Michigan Trout Report

[ozark trout fisher]

I've just returned from a week and a half long trip to Northwest Michigan. When I left on July 29th, the plan was to fish the lower section of the Big Manistee as well as several different warm-water lakes for smallmouth bass, pike, and walleye. However, the weather intervened, as rain and cool weather blew in the day we arrived. This opened up a multitude of trout fishing options, and the tone of the trip changed before it even got started.

The first three nights, we camped along the Pine River, a tributary of the Big Manistee. The Pine is a large spring creek, about the size of the Eleven Point below Greer Spring. A typical river in Michgan's Lower Peninsula is a clear, slow stream, with little in the way of challenges for those paddling them. But Pine is not a typical Michigan stream-it couldn't be further from what I just described. Rather it's a fast, rocky western looking river, heavily stained from the huge sand-banks which are located on the outside of nearly every bend. And the paddling is difficult, with many class II runs and a few full-on rapids that you'd almost have to call class III. It was far more difficult than anything I've paddled here in the Ozarks. It makes the Eleven Point seem rather placid. So the paddling was exciting, and the northwoods scenery couldn't have been any better, with white pines towering over the sand cliffs. The fishing did not come close matching any of that. It's considered a blue ribbon trout stream in the stretch we floated, but the trout were small and pretty few and far between. We did catch some wild rainbows in the 7-8 inch range, but this is a river you want to come to in search of adventurous paddling and beautiful scenery, not high quality fishing. It wasn't due to high water temperatures either, as they hovered in the high 50s and low 60s. The silty, almost brown water would fool you, but the Pine is almost entirely spring-water. It did strike me as a river that would be fun to learn inside and out-but visiting anglers like us never stood a chance to catch anything but a few small fish.

Day three saw us off Pine River, and headed to a campground on Lake Michigan. Along the way, we stopped to fish the lower section of the Big Manistee below Tippy Dam. This is famous water for salmon and steelhead, but mid-summer it's better known as a world-class fishery for smallmouth and walleye. I dug out the spinning rod and Rebel Craws in search of these species, but the river's brown trout population had other ideas. This area isn't known at all for its resident trout, but apparently it's stocked pretty heavily, as 8-10 inch browns were more than abundant. It doesn't really look like a trout stream either, too big, wide, and slow, but I wasn't complaining. I found it odd that the trout fishing was better here than in the "Blue Ribbon" water of the Pine. I also caught one smallmouth and a rather out of place bluegill.

We arrived at our campground on Lake Michigan that evening. The scenery there was quite beautiful, large sand dunes and pine forests overlooking the lake. We spent the next day hiking along the lake and swimming. Some people do fish off the bank for bass and other warm-water species in that area, but since I knew nothing about that sort of fishing, I elected to save my fishing energy for inland waters.

The next day we hit up the Little Manistee. I'd read about this river many places. It's listed in TU's top 100 trout streams, and whenever you read about cold-water fishing in Michigan its name tends to come up only behind the AuSable and Big Manistee. So when I arrived, I'll admit to being a bit surprised (though not unpleasantly) when I saw a relatively small spring creek, no larger than the Current at Tan Vat. It is a friendly, easily wadeable stream that flows through the exact kind of pine-forest country that one drives 600 miles north to see. The stream had a slight tea-colored stain, but was still quite clear, with a primarily sandy bottom. The current was fairly quick but constant, making all of the water appear somewhat uniform. We heard reports from several floaters of large (they said 2 1/2 foot long) salmonids just a bit up river. None of them were fisheman, so I was unable to ascertain with any certainty what they were. My guess would be summer-run steelhead, but it's just a guess. In any case, I didn't encounter anything remotely close to that size. The fishing was quite easy for small rainbows in the 5-8 inch range (actually baby steelhead.). It was the north-woods equivalent of fishing one of our little wild trout creeks in Missouri, except that since the fish were immature steelhead ,there wasn't the possibility of catching even the occasional larger fish-unless we happened upon one of the river's few large browns, which we didn't. But I've never needed large fish to enjoy myself, so I had an excellent time. The trout were excellent fighters for their diminutive size.

For the last 5 days, we spent time on Lake Michigan. We spent less of this time fishing than I care to admit, but we did check out some inland lakes. None of them produce particularly excellent fishing or many large fish, but all of them had their own charm. Most of the area lakes have lots of stunted bass and panfish, honestly only the scenery (and the outside chance of getting broke off by a big pike) makes them much different from the ponds I fish in Missouri.

Overall, I do recommend northwest Michigan as a destination for fisherman, but during the summer months, I would warn against coming with expectations of large fish. You'll see pictures of trophy fish (trout, bass, walleye, pike, etc) caught on these rivers, but by and large a good day for a visiting angler (unless you hire a guide) involves catching a lot of trout or bass in the 5-12 inch range. That's fine with me, and combined with the scenery I thought it was an excellent trip. Some wouldn't be happy without having caught a single picture worthy fish over the course of a 10 day trip, but in all I'd have to be a fool to complain. I have enough trouble catching large fish on waters I'm familiar with that I'm quite confident the lack of big fish pictures in this report are not the rivers' fault. If you haven't been to this part of the country you need to go, and I want to get back as soon as possible. It really isn't that far, compared to similar fishing destinations in the Rockies or on the east coast-it's a relatively easy day's drive. I'm working on putting up the pics now, and unless I run into problems they should be posted within a few minutes.

[ozark trout fisher]

Big Manistee Below Tippy Dam

Lake Michigan

Pine Forest Near Lake Michigan

Little Manistee River

[Phil Lilley]

I miss Michigan and those rivers.... stopped going there after going to AK for the first time. Started fishing the PM in 1985. The brown stained water in the last photo makes me homesick for the Pere Marquette.

Thanks for posting such a wonderful report!!

[ozark trout fisher]

Thanks. It's interesting that you mention the Pere Marquette. We were planning on fishing it all along, but somehow never got around to it. Of course on the last day of the trip I talked to a local who said it was fishing ridiculously well, but by that point it was too late. Next time though, hopefully.

[Al Agnew]

Yeah, the Pere Marquette was my introduction to "real" fly fishing. Mary and I were doing an art show in Grand Rapids in early autumn, and we were talking to some of the other artists, who had a trip planned to fish for king salmon on the PM right after the show. They said they had extra waders and fly rods, and invited us along. This was back in the late 1980s. We had a blast, catching 15 pound salmon with great regularity for three days. I went out right after that and bought my first two fly rods.

I also fished it for steelhead after they moved the show dates to later in the fall a couple years later. Didn't catch any.