The Pere Marquette has come back into shape nicely. We’re finally back down to about average levels for this time of year which means we’re still pushing 1000cfs but water clarity has improved dramatically. Unfortunately, however, we received eight inches of snow early last week and temperatures have been down right cold with overnight lows in the single digits and highs barely cracking 30. Daytime highs do look to be better for this week though, breaking 40 by Thursday. These cold temperatures mean that while fresh steelhead are moving up, their spawning should be delayed. This is good because it gives us more time to catch them while they’re not spawning and should extend our steelhead season a bit. Hopefully longer than last year’s short season.
We’ve been on the lower river for the most part lately and it’s fishing well. Egg patterns in pink and in orange are producing as are swung streamers in white. Gary and Chris fished with Steve last week and caught an absolutely massive chrome buck on a pink bead. What a beautiful fish. I suppose that’s another nice thing about the colder temps: really big fish sometimes make it to the net! Tom and Tim were up over the weekend and got into the skippers. Giant bucks one day, skippers the next. But they’re all steelhead and they are all incredible fish.
We’re really looking forward to some warmer temps around here. When it does finally warm up the steelhead spawn should start in earnest and the brown trout fishing should pick up as well. Just around the corner…
