Fishing Report 8/8/25
Hopper and terrestrial time is continuing with no real change from our fishing report last week. The water levels and temperatures remain steady over the past week. This is such a fun time to fish as we have tricos in the morning and that gets the fish looking up for a meal and you simply can fish some sort of rubber legged attractor pattern, a patriot or purple haze if you want to fish the mayflies. Be sure to add some twitching or movement to your fly as the fish really seem to be keying in on this type of presentation. I have been fishing a two fly rig with a foam hopper, chubby chernobyl up front with an ant dropper and the fish have been hitting both flies.
This is a great time to get out on lakes in the early morning hours or evening for bass and bluegill on the drop offs on virtually any lake in the region. Such a fun and simple thing to do with little time commitment. This is a great way to practice your casting without the worry of a backcast.
In the coming weeks we will be looking at the slow transition to fall and all the fun of our fall fisheries, so get out there and enjoy all summer has to offer!
Boardman River Report
The Boardman Ottaway River has remained pretty consistent over the past couple of weeks. Great place to wade and fish and hit several spots in a morning or evening. If you want to explore the Boardman, concentrate your time on the lower-light periods of the days 7AM-NOON and 6PM-9PM have been best. Clouds are an angler's friend on the Boardman as with any other river. The water is clear so focus your efforts on areas with depth or structure.
Late summer is a great time to downsize your setups - think 3 & 4 weight rods. Fish have been responding to smaller terrestrials like Hippy Stompers, Chubby Chernobyls, the Yeager, and flying ants. If you’re feeling confident in your casting, generic droppers will produce. Things like pheasant tails, hare’s ears, and pat’s rubber legs. If you’re fishing a flat, calm piece of water utilize the dead drift, otherwise work some twitches into your presentation.
If you are struggling getting the fish to look up, get down and dirty with some nymphs or small streamers. Swinging soft hackles in the riffles and edges can produce fish as well.
Upper Manistee River Report
Terrestrial time on the Upper Manistee River is such a fun time to be on the river. Hatches are not super important, although there have been tricos in the morning and bwo’s on cloudy days which all have the fish looking for dries and when they see a hopper, beetle or ant go over they react. Try fishing a two fly rig with a foam style attractor pattern with an ant behind can be deadly.
Flying ants, beetles, small hoppers, Hippy Stompers, Chubby Chernobyls, Yeager flies have been working well and we have been finding some nice trout looking up over the past couple of weeks.
Lower Manistee River Report
The Lower Manistee below Tippy Dam has been good for smallmouth and they have been looking up for poppers, surface bugs and frogs earlier in the day and chasing down baitfish patterns in the afternoons. This past week cloudy days were definitely better for smallmouth. They made us really work for them and we have had several fish simply “window shopping” the fly.
Soft Chews, diving frogs, Boogle Bugs and various poppers have been the best producers. Murdich Minnows, and other baitfish patterns have been working well as subsurface flies. Summer run steelhead are holding in transitional runs cruising over the sand. Creek mouths have summer run steelhead staging and chilling in the cooler water. Smallmouth fishing should be great for the balance of the summer until the early Chinooks start coming up in late August.