T he outlook for August is warm air and water temperatures leaving us fishing for smallmouth bass in the afternoons, along with trout and summer run steelhead, in the early and late hours of the day. With Tippy Dam being a top-flow dam, the river is at its warmest of the summer in August reaching temperatures of 68 to 70 degrees. All of the species mentioned above are targeted with fly and light spinning gear.
In the early part of August the trout fishing is best in the upper reaches of the Manistee where it is smaller and more spring fed, thus staying cooler.
Mid-to-Late August is what I think of to be the start of the fall. We start getting shorter days and cooler nights helping cool the water temperatures down for the early part of our king salmon run. This is a really cool time of the year. When these fish enter the river they are very aggressive and hard fighting. We target the kings in low light conditions with early mornings and cloudy rainy days being best.
Early on there are fair numbers of kings around with the number of fish building as the month comes to an end. All-in-all, August is a good month to target trout, smallmouth bass, summer run steelhead, and the start of the fall fish, the king salmon.
-LARRY RANEY
Premier Angling Guide Service
( 231) 477-5544
www.premieranglingguideservice.com
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