Hi guys, I’ve had the “day off” for an appointment earlier today so had a little time and figured I’d toss up an addition to the report below with just a bit more of a positive spin now… In short, I spent about 3 hours of my normal Saturday off the river detailing my truck and boat so it would rain and, it worked! ;^)
I don’t know that we have any real gully washers in store for us over the coming week, but according to the local weather man, even though it’s sunny here as I type right now, every day thru Friday has “mostly” cloudy skies with chances of showers each day and that alone should make a huge difference. (The pic above is from the one brief, but significant rain that passed thru early this morning.)
Fact is we do still have a fair number of fish in the system (More than one might think anyway.) and are finding some new arrivals daily that have been hot and picture shy for the most part, but those fish have been in deep, often woody cover or in undercuts during daylight hours. A little rain and some overcast is just what the doctor ordered shy of getting some high water for a minute and I’m looking forward to the change.
In all honesty I’d really rather not see a huge spike in water that brings in whatever is left to come in one big shot now. With Water temps hovering around the 50 degree mark all those fish would come in, take advantage of the cover, get it done and get back out in no time… No, I’d rather keep up the trickle and the fun hunt allowing more folks time to fish for them right thru the better part of April as usual.
Even on days without hitting any redds we’re still finding enough fresh and drop back fish to play with each day from dark water to have great time and even landing a few now and again. In these water temps the drop backs have been easier to handle than the fresh ones, but it has made for some exciting battles and learning experiences!
On the Trout side of things they are fat and happy! We’ve only seen a few risers on the warmer days so far, but early stones have been popping good and there was the first really good hatch of tiny Blue Winged Olives we’ve seen yesterday. I anticipate the the entire hatch schedule may be at the very least slightly accelerated with this warm spring so keep your eyes open.
Fry patterns have been taking nice fish on the regular with tons of them swimming around in the shallows as well as the obvious egg patterns. Fry, eggs and even tiny nymphs on light tippets are probably gonna be your top producers for numbers, but some dry flies, your big streamers and yes, even waking flies at night in these temps will produce some really nice fish at this point.
On another note I’ve had a few more folks inquire about the on-line shops progress and all I can say is that we are just pecking away at it in the background right now, but are also in the middle of the season and anyone’s time for it is limited at the moment. Please bear with us and trust me, we want the inventory available to you there even more than you do! ;^) In the meantime, as always, feel free to give us a call and we’ll be happy to ship you anything we can! (231) 745-3529 7am to 7pm Daily.
In this report I’ve linked a couple of things you can find on our site, but we hope you’ll poke around and find more! For example, I’ve had more people message or mention to me the article I released this winter “Much more about our home river” than anything else I’ve published for you over the past 24 years. (Thanks guys!) Month-by-month on the Pere Marquette River is another treasure trove of information as is the recently revised article on Rigging for migratory fish…
From our home page (as well as several others in some circumstance) you’ll find links to three different water monitoring stations, local weather, e-licenses, fishing reports that are archived to the very first on this site, information on our guided trips, our contact info, details on Motel BBT and more! If you have a few minutes we hope you’ll poke around and find something useful that’s free!
It’s been a great season thus far with an awesome crew here at the shop and smiling faces all around the compound and the river. As always I’d like to extend our sincere gratitude for all your support past, present and future. We help each other out and it works! Thank you and till next time, be safe, be well and stay positive! – Steve
Report from April 2, 2021 below…
Hi guys, just another quick one from me this morning, but I wanted to give “fair warning” to those of you making the trek up this weekend and, wish you all a Happy Easter. Between fishing pressure, water that is now in the extreme low and clear condition, bright skies and cold weather the pursuit has become much more challenging the past few days.
Our guides are still finding fish to play with daily and having a great time since that’s what you’re supposed to do while fishing, but we are working a lot harder for it. Just a few mornings ago I was one of the first in and rowed down to the infamous riffles for a day with a father and daughter team that wanted to just fish from the boat.
On my way down at dawn there appeared to be a lot of fish out on redds in a whole lot of places, but those fish apparently took to the wood and undercuts as soon as the sun came up and another boat or two past them. Most of those that went by after that probably swore that the whole stretch was a fishless desert.
Point being, there’s more around then you might think, but they are making themselves scarce in the daylight and the population is currently not close to that of even a week ago. I’m “assuming” that we have more fish to come yet as always and will find them right thru most of April, but that may just be a steady trickle rather than another big push if we don’t see some sort of real precipitation. We need some water…
Between many more people taking to the outdoors since the pandemic, folks working remotely, spring breaks, new boat owners and a river with just about the best run so far traffic has been heavy this spring, but I’m happy to report that I haven’t seen too many “mean mugs” out there, just smiling faces for the most part and decent etiquette from “most”. Don’t let “that one guy” or “that one boat” ruin your good time if you come across it. I for one don’t mind sharing the great outdoors with other happy people so lets hope it stays that way.
I need to get off here now and pack a lunch for my trip today so I’ll leave it at that for now. Here’s to hoping we get some rain and till next time stay safe, stay well, stay positive and please stop in the shop if you get a chance! We haven’t had the best of luck in every single category as far as getting our inventory goes, but we’re pretty well stocked with ton’s of useful and cool stuff we hope you’ll purchase to help us out… – Steve
