As August comes around, we find that the seasons are becoming a bit more aligned with where they should be for this time of year. Trout fishing has eased up with less hatches to match, but with fish still looking to come up to eat a dry fly. The Tricos are like most mayflies this […]
As we get deeper into July we can look back and claim this year’s hex hatch as a strange one. It started much later than normal and when the bugs did come off, they came off quite heavily. With a string of cool evenings, some days there was both a spinner fall and emergence at […]
July is here, the big hex bugs finally showed up – albeit about 10 days late – and they are still around some on the local rivers. The nocturnal hex are showing up at strange times due to the cool evenings so look for spinner falls to occur just about any time in the day. […]
As June winds down, we seem to be waiting for more mayfly hatches to ramp up. Fishing the past week has been tough on the local rivers which have warmed up into the mid 60’s. Hatch densities and fish looking up for bugs has been less than what we have come to expect for this […]
Water levels on the local rivers are falling back into shape. While they are a higher than normal for this time of year, they are fishable and have a little stain to them – almost ideal. Water temperatures are still cool due to cool nights and a lack or significant warmth and sunshine the past […]
The weather can’t make up it’s mind – it goes from cool spring-like weather to full-on summer, then back to cool and rainy. And the trout can’t decide whether they want to play our game or not. Trout fishing remains challenging on both the Manistee and Au Sable Rivers. Hatches have been decent, but most […]
June is one of the most popular times on the local rivers for trout fishing. The technical dry fly fishing of May eases up as the bugs get a little bigger and the fish tend to look up more making for a little easier dry fly fishing when bugs and feeding fish coexist. The upper […]
The unofficial start of summer begins with Memorial Day weekend and this year it coincides with our technical match-the-hatch dry fly fishing on the Manistee, Au Sable and Boardman Rivers. After a long winter and short, cool spring, warmer temps are coming around and so are the bugs. So many different bugs can be found […]
The middle of May finds most anglers on the trout rivers looking for bugs and rising trout. While some days there are good hatches (Hendricksons and Black Caddis) on the upper Manistee and AuSable, finding days when both bugs and rising fish are present has been maddening. With water temps in the upper 50’s I’d […]
With May well underway, it seems that spring is catching up but is still behind on both land and on the water as the morels, leeks and trillium carpet the forest floor and the trout ignore the emerging mayflies. Steelhead are essentially all done save for a straggler or two still in river systems – […]
With trout opener and April behind us, we move from steelhead fishing to trout fishing on the local rivers. While there are still a few steelhead in Betsie and Manistee, there are more fish dropping back than there are fresh fish moving upstream. The others are pretty much preoccupied with spawning. Water temps are right […]
As April begins to wind down it seems we are past the peak of the steelhead run on local rivers including the Manistee and Betsie. Last week’s rain brought the water levels up some along with a few fresh fish, but the majority of fish being caught are actively spawning as well as some drop-back/post […]
