It seems that summer’s weather is sticking around with warm days and less than favorable wind directions impacting the salmon and not getting them headed up area rivers like the Betsie, Manistee, and Platte. There are some fish in the Lake Michigan tributaries, but not in the numbers that there should be for this time of year. Look for the fish to be spread out throughout river systems and after some North or North-West winds, things should change and the fish should show up in better numbers. Put some rain in the mix and fishing should be outstanding.
With the warm weather comes an extension of trout season. The terrestrials continue to bring up some fish to the surface as the foam and rubber patterns twitched seem to be a great place to start. The fish are pretty smart this time of year so when you get refusals (bumps) change up the pattern slightly and possibly go to a lighter leader. Sometimes a little more twitch helps activate these flies eliciting a bite. The brookies are really vibrant right now and prefer the smaller patterns and attractors since much isn’t emerging this time of year. It can be an ideal time to fish the Boardman for those looking for fishing close to town. If it’s a cloudy day, pull out some mid-sized streamers as the bigger browns have hit the reset button on pattern recognition after a summer of anglers fishing dries.
Good luck.
Ted
Late Trout – Brown trout fishing into late December can be some of the best streamer fishing of the year.
Salmon/Steelhead Combo – Late September & early October offers a mixed bag of both species with fall colors.
Fall Steelhead – Late September, October, November & into December is the time for steelhead on the Manistee.