What A Summer It Has Been… So Much To Report!!!

Yes… It has been a bit since the last, and to be honest, my old computer got a virus, or whatever they are, and more or less killed the older unit, which I had owned for almost as long as my truck; a ’09 Tacoma with 325K, and more trout guiding experience than any three kid guides on the west side put together… HA!  But now, we have a new unit, another Mac, and being that it has been KING SALMON SNAGGING SEASON here on the PM, we did have a little time on our hands to get some serious fun fishing done, wood stacked, law mowed, flies spun, and yes even a new report…. This all just before the steelhead started to show, and our pre-spawn brown trout streamer fishing peaks… But are now, just starting to spawn!  For those interested in some next level early season strip & rip steel/bows and browns… I got ya covered; we just got a good shot of rain, so it’s on like now!!! Twas a great a incredible, yet hot summer… But what a ride, and I feel like I’m just now catching my breather from such a season of awesome angling.  Thanks Again Folks, and I will say, I look forward to summer more than the rest…

So again, after a pretty stellar steelhead season, the ’24/’25 pushes, it was nice to say for the first time in my guiding career, we got through the entire steelhead season without throwing eggs, or even nymphing, per my regulars fancy.  Seemingly the swing fly approach is the most preferred method, with some vicious diehards that still engage the steelhead and brown trout all fall and winter long via the strip & rip, and often in between specific swing runs; these chosen daily based on flow, color, and fishes overall motivations based on temps, timing, and even positions in the watershed.  Biggest reason I’m writing this post is because we are living down a massive low pressure that just dropped a few inches of much needed rain to the summer dried area; and that has already brought up a solid burst of CHROME!!!  Like, breathing, they will inhale and exhale from the lake as it bumps slightly up, then fall back when it drops… This all until we get a real amount of water to give them some cover and depth while residing in the rivers, and we just got it!  Cross your fingers, and book your trips… My November is starting to fatten, and October and December are right behind, but whenever we get the rains, we have solid fall/winter fisheries, and we started with a bang so far.  Below I will post some openings, and we look forward to getting you all out for whatever your preferred method, and yes, we can do some indicator fishing if ya fancy… Just don’t ask me to Chuck & Duck, because I’m a fly fishing guide… 

Brown trout fishing this spring started great, then dropped off for a few weeks under low and clear conditions, and just when we started getting ready for the dry fly season, we got another few weeks of rain, under warm water temps, and we tapped out of streamers shiny like.  Strip and Rip fishing over that period, with the fish under late season tannic water, water temps over 55, and a terrible need to fatten with the sustained flows; was simply outstanding, and predictable, something not often afforded with the big fly approach. Till the second week of June, we were trashing them daily on the strip stuff, and even when mouse options were starting to open, it was very tough to beat the meat walking with sink tips.  This includes my personal best “creek” fish, (half the size of the PM or smaller), at 26.75” long, which gave me a visual I will never forget.  Sincerely I could get into some many reasons right now, based on what I’ve seen over the last 4 decades of fishing these waters, but just know, that being close to the bottom, has very little to do with a predators prowess… When they in the game, they just need the right pitch!  Brown trout options still occur all fall and winter long, though I will say, the next couple of weeks will be very tough to get them biting versus just chasing as they are starting to spawn and love is in the air, not cheeseburgers on sink tips.  By the middle of next month, options start to improve for the big fly strip on butter, and it mixes nicely with the chrome trying to sack that shit in between butter handshakes.  Am I a sucker for a strip fly approach when the water cools, yes, but I also like saying I fished my whole beat, instead of just “THE SPOTS” on the way down as we often do when indicator fishing or swinging.  Again a stellar finish to the spring strip, and this pre spawn bite wasn’t as good as I would have liked, however, there were 4 or 5 days out of 11 that were just stellar, and strangely the bigger water yield numbers and very little size, where the smaller water was better quality and fewer… odd by normal years notes… drought maybe?

