Fishing Report 9/28/24
This the last weekend of trout season and the forecast calls for beautiful weather! Be sure to check out the regulations on your favorite river before fishing after the weekend.
Boardman River Trout Water
As we mentioned above, this is the last weekend for trout season upstream of Beitner Road. Small streamers, general attractors and terrestrials have all been producing. Try and find some water that is shaded mid-day and have fun!
Manistee River Trout Water
The Manistee trout water has been fishing well for September. Despite low water levels, temps have been ideal with cool overnight temperatures. There's really no hurry to get on the water before things warm up in the morning. Anglers have been finding good streamer fishing in the morning hours and fish still willing to eat terrestrials in the afternoon. Smaller streamers have been best such as skunks, royal coachman, micro dungeons, and bugger variations. For dries, we've had luck with flying ants, hippie stompers, and smaller hopper imitations.
Manistee River Below Tippy Dam
The rain this week brought a fresh look at a river that was at super low levels. The fish liked the bump in flows and are liking the cooler evenings and we have seen fresh kings and silvers running all week. A few skipper steelhead have been moving in with the salmon. This week marked the first real major spawning activity with fresh fish staging in the runs and holes below the spawning fish. The weather has been warm and sunny, and on the cloudy days the fish are definitely in a better mood to bite. The coho have been loving bright beads and eggs and anything purple with some flash. There are great numbers of both coho and kings so far this morning and I hear there are more fish staging in the lake to migrate up with the river temps dropping and another shot of rain, and the steelhead are not far behind! This is really shaping up to be a good fall on the Big Manistee. We just could use some more rain and steadily dropping temps. Salmon have been taking beads really well, dark colored nymphs, steelhead buggers and purple comets. Get out and fish!
Betsie River
The fish are scattered throughout the Betsie River system and it seems like there are still fish holding in holes and runs waiting to hit gravel. The fish have been big this year with coho in the mix as well. You can have a great time by doing some exploring and this is such a nice river to wade. Keep in mind the river closes to fishing above Kurick Road after this weekend. Enjoy this river while the run lasts and look for steelies to follow with rain and cooler temperatures.