River Reports - Manistee & Pere Marquette Fishing

Manistee River Steelhead Report

Manistee River Below Tippy Dam

The Manistee River Steelhead report for the week of March 23rd. The Manistee River this past week has been holding steady around 2400 cfs. The river has been dropping steadily over the past few days and will probably remain slightly elevated as we warm up again and the snowmelt in the headwaters hits the stream. Water temps have also been on the rise and are now staying around 39.5 degrees. With the increased flows and water temperature, we have been seeing some fresh fish arriving daily over this past week, but not a substantial push by any means.

Coronavirus Pandemic and Guide Trips

With the global outbreak of the coronavirus now hitting close to home for every American, Michigan and several other states have issued a “shelter in place” order to try and ease the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The “Stay Home, Stay Safe” executive order in Michigan has mandated that all “non-essential Businesses” must cease all operations from March 24th to April 13th. This is subject to change based on how things proceed from this point moving forward. We at Mangled FLY hope everyone continues to do their part to prevent the transmission of this disease and we hope everyone continues to remain safe and healthy thru these trying times. We will resume our guiding services when the order is lifted by the state. We will try and update the fishing conditions as best as we can, so please be patient on awaiting new reports during these trying times. Also make sure to check out the Pere Marquette and Upper Manistee reports if you haven’t yet.

DNR

The State of Michigan has been encouraging people to continue to recreate outdoors using CDC approved social distancing practices. The Michigan DNR has been promoting the use of its outdoor resources and has encouraged people to engage in fishing, hunting, and general outdoor activities across the state. Yesterday the MDNR announced it would suspend all fees for the state parks, there will be no fees for people to enjoy the outdoor recreational opportunities here in Michigan throughout the outbreak. So with that being said enjoy everything the outdoors has to offer, but please continue to stay safe out there.

Fishing Report

The Manistee River Steelhead report as of late has some good steelhead fishing as of late. There is a mix bag of fish beginning to spawn and some newer fish arriving daily. The flows and clarity have improved dramaitcly since the last report as most of the recent runoff has moved through the system. With water temps quickly approaching 40 degrees it feels like the spring run is beginning to pick up in pace after a slight pause in the action with the recent cold fronts. The weather forecast for this upcoming week looks perfect with most days in the 40’s and even some 50’s and more rain heading into the weekend. This should keep the fish happy and continue to send our spring fish home.

The best flies right now have been brighter egg patterns in Chartreuse, Chartreuse and Orange, and Orange on the cloudy days and a little more pale on the sunny days. Salmon fry, hex, stones, and green caddis patterns are all providing opportunities especially when the fishing pressure has been high. Look for the green caddis nymph to continue to shine in the dropping flows this week and as we warm up the stonefly activity should return as well. As water continues to drop and clear, fishing with the smaller balsa floats and loafer style floats while utilizing a finesse approach, will once again provide some opportunities as we move forward in what should be a low water season this year.

Spring Steelhead

Spring Steelhead bookings have been put on hold at this moment due to the recent Governors executive order. Feel free to contact us regarding any future bookings and if you have a special someone who you know is itching to hit the water we are seeing a request for Gift Certificates towards future trips, (231-631-5701) and email requests are welcomed!

The next 3-4 weeks will be trying times as we navigate through the great unknowns, but we will get through this and we will be looking forward to fishing with everyone in the near future. Take care, stay healthy, and get outside and enjoy nature. This is a perfect time to disconnect from the the TV and Social Media and enjoy some self reflection, family time, and fly tying. We look forward to more positive times and getting back on the water shortly.

Tight Lines,

Ed McCoy

Pere Marquette Fishing Report

March 22, 2020/in Guide Service, River Reports /by Jon Ray

Pere Marquette Steelhead Fishing

The Pere Marquette fishing report for the week of March 22nd, has us into Spring officially. As the season is moving along, so is our view of the world. Some interesting times, to say the least. At Mangled Fly we are going to try to update the reports on a more frequent bases than our once a week norm, to give anglers staying at home something to take their minds off of “the world” for a few minutes and think about the rivers and fish we enjoy to fish and chase. First and foremost be safe out there! Second, as we have some extra time on our hands, if you want to see anything different (videos, articles, blogs) drop us a line. Over the next few weeks, with cancellations happening we hope to get some new media and content published. We are looking for ideas.

