Three quick announcements before the “report”!!
Shop hours are 7am – 6pm thru this weekend right now and on Monday we will be switching to 8am – 6pm thru the fall Steelhead season! Lots of great inventory in stock as well as guide and motel reservation available… Give us a call or stop in if you need/want something or to make a reservation. (231) 745-3529 during those business hours!
We still have spots available for Argentina 2026, click here to find out more!
The Fall River Clean-Up will be Saturday – October 25th Rain or Shine! Please reach out to the shop (231-745-3529) ahead of time to let us know if you are planning on attending, it is nice to have a “ballpark” headcount to prepare for the BBQ appreciation dinner. 9am at the shop to assign beats, grab trash bags, figure out pairings and take a group photo. Per usual, the shop will provide the trash bags and cover your car spot fees as well as hosting a BBQ at my barn next door at 6pm. It’s always a very satisfying day with lots for great stories, some treasures collected and tons of laughs!!! Great river karma and possibly even a steelhead or two might get caught??? We hope you can join us for the day to help protect & persevere our beloved Pere Marquette River!
I guess I’m past due for this report per usual… John has really been on top of it this fall with his weekly reports and has me at about two to one covering things nicely, so hopefully you’ve been reading both and are staying up to date!
Salmon seasons is a wrap for me, so I took a few days off to relax but then I did make it downriver with Steve from Barski for a little scouting mission yesterday and have a trip with my longest running client & friend tomorrow. After that I had a few more days blocked off but if you are a repeat client of mine and want to fish downriver contact me to book it. (My calendar opens back up to the normal shop bookings on the 23rd and we have that annual fall cleanup on the 25th.)
The bad news is that we are still running super low and clear, but the good news is that it looks like we do have some precipitation coming! Steve had at least a half dozen Steelhead that we positively identified as such in said low and clear water that chased a hot-n-tot right out to the boat but a quick rip or two and a couple of head shakes was the best we did with those…
The other nice thing that we found was a bunch of Cohos! Unfortunately, we ran into those a little late and had to get off the river to make it to a store before they closed so we only got a few shots into those pods but saw more rolling all the way out…
During that brief encounter I had several bright ones on that quickly got off doing the ole’ coho spin maneuver, but I did manage to hold on to one small colored up buck… In the end we each caught a gratuitous pike as shown on top of that but had tons of action all day being chased by late arrival Kings, all of those Steelhead and a few more Cohos.
That “scouting mission” does have me all fired up to get back out there! Even just a little less sunshine probably would have helped to put a few more to hand but if we do get any kind of real rain, it should be game on. Book a trip if you can, we’d love to show you why we love it!
There’s still a lot of Kings (And even some nice ones! 😉) in the mid and upper river if that still interest you and some very nice Brown Trout are feasting on eggs. Presentation and light tippets are super important on those really smart Browns in these water conditions and once again, some rain, and a little stain, would go a long way toward more success!
I’m not sure when I’ll get around to posting my next full report here and I don’t want to make any promises I may not keep but rest assured that when we start putting a few more of those silver fish to hand at least some will show up on my social media pages in between! My personal pages can be found here: Facebook & Instagram and BBT’s pages are here: Facebook & Instagram
In closing I want to thank each and every one of you for a great fall thus far! It was fantastic having you in the boat, at the motel or in the shop; every little thing right down to a pack of swivels helps keep the lights on and allows us to continue to do what we love to while serving you and the river as best we can…
Please try to be nice to one another, be safe and above all, have some fun!!
-Steve-
