Just when we thought it was safe to declare Spring’s arrival, Michigan came right back and bit us in the ass. It’s been pretty cold last couple days with lows in the upper 20s and days barely creeping into the 40s. We even got some snow Saturday night. This is actually good (glass half full) as it will keep steelhead in the river a while longer. However, with water temps bumping up into the low 50s in the middle of last week, there was a frenzy of spawning activity. Steelhead numbers are down in the upper river, but still plenty around. Numbers are also still decent in the middle river.
Eggs are still the go to fly for steelhead. Pink estaz nuke eggs have been producing as have pink beads and orange beads. With the warmer water temps last week stripped and swung streamers also produced some fish.
There are still good numbers of fresh chrome fish hanging out behind the gravels seemingly waiting their turn mixing it up with the browns and the drop backs. Steelhead should hold on here strong for another week or so depending on rain and temperatures, hopefully longer. The brown trout fishing has been getting better and better. Before the cool down over the weekend we were seeing good black stonefly hatches and even decent numbers of tan caddis in spots. There were quite a few risers poking their heads out. Risers? Risers? Yes, they do exist on the Pere Marquette. Just kind of forgot. And not to be overlooked, the sucker run started last week and this is great news. Sucker fry are an important food source for our browns and now that the Custer lamprey barrier is gone we expect to see them rebound nicely.
Oh spring, why are you such a tease?