Fishing Report

The fishing report for the Pere Marquette river is first of all its in great shape! The water level is slightly up and the color is perfect! This week it was on the drop, but after rain and more snow melting the Pere Marquette jumped back up. Online water data for depth and temp that we use can be found in the link.

Steelhead have really hit the gravel areas hard, as spawning is occurring in all the known sections. Not many new chrome fish, but plenty of holdover winter fish. Did hit a bright chrome fish yesterday (Saturday) in a mid river moving slot that lite us up pretty good. Early morning before the sun gets to high been hitting moving spots with really bright egg patterns, on the first cast this bright hen hit like a fall run chrome torpedo. We didn’t land that one.

With plenty of spawning going on already, we did hit our first drop back as well this week, in a classic drop back spot. Always fun to fish for drop backs, as these fish love a variety of tactics and especially minnow patterns. Dead drifting fry patterns (bigger than normal as dropbacks are not picky) can lead to success. This fly was more tied euro jig or jig style. On the new Firehole 523 size #6 that I picked up. Using a 7/32 5.5 Tungsten Bead (white) and tying up a simple fry pattern with grizzly marabou and an ice dub hot spot. One of the flies that I hope to get filmed, as more jig style hooks are coming out. The Firehole has been really nice, barbless but nice and strong. The 5.5 bead is heavy, really heavy so fishes well in fast deep water. Perfect for under a float in spring water types.

Coronavirus Pandemic

With the global outbreak of the coronavirus everyone has concerns and no one wants to be deliberately exposed to this virus. With that being said we are continuing to run our business based on a daily assessment of the outbreak. If things begin to get out of hand and you have dates booked with us we will be in touch with you personally on how to proceed. If you have travelled to or from any hot spots and are waiting on a test result, please let us know ahead of time and please refrain from traveling here until you get your test results confirmed. If you are feeling sick or “off” and/or have some genuine concerns regarding your upcoming trips please feel free to reach out to us and we can discuss other options. Now with that being said we want everyone to be safe, be healthy, and to make smart decisions based on your own health and for the greater community. Please continue to stay safe out there.

Booking Spring Steelhead & Trout Trips

Drop us an email if your thinking about fishing this Spring or early Summer post virus season, or use the Contact Page to request a day. Also feel free to text us at 231-631-5701 for open availability. Spring Steelhead should peak here soon, but still have openings and with streamer success on Upper Manistee already we will be breaking out the streamer rods on the PM too.

Jon Ray

Upper Manistee River Trout Fishing

March 20, 2020/2 Comments/in manistee river, River Reports, Trout Fishing /by Jon Ray

Manistee River Trout Report

Upper Manistee Trout Fishing report for late March has us busting through some snow and ice to get into the ramps. But with some 4×4 and a little elbow grease we got the drift boat into the Manistee River once again. Have reports that most of the launches are open, except maybe Tree Farms still, but with the rain yesterday that snow bank blocking the access could be manageable now.

Spring Trout Fishing

One of the keys to Spring Trout fishing is water temperatures as you can see by the graph this past week we had our best success when temperature was on the rise. This week we hit 41 degrees on my temperature gun and that was the best day of activity we had.

River data for the Upper Manistee can also be looked at online at this link. They are still working on getting a good signal for all the data to load consistently but hoping by summer to fix all the problems. The probe is located downstream of the CCC Bridge a few bends. Giving you an idea for water temperature and level.

Streamer Fishing

With warm weather next week it will be a good week to get out again and chase trout, with streamer fishing being the main tactic. Early season patterns you can never go wrong with sculpin / goby imitations, take your favorite pattern and try a black head on it. As male sculpins and gobies when they spawn in the spring have very black / dark heads.

We noticed this week that we had to have lead on our patterns to get the most attention. With cool temps and dropping water most of our trout were located in deeper darker slots. Most of them would not come up for the flies, you had to get the fly deep to get them to chase.

Trout Guide Trips

With Steelhead hitting their prime on the Lower Manistee and Pere Marquette , we always welcome a change of pace and venturing to the trout water is a welcome adventure. If your looking to book a trout trip give us a call, 231-631-5701 or shoot us an email.

Stay Safe

Jon Ray