October on the Pere Marquette River is what I call the mixed bagged month. It’s a perfect time of year to hook a variety of fish in this river system. There will still be king salmon in the river and as the month progresses you have coho, steelhead and lake run brown trout entering the river too.
The local trout start to turn on this time of year too, especially in the upper stretches where the salmon are spawning. These salmon eggs are an easy meal ticket for a big resident brown that will give it a lot of fat and calories for winter. This fishing is a lot of fun, your sight fishing to these trout behind the salmon with either micro eggs or even small streamers can be productive. With light fluorocarbon tippet and a smooth, accurate cast you can catch a trophy. You might even get lucky and hook a fresh chrome steelhead sitting in a pocket too if you do, be ready for one of the most exciting fights a fly angler can have. For more up-to-date information check out outfittersnorth.com.