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 around 50 degrees which is encouraging those fish to get the job done and return back to the lake.

Trout opener over the weekend greeted anglers with river levels “full” and slightly stained water which is likely to be the case for a while based on the forecast. A few bugs were witnessed on the surface on the upper Manistee and Au Sable albeit just a few, with a luke-warm reception from the trout; it seems that once water temps hit 56 degrees for a day or two, the fish become consistent with surface feeding as bug density increases.

If headed out make sure your streamer box is filled and have some BWO, Hendricksons and Black Caddis in your dry fly box. It’s a great time of year to have two rods in the boat – one with a streamer and sink-tip and the other with a dry fly tied to the end of your floating line.

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.