Following the tardy, but welcomed strip & rip of spring, we were right into the Golden Stone fly, this and a killer start up to the Drakes by late May, that lasted only several days before a cold front shut it down for good.  Goldens however, and per usual, was a lasting and awesome hatch, and though we were not afforded and early start with the Goldens, we did manage several larger fish in the first couple weeks of the hatch, including three different 24” or better browns!  Stones lingered for weeks, but the peak was early and intense, yet the smaller creeks, it seemed as if there was no peak, yet a prolonged event… Which is just fine with me.  As June deepened, we started to battle the Heat Domes, which in the end cost me 13 trips this year, the most summer cancelations I’ve ever experienced, and for anybody keeping score saying its not getting hotter, the three hottest years on record have been within the last four, which is just spooky.  Though I was limited in my ability to guide with the boat for my clients, it did leave plenty of time for trout explorations for myself, being way up in several of our headwaters, scattered across a dozen different mainstreams, and another three times that in fishable creeks that stayed cool, but of the highest casting disciplines.  My wife, giving me the stink eye each time I left the house for fun instead of funds, did allow for me to live this life of clean angling… NO SNAGGIN & NO Casts Over 68deg.  She’s a registered and powerful nurse, who’s allowed to work from home, which is lovely, and a fine looking specimen at that I would add, downright Purdy.  Dry fly fishing only got hot with the Goldens, but the lasting summer terrestrial game is where one learns to not just go fly fishing, but become a fly fisher… Trial and error are the best learning curves, and smaller water terrestrial fishing, between the hunting, forecasting, a cast and presentations needed in such arenas will make you a next level angler, and leave you with the PM seeming like Montana in available casting space.  Also, though the days are spent watching lots of smaller to medium, and the occasional dandy comes out… and every once and a while you will see a fish that doesn’t fit in that size water, and you will never forget it when you do.  It’s very intimate in the small water, and when you that close to that kind of  buttered nobility, it’ll burn right into your memory… and I’ll wish you the best of luck landing it in such proximity, it’ll be fun to watch.  

Mouse fishing, certainly a household term now, has taken off in a big way over the last decade.  Been seeing fellows square away some fine fish in recent years; in my boat especially as my regulars polish there skills often, and keep my dark moons good and busy. But again, this smaller group of anglers that have adopted the dark side as and end all be all to the days menu of potential, need to see the whole field.  I know where you are at, I fell hard into that dark rabbit hole years ago, to a point I almost used to get depressed when the moon was big because I had put so much on the night game.  What I realized is that the day game, though not nearly as productive as a night stance under dark moon scenarios, was just knock out fantastic if the presents could break beyond fish awareness, versus fishing instead of 40’ in medium to smaller waters under those brighter moon cycles, in daylight engagements!  Having almost nothing to do with tide and lunar tables, so much as just light.  Under full moon, if a cloudy night covers the bulb of brightness, we all notice the improvement in action, this based on the idea that the darker it is, the better he can hunt, which is no different than mud water, and the streamer bite that occurs midday during that higher flow runoff.  Conditional right???  If you are, you have to first notice, apply, and then reengage your adversary on his terms, not yours.  It’s about his hunt, not yours that needs to be catered to… If the moon is big, don’t wonder why you smashed a dozen fish in the 18-24” class with the sun out and the terrestrials or stones begging from the undercuts… understand and convert that to knowledge and adjust your seasonal, or daily habits to be influenced by what you see and experience… If you don’t, you’ll end up listening to sub par fellows tying flies in their basement, talking themselves into why they think they are streamer “Gurus”… and what is that exactly anyways?!?!?  Trial an error is the only way to see the light, and you’re only a product of the time on the water, as there are no savants in this game…  We certainly don’t take pictures like we used to, and though it’s important to capture the moment, those of you that are actually sorting fish well on the dark side, should savor this…  Consider how many fish are first, over handled and how you yourself can limit that as the popularity in the sport grows, but also, think how many more casts you could actually make on those shorter early summer nights if you added all the minutes used taking pictures of teeners and 20” fish… If you want to shake hands with NEO, your gonna need all the casts you can get!  Here’s a hint, if that fish doesn’t test the tippets, walk that drag a bit, or force a couple steps to him by yourself, it’s not worth the paparazzi moment in time, save your first or your best.  When you show up with a 7/8 weight, taking pictures of teeners… You doing the math here…. Good 

