Archive for the ‘steelhead’ Category

Post from the Past- Mousing for Steelhead

Friday, April 1st, 2016

As many of you know, steelhead fishing has been very good this season.  Last week, Bill from Chicago booked me for two days.  The first day we did well on the traditional steelhead routine, netting several nice fish.  Toward the end of the day Bill says, “Had a great day, but what about tomorrow, can we do something different?”

I tell him that we can try for drop backs and trout in the holes, maybe throw some streamers, we could head to the lower river or we could even try another river.

He asks me, “What about dry flies?”

“No.”

“Can you catch steelhead on the surface?”

I say, “Very rarely and not here,” but I do tell him that a few are caught in the summer and even mention Matt’s fish from last summer.

Bill asks if I’ve ever tried these fish (spring spawners) on the surface. And again I say, “No,” and add, “Bill, these fish often spook when they see an indicator.”

He follows up with, ”Well if you were going to try, what would you use?”

“Bill, it just won’t happen but to answer your question, it would be low light and I’d probably swing a big mouse, but again, surface fishing would be a waste of time.”

Then Bill asks the final question, “Can we try a mouse in the morning?” and I can only say “Yep”.

This post is from April 1st, 2012 and you can view the entire post by clicking here.

mousing-steelhead

Pere Marquette River Fishing Report- March 17th

Thursday, March 17th, 2016

The PM has been fishing well the past week. Warm weather and recent rains brought a big bunch of fresh steelhead up from Lake Michigan. These new steelhead were dearly needed as our winter fish had  spawned early and headed down, I’m sure the pre and post spawn fish high-fived as they passed or maybe a low-one is what fish do.

It raided all day yesterday and the river is on the rise but it doesn’t look like it’s going to get out of control and should make for some good fishing for the weekend.

I can guarantee that I’ll be fishing 12 pound and big bright stuff until at least next week.

pere marquette fishing guides pere marquette river guides pere marquette river steelhead

The Fly Fishing Santa

Friday, December 18th, 2015

It wouldn’t be Christmas around here without dusting off the Fly Fishing Santa video and bringing it out of the vault.

Merry Christmas and may your stockings be stuffed with steelhead.

The Fly Fishing Santa from Third Coast Fly on Vimeo.

Streamer Fishing for Michigan Steelhead Series

Tuesday, December 15th, 2015

Way back in 2010 I put together a series on streamer fishing for steelhead. If you happen to find yourself with a free hour, here you go: 1) Gearing Up, 2) Fly Patterns, 3) Reading Water, 4) Water Conditions and Finding Patterns, 5) Presentation Styles, 6) Fishing Basics and 7) Are We Missing Fish?

michigan steelhead streamers