Pere Marquette Fishing Report

Pere Marquette Fishing Report

Hello fishing friends!

This past week we had the chance to float the Pere Marquette (PM) for a couple of days. It’s a great time of year to be on the river, and the whole system feels like it’s starting to wake up—lots of wildlife and plenty of signs of life.

Steelhead Report

Steelhead fishing was fairly good. We had multiple opportunities, and a couple of fish found the net.

Float fishing was the ticket for us. We did best drifting beads through the deep, slow “winter water” pools and along the bubble lines adjacent to log jams. The key was getting as tight to the wood as possible without donating every hook in the boat.

We encountered a mix of winter-holdover fish and some early spring-run steelhead, but everything we found was still set up in deeper water. We didn’t see any true pre-spawn behavior yet—water temperatures are still on the cold side. With the next warm-up, we should see a nice push of fresh spring fish moving into the system.

Trout Report

Trout fishing was on the slow side, but that’s likely about to change. As water temps rise, the browns should start to get more active. On a warm afternoon, the streamer bite can turn on in a hurry.  Especially with the amount of expected Salmon parr that are about to flood the river from this past falls impressive run of King Salmon.  Look for Brown Trout to put on the feed bag soon. 

I didn’t notice much insect activity yet, but it shouldn’t be long as well, as little black stones should start to move in the next 10 days with an expected warm up.

Wading Safety

If you’re a walk-and-wade angler, please be careful out there. There are a lot of new trees down, and there’s still plenty of shelf ice in spots.

With rising temperatures and fish already around, now is a great time to shake off the winter blues with a Pere Marquette float. If you’d like to get out, we have a few prime dates still available.

Captain Jeff

Pere Marquette Water Levels at Scottville, MI