posts then slap yourself in the forehead for not seeing that I gave you all the info, even in the original post...

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Wow, nice going!