BY ERIC SHARP • FREE PRESS OUTDOORS WRITER • March 6, 2008
WELLSTON -- It's 42 degrees and raining steadily, punctuated with gusts of sleet that occasionally spatter our faces.
Thank you!
Three previous attempts to fish steelhead on the Manistee River below Tippy Dam were wiped out by raging snowstorms or Arctic temperatures, resulting in long hours of fishing but no catching. Today the water is a little higher than last time and a little more stained, but that's not a bad thing because the milder temperatures have made life a lot more bearable.
We had released three steelhead in two hours and missed just as many, smaller fish in the four- to six-pound range that were feisty and fun, and with the temperature promising to reach the high 40s before the afternoon ended, the immediate future looked bright.
It has been a frustrating winter for steelhead anglers. Good conditions have been few and far between.
"I have to fish weekends, and it seemed liked in February you'd get some decent temperatures, in the 30s, at midweek. But by Friday the bottom would drop out and it would be in the teens and blow 20 knots," said Jerry Ramsay of Grand Rapids, an avid steelhead angler I've met several times on the Manistee and Pere Marquette.
"It's been a weird fall and winter. The fall run started out like it was going to be gangbusters, then just stopped. Then in early and mid-January there was a nice push of fish in the Grand at Grand Rapids and in the PM," he said. "That lasted about a week, but as soon as the temperature dropped, the fishing stopped."
That was largely due to a combination of frigid temperatures and cloudy skies. On days when the sun is shining, steelhead fishing often can be excellent because the water warms.
Spin fishermen using spawn bags, minnows, wigglers and worms have been outfishing fly anglers by a considerable margin in the colder temperatures, but with the rain warming the water a bit, it looked like a good opportunity to try the fly rod.
"I really like days when the water gets up to 39 or 40, but you can still catch fish even when it's down at 33 or 34," Ramsay said. "I've found that the trick is to go to smaller lures and fish the best water carefully."
We got a good example of that strategy at a deep pool we knew should hold a steelhead or two. In order to work a single creamy-yellow egg fly through the hole, one angler had to wade waist-deep into position above a big deadfall. Ramsay walked up to a spot about 50 feet away where he was ankle-deep, giving him a better view into the water with polarized sunglasses. After the egg fly had swept through the hole a dozen times, Ramsay said, "I think a fish just moved down deep, under the overhanging log." On the next cast, he said, "Yep, I really saw it that time. It looks like he's getting agitated."
Three casts later there was a tap-tap-tap on the line, about as hard as a perch hitting a minnow, and when the angler lifted the rod to set the hook, the tip began bobbing and line started zipping off the fly reel.
As the fisherman played the big rainbow carefully on a four-pound fluorocarbon leader tippet, Ramsay said, "That's been the way most of them have hit this winter. I saw the rod tip bounce a few times when he took the egg, but it looked like a hit from a bluegill."
Moving downstream to the next hole after releasing the fish, the anglers decided to try running some big streamers next to the bottom and work them slowly.
"Eggs flies have been working best lately, from what everybody tells me," Ramsay said. "But sometimes you can tempt them by offering a real mouthful. ... You still have to keep things slow, though, and do an upstream mend when you cast.
"They normally hit the streamer right as it starts to swing near the end of the drift. If you have a big downstream belly in the line, it makes the fly move a lot faster, and in cold water like this they don't like to chase it."
While the weather forecast for the next week calls for more wintry conditions, it's looking a bit better just after that, with the 10-day forecast predicting 40-ish conditions in southern Michigan.
That could mean a good steelhead run in the Huron River at Flat Rock, where it has been hit-and-miss for weeks.
Most of the walleye fishing will be catch-and-release, because the season on inland waters like the Huron closes March 16 and doesn't reopen until April 26.
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Check & Clear 6
LOC: 38-54-14.60N / 097-14-09.07W
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