Fishing Report 10/10/25

This week we have experienced some days of great early steelhead season with some extremely hot fish humbling the angler. There are still fresh salmon coming in early in the week. We saw big pushes of fresh coho salmon coming in the big Manistee and I hear there are still fresh salmon coming into the lower Betsy river as well. We could definitely use more rain and the cooler temperatures are a welcome change from the summer like weather we have had so far this fall.

Trout fishing remains good on the upper Manistee with dry, fly action and smaller streamers being a great choice.  The brown trout are in pre-spawn feed mode.  The brook trout appear to have their fall makeup on and look absolutely vibrant in color. 

Boardman River Report

The Boardman River is closed to fishing above Beitner Road. There are decent numbers of migratory fish below the wier to the mouth. 

Upper Manistee River Report

October fishing has been good on the Upper Manistee. We have had good dry fly action with a tractor patterns during the late afternoon's and streamer action has been really good on certain days. 

Spending a day on the “Upper” will ensure a wonderfully peaceful fishing experience. 

Lower Manistee River Report- Below Tippy Dam

The Big Manistee has been fishing really well and there are still fresh salmon running. On Monday and Tuesday we had a really good push of fresh coho salmon and the steelhead fishing has picked up with more adults in the system, as well as a good mix bag of skippers.  

We had overcast skies today and I really thought the fishing was going to be lights out, but we struggled to find fish as did all the other guides. We were all scratching our heads wondering where the fish went we had been seeing all week. Just part of chasing fall fish. We did hit some steelhead a couple of fresh kings. Fish were moving  and we observed groups of fresh salmon moving across the sand flats. 

We still need much more rain, but the fish seem to be trickling in and the cooler temperatures have been helpful for the fall steelhead activity.