Thursday, August 5, 2010

Fishing Report


August 5, 2010

More Of The Same

Not much has changed the past week on local rivers and lakes. The warm summer continues and the waters are staying in check thanks to our cooler overnight temps and periodic rains.


The hatches on the Upper Manistee and Boardman Rivers continue to experience good Trico hatches in the mornings and BWOs at various times throughout the day. While these are small flies, they are bringing lots of smaller trout to the surface and a few larger fish too. Even the big ones are softly sipping them so watch rise forms closely. Other bugs sporadically hatching – mostly in evenings – have been Light Cahills and Isonychias.


The terrestrial “hatch” continues with some hoppers starting to hit the water – especially on windy days. Even if there aren’t hoppers present, the larger patterns with and without rubber legs are bringing up some fish. Some days they want them skittered, jigged, stripped and skipped in while other days it’s the long drag-free drift; mix it up to see what they want.


The fishing on local lakes has been good for bass and bluegill. In and around weeds and lily pads are best especially near drop-offs. Frog patterns are working well for the bass in both divers and poppers patterns where the smaller rubber legged spiders and poppers are still fooling the gills. Smaller nymphs and wets are catching more fish, but you miss out on the surface take which is so much fun on these fish.


Smallmouth fishing in the Lower Manistee is still decent with the warm water. Mid-sized streamers like deceivers, clousers and Murdich’s Minnows are working well on a sink tip with small sliders working on top in the deeper, slower pools and “backwaters”. Trout fishing is discouraged because of the warm water below Tippy Dam.

Good Luck,

Ted

No comments: