Shop Hours are 7am to 7pm Daily
We finally received a couple days of heavy rains last week! The river rose and colored up for a few days…we needed that for sure! It certainly shuffled the deck and brought in some more fish. The river is dropping and clearing too fast though and it will be back to normal soon. It was nice while it lasted!!! As we enter October, we should start seeing a few more coho salmon and even some steelhead swimming around the river. It was a big year for “silver fish” (kings, coho & steelhead) out on Lake Michigan and so far the king run has been very solid!
A couple more weeks of exclusively targeting kings and we will switch gears. By the third week of October we will be hunting the river for steelhead! With the kings heavily spawning and the recent high water, it should get a few steelhead sniffing around the Pere Marquette River. We caught a beautiful little lake run brown last week, but the picture did not turn out…bummer & sorry (too much moisture/dew). Egg patterns and beads are your best bet for the early steelies. Just a friendly reminder…beads are not legal in the “Fly Water”! Plus, the new daily bag limit on steelhead is 1 fish per person per day from Gleason’s Landing to Lake Michigan.
The leaves are starting to change, and it’s starting to feel like fall finally. Fishing pressure is increasing everywhere…not just here on the Pere Marquette. Please respect each others space…when in doubt “ask before you cast”. Communication goes a long way and etiquette goes even further. We are all out there to have a good time, enjoy a bend in the rod and a spending the day on the river. It is so much better to be talking about the battles that were won and lost with the fish at the end of the day; not describing a confrontation. Please just use the “golden rule”…treat others as you would like to be treated!
The shop is loaded up with inventory….flies, beads, plugs, spinners, rods, reels and everything in between! Our guide schedules are full right now, but we still have some lodging available…give us a call to book 231-745-3529. It’s certainly not too early to start thinking and planning your fall/winter steelhead fishing dates. Our bookings are starting to fill in, but we still have plenty of great openings for guide trips and/or lodging. We will most likely start switching gears to steelhead around Mid-October. Time is flying bye and we will be on the hunt for chrome very soon. I have spotted a couple, but have not boated any yet this season.
Here’s last week’s photo dump….
Another awesome week in the books!!! Thank you to all our clients, guests and customers for supporting us! It is so nice having such a loyal clientele; developing friendships and great memories together over the years. THANK YOU!!!! Plus, we still have 3 weeks to go before we switch to steelhead fishing! It has been a blast! It’s great to be burning the candle at both ends and staying busy chasing fish daily! We appreciate it very much! We have an awesome crew working the shop this fall, so please pick their brains on rigging, locations to fish and some fish stories.
Looking forward to another week on the river and making new memories on the Pere Marquette River! Good luck out there, enjoy the season and be safe!!!
John Karakashian
