S pring has arrived in our great state and on the Pere Marquette River. April can bring a lot of different opportunities on this great river. Steelhead is usually the fish of choice in the spring. You can find fish throughout the whole river this time of year. Try focusing on pocket water and small pools around gravel areas. Eggs and nymphs fished under a float work well, especially if the water is low.
Resident trout fishing becomes good too. In the spring, we see big amounts of small salmon that hatched in previous months. These little parr become a huge focus for an easy meal for larger brown and rainbow trout that call this watershed their home. Fishing these in the pools under a float or stripping them off the bank can produce some great trout this time of year. Just like in the fall with spawning salmon you can find these trout feeding on eggs behind spawning steelhead and suckers. It’s a buffet they can’t resist. If the water is warm, fishing bigger streamers off the banks and log jams can also produce some jolting strikes with bigger trout looking for a much bigger meal. Try big baitfish patterns such as smaller steelhead smolt imitations and sculpins. For up-to-date weekly reports check out outfittersnorth.com.