By: Jeff Hubbard
It was a old fashion Michigan winter up here. In April we saw extremely cold weather and a good amount of snow. The spring steelhead run was one of the toughest I had seen in a long time. With low, clear water and then winter water temps. We really didn’t see a lot of new fish pushing up the river until we finally lost the snow a received some rain. This was finally the recipe we needed to get some more steelhead pushing into the rivers of West Michigan. Now it’s trout time on the Pere Marquette River.
We are now focused on targeting the brown and rainbow trout that thrive in our cold-water stream. We start the spring off throwing big streamers at the banks and stripping them back towards us with a sink tip line. This is a great way to chase trout, it becomes a game of cat and mouse. That twenty-inch brown trout in its vibrant golden color will startle you as it rolls on your fly. He becomes the cat that just has to check out its prey. It’s a great way to spend a spring day. Flies that work well for this style of fishing in the spring are baitfish patterns. Patterns that resemble small salmon parr or steelhead smolts will really get these trout attention.
For your dry fly angler’s as the weather starts to warm we will start to see good hatches of little black stoneflies and hendrickson’s earlier in the month. Insects soon to follow other than the mosquito are sulphur’s and gray drakes if the weather really starts to warm. May is a great time to get outside whether your chasing trout in your favorite stream, calling in a gobbler or hunting morels, it’s good to be outside with out three layers of clothing on.
Jeff Hubbard
Outfitters North Guide Service
(231) 898-6246
www.outfittersnorth.com
