TK's Fly Fishing Report for Traverse City Area- Manistee River, Boardman River

Cool-Down and Warm-Up Coming

Posted by Ted Kraimer - August 14, 2014

A bit of a cold front came through the region slowing the fishing a bit, but providing continued cool water temps and a bit of rain that the rivers and fish both liked. You will still find the rivers in good shape and fishable including the Manistee and Boardman.

Hatches have been pretty much limited to Tricos in mid-morning – with late morning being the case after a cold night. Attractor patterns and terrestrials (hoppers, Foam and Rubber) are bringing some fish up to the surface and more often than not they are looking for that bug to be chugging, twitching and skittering rather than dead-drifted.  Below the surface, look for medium sized streamers fished on either floating lines or small sink-tip lines to tease some fish into playing our game.

Bass and bluegill fishing on the lakes is still a good bet with water temperatures staying cool. Some days are better than others and I suspect the forecast over the next 10 days will provide some stable and warm conditions ideal for getting these fish back on the feed.  Surface and subsurface flies are working – it’s just a matter of which or what they want any particular day.

With the recent rains, cool down and northerly winds, a few salmon have staged at the river mouths and even a few have slipped into the local rivers. The warmer weather in store should put a hold on the migration until later but there is no doubt fall is right around the corner – what happened to summer?

Good luck,

Ted

 Tricos and Terrestrials for Trout – July and August  fly fishing for trout on the Upper Manistee River
Salmon- Fresh fish can enter rivers as early as mid-August and offer great fishing through September.
Fall Steelhead- From the end of September through November – this is the time of year for Steelhead.