Moving forward, I’m looking forward to a new way to guide in September, and also in April, during which times, the west side migratory streams are overrun by Steelhead/Salmon fishermen and violators, as many of the people who show up to snag the wild fish from their holes and beds while in the act of procreation, are anything but anglers… In fact I’m just embarrassed to take a guide trip when all the boners are out there doing hero shots with fish that were simply lined or snagged, where no fishing actually occurred, and guides hooting up clients like cheerleaders in hopes of a better tip and rebooking, they all know it’s shady, but they don’t mind dancing for dollars swinging a net and cooking weiners…  For several years I was able to run “egging” trips behind the salmon for the browns on the pre spawn fatten, but that window is also now shut with the army of boats and snaggers that descend on our beloved PM and surrounding streams in the Huron/Manistee National Forest.  Apparently the MIDNR is fine with the carnage of wild steelhead and salmon being harassed and snagged while in the act of procreation, even when they all wild fish!  And where one could argue the impact of the episodes, based on planting numbers, or rivers that aren’t cold enough to nursery the wild reproduction, the PM and LM have over 90% natural reproduction, yet still suffer the same regulations as all the surrounding put and take fisheries planting tens too hundreds of thousands of fish annually.  More and more of us are forced to now look for other avenues of fly fishing possibility simply because these rivers are thrown under the bus every spring and fall simply for some out of state license sales, and if you’re as sick of the LIE as I am, please email the NRC to voice your opinions to people that actually might listen, versus calling the DNR where if your opinion doesn’t match the hatchery narrative, it didn’t happen.  Hoping one day we move passed the cave man practices we all participated in when the lake was so full of bait, the beaches stunk of them for months… Those days are gone, and there are more people fishing less fish as a result, but the DNR still drives our potential gems of wild fish into the ground.  Between creel limits, poor regulations to cope with the growing fishing community, and simple lack of initiative to put more money into habitats instead of another fucking stocking of low quality fish that nobody is gonna want to drive or fly to catch… We could really use some fresh leadership, and not another hatchery crusader… These are sport fisheries, not drive through fish markets, with or without the fishing license!  Can only imagine what our cold water fisheries might offer in overall quality if some of the smaller waters I fished were monitored for violations, and limited brute stock harvesting where all fish under 18” should be put back to favor that hardy gene.  Our COs work hard, but are spread thin, and the smaller stuff is more locally abused then I believe it’s out of town abuse.  Out of season harvesting, oversized stringers, double dipping days limits, and the real shame of it all, is many of these folks don’t even take the time to license up as they never feel like they will be checked back in the sticks as far as they might be.  Hard to say what direction it all heads, but I’m hoping they figure out that the real money isn’t how many one can harvest, but how many bigger, quality, and all wild fish will draw out of state monies more than a bunch of fin clipped fish, formally known as brown trout, because they even look, fight, and spawn different than the wilds do!  All that said, it’s just fantastic how well the DNR & Forestry has spread out there public lands and access on all the right river in the idea of better fishing access for all, and as I fish around all of our great rivers and creeks in Northern Lower MI., I just but can’t help to think what the rivers could become if managed correctly, and it would be ashamed if we end up like PA having to plant everything, as we do have great cold water, and we were the first place chosen to plant in the US, which should be celebrated and protected, instead of just restocked with sub par hatchery variations when compared to the wild fish, in just every comparison.  Sorry for venting, but when the crowds of unethical anglers come before actual anglers looking for a bite versus a bump, one can argue the rule books motivations, creel limits, and even how it’s all managed and for what? Seems off to me!  

Smaller rivers and creeks, open till the last day of September, are yielding exceptional late season hoppers, smaller streamers, and even some trophy mouse options… all this and it’s miles away from the next angler, and you don’t have to bump elbows with some dork setting the hook every second or cast trying impale migratories.  These will be one person trips as the bodies of water are not large enough to encourage the second angler once the first one has disturbed the waters.  These are higher learning trips, where casting and presentation are needed and built to unlock the watersheds potential.  We also have a couple of northern creeks that would allow raft and drift boated options for those that like the solitude, but aren’t up to the hiking end of it… Again, away from the migratory crowd with plenty of late summer potential, and some pre-spawn streamer fishing for the browns, and brook trout is what I’m looking to book next September.  For April, I have a list of open waters to trout fishing, that will yield some of the best streamer fishing of the year based on flows, and fish in the game for calories instead of crusading like they sometimes do in the fall with lots of chasing, and much fewer actual grabs.  Again, raft & boat options, away from the crowds, and into some really good fishing.  Waded spring options are there for those that want a feather in the cap, but with the higher water, unlike fall, I do encourage the boated options.  As the rivers get more popular, and the boats get more prolific, I’ve been forced to adapt… And thankfully in this arena there are so many more visual perks for those unmolested waters and landscapes, and no matter how busy the bigger rivers and tail waters get; you can’t play in the smaller waters without good form and casting, which really means 99.9% of all the salmon and steelhead snaggers will never be allowed access, as they never learned how to cast, so much as lob lead… Leaving me and mine with a great sense of solitude safety as there are just countless streams and creeks that are all but ignored by the fly fishing community, which is just fine with me.  If you’re into this kind of next level awareness of the game, I’d love to show you some of these middle earth bodies of water that will give it up more consistently since the fish are ready to a fly much more so than the fish that are battered daily on the more populated/boated bodies that have become very notorious.  In more ways that one, the smaller waters have saved my life, and I’ve never been more happier angling then when I’m knee deep in a secluded Michigan trout stream….here here

