February 27th 2025
With warmer temperatures and a little bit of ice melt off we've seen a spike in fish activity. Sections of river that were once iced over are now starting to open up and we are starting to see new steelhead arrive daily.
Trout fishing has been very good on the Pere Marquette and Muskegon River systems. Most of our fishing has been with indicator setups or euro setups using stonefly, caddis, eggs, and fry patterns. Water clarity varies a little bit depending on where you are in each system. Areas that have creek mouths with heavy sedimentation from runoff cause a cloudy color to the water downstream of the creek. Generally speaking higher up in the systems have cleaner water and lower in the systems have dirtier water.
Higher up in the river systems natural and smaller patterns seem to work the best as well as small dead egg patterns. As you move down the river system using bigger profiles and slightly brighter colors to stand out from the debris washed in by the runoff seems to be a better approach. In the dirtiest water areas using a flashy or bright pattern or stripping streamers has been productive for trout especially as water temperatures start to rise.
Sac fry or alevin patterns are extremely effective this time of year as well. Peak steelhead fishing is just around the corner with more consistent warmup in our future. Swing by the shop and stock up before the weekend!