Last week’s weather was a great shot in the arm to salmon fisheries in the area.  Water levels have pretty much returned to normal and with that push of water came a nice push of fish in the Betsie, Platte and Manistee Rivers. The Betsie is still plagued by low water levels at the mouth of the river making it difficult for a lot of the fish to make it up stream – another significant rainfall should help change that.

The fish in both the Manistee and Betsie can be found scattered throughout the system and in various types of water: some are on gravel, others moving upstream in both slots and inside bends and others staged and holding in the deep holes. This time of the month with the big moon you might find good numbers of fish in a specific area one day only to have them  gone the next day so look to cover different sections of water as these fish migrate. A few steelhead have trickled into the Manistee making for a fun, mixed bag of fish along with king/Chinook and Coho/silver salmon but with more rain, a fresh push of all species should make their way up.

There have been no magic flies that are working better than another lately with a nymph ( caddis, hex, bugger) and egg fly combo being the go-to choice right now and as more fish hit the spawning gravel, look to the double egg rig to perform best.

With the MI-DNR significantly reducing the number of salmon stocked/planted in the Lake Michigan by 2/3rds in 2013, please practice catch and release to help promote natural reproduction and future fish populations.

Good luck,

Ted

October is the month for Steelhead! Available dates:  16, 18, 30, 31

Steelhead: The end of September means it’s time to focus on fall steelhead through November.
Fall Trout:  Fish the Upper Manistee  throughout fall or Lower Manistee in late October and through November.
Booking for all 2013 Seasons and through August – reserve your place in the boat.