September « 2010 « Thirdcoastfly.com - Fly fishing in Michigan on the Pere Marquette River and Lake Michigan

September, 2010

salmon — Comments Off
Sep 23
2010

Thundersticken’ Round Up

We’ve been out throwing Thundersticks in the lower river over the past few weeks for king salmon. Sure, we’ve made the occasional foray into the middle river to target fish around the gravels with flies, but even then we always probe the dark water, throwing hardware, waiting for the big rip.

Kings hate Thundersticks in a good way. They hate them so much they just can’t help but kill them. A fresh, or even not so fresh king, takes a Thunderstick with serious aggression and is one of the most exhilarating things to experience with rod and reel.

So don’t dunk skein. Please stop fly snagging in Sycamore Hole. Just throw Thundersticks.

Steve sends along some pictures from the past week of his Thundersticken’ exploits with Jason, Cameron, Scott, Denis, Brian and Wayne. Living large in West Michigan. Remember, you can always click on any image for a bigger version.

Pere Marquette fishing report -Sept 21st

We’ve been getting a nice push of salmon over the last two days. They seem to be squirting up the lower river pretty fast, which means we should have good numbers of fish in the middle and upper river later this week and early next. We’re still managing to stick a few fish every day in the lower river on Thundersticks.

We cannot remind people too often that the Pere Marquette River is an entirely wild salmon fishery. This means that there are no hatchery salmon planted in the river. Our future generations of salmon depend 100% on the fish that are spawning right now. In order to protect this amazing fishery, please remember that females in particular must be released. It is depressing to see the short-term skein fishing trend increasing on the PM. With smaller runs of salmon each year, more people are switching to skein to put fish in the boat, selecting females over males to harvest in order to replenish their bait supply.

This is a certain recipe for the end of our fishery. The increased killing of more wild female salmon in an already declining fishery will be a quick nail in the coffin. Please, if you must harvest fish, harvest males only.

commentary — Comments Off
Sep 21
2010

Rescue

Last week Indigo Guide Steve Martinez was fishing below Scottville when he heard someone yelling for help. He went upstream and found a man in the water and another on a log holding a swamped boat. Steve got a life vest on the man in the water and pulled him on board his boat then raced upriver while monitoring the man’s status. The man lost consciousness a few minutes later. Steve had called 911 and the paramedics were waiting for him. The man was rushed to the hospital. Sadly, after three days in critical condition, Wilbur De Ruiter, 75, of Hart, Michigan, died Friday.

We’re happy to have a guy like Steve on the team and extend our condolences to Wilbur’s family.

Another man died this weekend fishing the North break wall in Ludington. Folks, be careful out there. The current in the lower river is deceivingly strong. Conditions on the break walls can be dangerous.

fishing reports / pere marquette fishing report / salmon — Comments Off
Sep 20
2010

Pere Marquette fishing report- Sept 19th

There are good numbers of fish on gravel and actively spawning in the middle river. Some days they respond to flies, some days they don’t. There are poor numbers of fish in the lower river, but J and John got into a few yesterday throwing Thundersticks. Weather was great and we didn’t see another boat after 11:30. It was a nice day to be on the water. There are still a lot of fish in PM Lake and at the river mouth and we should get some more fish in the lower river over the next couple days.