Steelhead season is upon us, and though I’ll be doing some streamer trips for the post spawn browns over the next few weeks, of which some really nice, and highly colored browns will give up some killer visual takes, as well we still have some great egging options for the browns on a walk and wade in status,(giving up allot in a short time as the browns are drunk on the caviar whenever the migratories offer it up); also, I’d really like to attempt getting a couple more of these steel on surface waking options.  Steelhead dates should get booked soon as November fills up, but next week and most of December come highly recommended as well.  Middle to later October, the steelhead are fewer but tuned up, so not only are they even more ready to the fly in the warmer waters, but they will give ya bloody knuckles every time you stick a hook in them, even the smaller ones.  November is our most booked steel/bow month, but later October was hot on the west side two out of the last four years, and we should have people in the boat when and if that happens.  December is possibly the most productive time of year for the fall bite on the steelhead, this when the brown trout bite really begins to slip after a post spawn feeding window with water temps, but the post spawn bite does give up larger, yet certainly fewer browns.  December comes with fewer anglers, highest numbers of steelhead in stronger feeding windows, and arguably when we land the largest fish of the fall as the cool water tames the battle enough to shake hands with those larger class fish.  PM & Little Manistee receive zero steelhead plants and they both have around 95% wild populations of steelhead, and you can tell as we don’t need the plantings like tail water fisheries that have are as much a put and take fishery as much as a natural one.  In a nutshell, you can catch more on the tail waters, but the better overall quality/size, and wild rooted fish, come from the better nursery rivers like the PM & LM; that said, it’s a rare bird when a 20lb fish is actually landed in the smaller rivers, where on the bigger rivers, the arena is larger, and therefore better for landing the whales.  This steelhead goose with the report is a month overdue, but between the computer, and my love for the late season trout game, here we are… 3” of rain, and a swelling river, and I need to get you folks up here for this. 

If your booking out this fall… Here are you’re options for engagement with the Butter & Chrome as we move into the colder seasons of angling on the PM and surrounding.  First, and the most popular angle to the dangle is the Swung Fly approach.  Two handed, low impact, easy presentation, and readied for battle… and quite possibly the shortest road to a landed fish, even more so that running egg/nymphs with tippets.  Though you may be able to hook a couple more on the egg bounce, when you have to fish tippets to such a migratory menace, you will be found wanting, and than retying as you more or less brought a knife to a gun fight.  With swung fly approaches, where your using a size 1 instead of a 12 or 10, 8 on the bigger water, your essentially showing up with a gun of your own.  Backed with a shank and a Gama Got Your Ass hook, to allow for some versatility of movement during the kicking and screaming of insulted chrome, this and some goat rope leader direct, (versus tippets), and a big stick to back it all up… It’s no wonder why so many fish hooked on swing fly see the bottom of my net, it’s because you have the right tool for the job at hand… and a hot hand at that!  Fall lake bow/steelhead pound for pound are some pretty fancy fish to fuck around with, at least in these parts.  For those of you that are looking for the total package though, I mean all the frosting, the cake, and even the sugar ornaments on the top you shouldn’t eat… Stripping for steelhead is my personal favorite, and likely the way I would prefer to angle them whenever there’s a proper oarsman to mix it up with, which is why you should just pay me to row you all day!  As far as “the tug is the drug”, yep, you get all that with the strip game, and so, so much more!!!  Visual awareness of your adversaries hatred unfolds before you, versus the mystery tugs or pops only felt on swung fly; and though you might be a pinch behind the 8 Ball fishing the single handed weapon needed for severe walk the dogs actions needed to pick that fight, theres’s nothing quite like watching double digit pound lake bows come hard, and not just take the fly, or even grab it, so much as END IT!  The way they come for a strip fly is rude, violent, intoxicating… yes ma’am may I have another!  Armed with goat rope, and one more hook in the mix, you’ve still got a chance, though the biggest we’ve landed on strip fly is 16lbs, and we’ve seen/hooked several larger fish that make us look like fools, and more or less needing a bigger boat in our lack of ability to turn such a fish, in that state of angry, with single handed sticks, WOW… But it’s sure fun to watch that train wreck come, even if it does hand us our hat!  Again, I’ll take you egg/nymph fishing anytime you pay me to do so, and I may even get a couple more hooked up, but as far as landing more fish, or watching these lake bows be all they can be from a visual stripped fly… Let’s just say you get very little frosting when you just throwing the caviar.  Book a trip this fall, and we can get you in the mix, it really quite shiny to have some many of these fisheries in my backyard.  

