Michigan Fishing Reports

With Michigan’s trout opener this weekend, many wonderful Michigan streams open up for fishing across the state. Michigan boast’s having more than 20,000 miles of trout streams alone! Let’s put that in perspective. If you were to fish a 5 mile section of stream each day of the “season”, it would still take you more than 25 years to complete such a feat. On top of that, it is estimated that 850 of those miles provide excellent trout fishing. Excellent trout fishing can be viewed in a couple ways. Some may find catching many smaller trout as an excellent day of fishing, and who wouldn’t!? Others enjoy the hunt, far from other’s footsteps, in search of giant trout yet to be weary of any angler. And much like the Dogman of Northern Michigan, they exist, or at least some say so… Many of these streams across the state are home to Michigan’s only native trout, the Brook trout. Brook trout prefer the cold spring fed streams, and provide an abundance of action on a small fly rod. There are a wide variety of insects around these streams providing endless calories for the ever eager feeding brookie. Quite often the Brook trout are not the only trout to reside in the smaller streams. Rainbow trout were brought from California in 1876. These are often a lake run fish (steelhead), but many are planted as fingerlings in landlocked streams around the state. Brown trout are also an imported fish from Germany. The very first plant of fish in North America occurred in our very own Baldwin River, with its more infamous neighboring river, the Pere Marquette in 1884. (Hence the 1884 Fly Shop in Baldwin). With 20,000 miles of trout streams available, the possibilities are endless! Fly fishing is an excellent way to enjoy our beautiful resources. During the next couple of months, most of Michigan’s traditional Spring “hatches” take place every day around these streams. Blue Winged Olives, Caddis, Hendricksons, Sulphurs, Drakes, and on and on, carry about their annual business as Spring progresses, providing fly anglers some great dry fly fishing opportunities. If you find yourself in the right spot, it is possible to catch a Brook, Brown, and Rainbow all in the same day! With an already short season to enjoy these waters, the window is even tighter on these typical dry fly fishing opportunities. Don’t wait until school lets out before you make it out! With so much untapped potential out there, it can be confusing where to begin. Fly fishing itself can seem a bit overwhelming, let alone finding a new bend of water. Like most situations in life, you won’t know until you try it! Everyone has that enthusiastic trip to the stream looking forward to catching dozens of giant fish all day long. The day most likely ends with a couple of hooked trees, a few knots, an empty box of flies, and probably even finish up with wet clothes. The best way to enjoy your time on the water is first starting with a guide. The right guide can and should teach you how and what to use, what kind of water to look for, and you can likely still enjoy all the hooked trees and such while someone else shows you how to fix such a situation! After some instruction, you may find yourself ready to go, or wanting to learn more. There are many guides out there, but only a very select handful are true Michigan trout guides. Make sure to look around and ask some specific questions for what you really want to learn and achieve on your trip so you don’t just end up another dollar in some fish jockey’s pocket! So do some looking before booking. Fly fishing is a “catchy” activity and you can find yourself getting “hooked” in a couple ways. Finding the right guide to help get you started makes all the difference, and usually prevents you from giving up and missing out on just some of what Michigan has to offer!

It's time for us to go fishing. The start of fall signifies the start of the fishing season. We are hoping for more fish on the way on the couple of weeks.