Third Coast Fly

I would love to report an upswing in the fishing but it just isn’t the case. Like the weather, the fishing has taken a slight turn for the worse. Probably a combination of winter-over fish completing their spawning and hitting the road back to Lake Michigan and cold water temps that have also been dropping and clearing.

In a week we’ve went from about perfect water levels and color to getting low and clear. We’re hearing reports of new fish in the lower river but unfortunately they haven’t made an appearance upstream yet. With this lingering winter weather it’s understandable to not see many spring fish, the good new is, they should be right around the corner.

Walt Grau reports doing well on smolt patterns, his best nymph the past week.

As many expected the steelhead fishing on the PM turned red hot after the flood waters receded. Oddly, the upper river near Baldwin is now low and clear while the middle around Walhalla is still high and dirty.

It’s light leaders, small eggs and nymphs near Baldwin and big and bright lower down. If your on foot, wading is still a challenge in many areas down stream of the Flies-Only.

There are a lot of drop-back hens moving through the system with spawners still around. Steve reports that the Flies-Only area has lost a lot of steelhead over the past few days.

It’s been interesting to see the rearrangement of log jams throughout the river and other changes that the high water brought. It’s hard to believe that the water was nearly 5 foot higher a week ago.