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 […]
Steelhead fishing continues on the local rivers, however the fishing has slowed recently with heavy angling pressure, a majority of the fish hitting spawn mode, and a lot of fish already having completed their annual task. Water temps are in the mid-40s and bright days with lots of sunshine like today really help increase temps […]
Local rivers are holding their own thanks to a slow melt/thaw of the remaining snow in the woods and a lack of significant rainfall. Steelhead fishing has been good as water temps have moved past the 40 degree mark and fish are starting to come out of the depths and are nosing around gravel on […]
As March turns to April we are finding steelhead in most of the rivers which are in good shape as the snow melt thankfully has been slow and gradual. Levels are slightly elevated, and they have color to them, but still enough visibility remains to offer good fishing on the Manistee, Betise and other rivers […]
