With a week of steady rain, downpours and even hail the size of large grapes, the small and gentle PM is now the big muddy. I just checked the Scottville gage, it is reading double the average flow, has crushed the old record (1979) for this day and is still climbing straight up.
With a chance of rain for the next several days this could get interesting.
Steelhead fishing on the PM has actually gotten a notch or two better over the past two weeks. It seems that the recent rains have brought in a fresh bunch of new fish.
Along with spawners there are also lots of opportunity for drop-backs and trout.
Our “hot fly” the past few days has been the Ted’s Latex Caddis (pictured below), a cousin to the Ted’s Slingshot Caddis. The Latex version is tied with the band from a latex glove and a sparkle pink dubbed head.
The steelhead fishing is still idling at ok. There are enough spawners around to have some action but that is about it. What has been spicing up the days is a good number of drop-backs moving down river. These rebrightened hens are eager and aggressive, a lot like fishing the fall.
The river is up a bit and has some color since the recent rains. I also heard that there are some new fish heading upstream, let’s hope this is more than a rumor.
The browns have been hot or cold. More cold for me lately but Steve did great stripping streamers a few days ago.
Fishing on the Pere Marquette is about the same as last week, somewhere between ok and fair. There are steelhead around but you have to cover a lot of water to find them. When you do find some fish the clear water doesn’t help, though the low clear conditions are perfect for indicators.
With no significant rain for weeks the PM is low and clear. There have been some mayflies coming off and still lots of baby salmon around.
On a good note, I saw many fresh steelhead moving upstream today.
Fishing has declined from good to fair on the PM the past few days. I’m still netting fish but I’m having to work a lot harder to make it happen. I’ve heard positive reports from the Ludington Pier and Pere Marquette Lake, that there are a lot of steelhead ready to head up. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
The flies only is low and clear but there is still some color in the middle river, no reports from the lower.
Eggs in peach/cream and pink/cream have always been two of my favorites in clear water with bright conditions and they have been producing lately.
We’re picking up some drop-backs so don’t be afraid to fish holes.
