Fishing Report – June 22, 2014

The Muskegon River near Newaygo, MI is running above average flows at this time due to the heavy rains that came through most of Michigan this past week.  Levels bounced around for a few days and have since settled around the 2200 cfs mark, with average being around 1800 cfs.

It’s literally a buffet on the river right now, with some bugs still hatching, baby fish hatching and crayfish molting !

Hatches taking place right now include day time #16 tan Caddis, afternoon-evening #14 & 18 Suphurs, #12 Gray Drakes,#10 Isonychia’s  and the occasional #18-22 Blue Wing Olive.  Aside from the Gray Drakes, which are winding down now, not much is popping in good numbers, but bugs are present most of the day.  It can test ones patience seeing a good fish rise once, then be quiet for minutes – hour+.  Fact of the matter is, the fish had good-very good hatches throughout the day, for many days in a row, so they were afforded the luxury of eating what they wanted, when they wanted.

Add to this the prolific hatching of both baby steelhead and suckers that recently spawned and we now have 2-3″ baby Chinook salmon, 1/2-3/4″ baby steelhead and 1/2″ baby suckers.

After a poor year last summer, it looks like the crayfish population has rebounded, as we’re seeing them scurry about when spooked from their rock lairs and recent molting had them on top of many fishes menu for a couple days.

Water temperatures have been holding in the mid 60’s.

The Pere Marquette River between Baldwin and Ludington, MI is running above average flows at this time as a result of the heavy rains that came through Michigan in recent days.  The upper river near Baldwin will be dropping soon after having crested recently.

Hatches taking place include Gray Drakes, Sulphurs and Yellow Sally’s….Hex’s on the way !  As soon as we get some days in the 80’s and nights in the upper 60’s-low 70’s, they will fly.  Day time fishing mostly swinging wet flies or nymph fishing.

The PM also has many baby steelhead swimming the calm side waters and are surely providing snacks to larger fish when they want to venture closer and ambush them.

The Hex’s will be the focus of many once they come in good numbers, it’s truly the best time to catch a trophy trout on a dry fly.

Present water temperature in the low 60’s in the headwaters and warmer the further down river one goes.

The Manistee River above Tippy Dam east of Wellston, MI is running above average flows due to rains that hit northern Michigan recently, but will begin to drop after cresting the past day or so….maybe ?  We’ll see what the last slug of showers did to the upper river here today or tonight.

Hatches keeping anglers casting and fish rising include Brown and Gray Drakes, Cahills, Sulphurs, Yellow Sally’s and the signs of the first of the Hex’s.  They are by no means “on”, but recent reports of random sightings means that we’re only a good 3-4 day warm snap from seeing them in numbers.

Present water temperature in the mid 60’s.

The Rogue River near Rockford, MI is running above average flows due to the rains that drenched some of west Michigan here in recent days.

the Rogue “flushes” quick though, so it should be back in shape before too long.

Hatches include Sulphurs, Tan Caddis, Gray Drakes and we should see some Hex’s in the upper water, above the dam, in the days ahead….with some warmer air temps that is.

Water temperature in the mid 60’s.