August is here and so are August fishing conditions. The rivers are low and clear and with the cooler overnight temperatures, the water temperatures are ideal. It’s a fun time of year to wet-wade with a box or two of flies in your pocket and some tippet and just keep it fun and simple with our technical match-the-hatch dry fly fishing behind us.
Some mid-morning Tricos are bringing up some rising fish and it’s the perfect time to use that lighter rod you might not have used in a while. Fishing a Trico behind a larger dry fly like a hopper or chubby is a good way to keep track of your smaller fly as it drifts downstream (but you’ll want the bigger rod for that).
Other terrestrial patterns come out this time of year as do attractors and what I call the “Foam and Rubber” season – flies with rubber legs and foam bodies. Don’t hesitate to swing wet flies or mini streamers and consider fishing twitch flies on cloudy days.
Smallmouth bass fishing in the lower Manistee has been tough. The small popper or larger terrestrial fished stealthy can bring some fish to the surface and the smaller streamers fished near bottom and wood have been working the best. It’s been a challenging year which might be attributed to more pressure from more anglers fishing for these brutes.
The largemouth bass fishing on local lakes has been good for those that can cast larger flies like poppers and sliders as the weed beds are fully defined, giving the fish a great place to ambush anything they can eat. Clear tip or full intermediate lines with smaller streamers have been working alongside the drop-offs for those that can be patient as it sinks and can swim it back with some swagger.
Good luck.
Ted
Trout, Tricos & Terrestrials – Start the day off on the upper Manistee fishing dry flies for Brown and Brook Trout.
Learn to Fly Fish – Spend a half-day with some casting lessons then time on a local small lake catching fish.
Fall Steelhead – After a strong Spring Season we are looking forward to Fall – just a few dates remain available.