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 the Manistee. With much of the ice off Tippy Dam Pond, temps should stay above 40 from here on out. Smaller rivers like the Betsie already have spawning going in earnest with more fish coming from Lake Michigan with the increase in river flow.
With natural eggs drifting down stream, the rivers the smaller, more natural looking egg patterns are starting to be more effective but keep those larger, bolder egg patterns when fishing darker, overcast days or seeking fresh migrating fish in the lower sections. Caddis and Fry Patterns have been the more effective nymphs lately and with the warm temps in the forecast look for some stonefly activity to make fishing small stoneflies more effective.
While the steelhead fishing has been good, it sure seems that there has been an increase in fish harvest/mortality. Keep in mind that steelhead make a number of returns upriver in their life-cycle and that 10-pound fish you catch this year likely wouldn’t have been possible if it were kept as a 5 or 6 pound fish last year. Please limit your kill rather than kill your limit – the quality of our fishery depends on it.
Good luck.
Ted
Trout – May and June offers some of the best trout fishing of the year matching the hatch and fishing streamers.
Fall Steelhead– It’s not too early to look ahead to fall run of these fish. Hard fighting and a beautiful time of year.
Booking 2019 – Reserve your date(s) and schedule life around fishing rather than trying to fit fishing into life.