Post by dannys on Apr 13, 2014 4:39:23 GMT -6
We have a small group of us anglers that met up in Baldwin, Michigan, for 6 days of steelhead fishing on the Pere Marquette (4 days) and White (2 days) Rivers. We have all been there before, but had yet to time the week north so well. The Spring weather finally slipped in and stayed with us all six days. The only rain came in for about twenty or thirty minutes on Thursday. We also had enough thin and heavy cloud cover to bring the steelhead out of their winter pools and into the gravel beds. Nothing like sight fishing to big steelhead!
Hatches during the week were primarily large midges (which all the fish ignored) and black stones. That said, the golden stone nymphs I tied for this trip were very productive the first half of the week. Hint: when tying a stone pattern, try white goose biot wing behind the thorax like used for Princes. It gives a bit different look and depth (dimensional, not as in sink depth) to the fly.
I don't recall the number of hook-ups and "to net" but I did hook into and land more steelhead this trip than ever before, as did others in our group. Here are a couple of pics of netted steelhead. Both the buck and hen on left were are from the Pere Marquette. The buck on the right is from the White River. Once the Spring spawn is over, these fish will move into Lake Michigan and then head back into the rivers sometime in October when they will fatten up on Salmon spawn and spend the winter. These rivers also have some great Brown trout fishing. We did catch a few a few wild Browns and wild Rainbows as bonuses.
If anyone is interested in details about the lodge and guide service we use, let me know through a PM.