Again folks, sorry for the lapse in reports, we are back up and running… Give a ring this week, and if I’m on the water, I’ll call ya back after dark when I get back.  Steelhead fishing is beyond promising, with fishable numbers already in the system, and this huge shot of rain is gonna bring em good.  Gonna mix up the start times to utilize this little extra light we have the next couple of weeks before going early only to maximize daylight.  Primarily we will be fishing two rivers this fall and winter, but we will also be fishing a couple smaller bodies as well whenever the one person and access is there, and looking for something different.  Also, we have some sections open all year for trout fishing only for those diehards that can’t wait through the winter of lake bows.  Whatever your fancy, we got it covered on the big fly approach.  Also, gonna have a bit of a garage sale of older gear so I can update my stock to newer, better, easier to return… etc., stuff.  This will include a bus load of older, to semi current Sage & Hatch Reels.  Most all of them have been used, some harder than others, and though all will be priced to sell, some will be priced based on that extra usage.  Also will be doing some fly orders this winter on the side to keep the lights on during the very colder months, and though I have limited time right now during the lake bow/steel runs, I’ll have plenty of time in the warmer man cave when winter really shows up in January and I can only guide when the weather says I can, and less not forget how good those trips can be in the dead of winter.  Nobody around, incredible bites on the starved, pre spawn steel/bow, and the amount of fish in the systems at that time is incredible, and those very big fish can even be tamed in the very cool waters of winter, making the middle teen fish manageable in the smaller corridors.  Winter trout nymphing, especially on the back nine of winter into early March, is a pretty consistent bite when you can tolerate a little cool, and though they aren’t feeding on top much at all, the sub surface bite is there strong.  Guiding the steel/bow till the end of February, sometimes early March depending on the bite, I’ll start getting serious about the stripping for streamers for spring browns, our most consistent big fly approach in daylight, by the end of March after I’ve tied enough flies to fill a dozen big fly boxes.  Best of the spring booking big fly is late March through early/middle May pending the flows and hatch cycles by that point.  Hendricksons mix up by later spring, and give way to some scattered Mayflies following before assorted bigger  Drakes.  Hex’s isn’t something I’m gonna talk about on the boat waters anymore, as that ship has sailed, but for a single person, I do have some great walk in options for that specific hatch… New Moon mouse nights need to be booked well out as that has become my most booked window outside of November steel…. Half moon and quarter moon nights, still have plenty of availability, and if your getting into it, I recommend a little light on the subject, while the fishing is still solid without being knock out.  Terrestrial dates are giving up more and more as the game is realized with better casting from my regulars, and it shows.  Plenty of openings there as it is a three month season; and choose the full moon cycles for that affair, as I have noticed when the moon is bright, the night hunt is off for the bigger fish not being able to sneak up on there swimming prey, however, during that period, they are so willing for the suicide bugs off the bank.  It’s fun, and keeps you casting all day, and improving the game.  Late summer as mentioned above, is really my favorite time of year… Landscapes, color, and even the fish get dressed in their Sundays best, it’s harder fishing in the late summer/pleasant conditions, and lately surprisingly bigger payoffs and we are hunting with our bank bugs, not waiting for a hatch.  

Folks, thanks again for such a great season last year, and sorry about that heat middle summer, it really was a dry, and hot one… We got ya covered next summer, and good form for not fishing over 68 degrees.  Again, I’ll post a list of rods and reels later next week when I get it all out, and openings for fall steel/bow as well.  Deer are moving around like they getting paid, so be careful coming up, watch for the tree cattle in motion, and try not to drive around dawn or dusk as it can get quite sporting at low light when the beams aren’t working well yet.  Watch our forecast, not yours, and dress accordingly, which is to say summer is gone, and 4 layer season is all but here.  Shoot for some lower light polarized sunglasses to cope with the low light this time of year, and for those doing the stripping for steel this fall, bring some extra gloves so when one gets damp, you got back up.  Let me know if you want to fish your own rods and reels, but again, it’s all rigged and ready to go if you don’t, and we only have so many hours of daylight this time of year, so lets not rig up for a half hour when we don’t have to.  This rain has me terribly optimistic about the incoming fall, as we had some steel/bow, and now we are about to have allot more, and I’m hoping for even more rain to dowse that drought, and hold onto the stronger numbers of fish all winter long… I’ll get another report before the end of season.  Till then… Good Luck Savages… Lines Tight!

Looks To Be A Shiny Fall… Be Good

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