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The Betsie And
The Big Manistee
Rivers
The two rivers that I guide on are the
Betsie and the Big Manistee. I have guided
on these two rivers since 2002 and have
been fishing them at least 50 days a year
since my first trip here in 1969.
THE BETSIE RIVER
SALMON
The Betsie River is my home river that
I fish almost every day from September to
May. The Betsie has a world class run of
chinook salmon in September and October.
These are natural spawned, because the
state of Michigan has never planted
chinooks in the Betsie. Chinooks wandered
into the Betsie from other plants and
found it to their liking and have
successfully naturalized to the system.
The Michigan Department of Natural
Resources (MDNR) has no idea how many
adult Chinooks return as they have never
bothered to study the resource. The DNR's
main focus is keeping the Great Lakes
charter captains happy. That being said I
estimate that there must be at least
10,000 adults and maybe as many 20,000
adults returning in good years. This means
that there are a lot of salmon in a river
as small as the Betsie. The result of all
these salmon is fantastic fly fishing. The
average day for people fishing with me is
around 20 hookups per person. During the
heart of the run the number of hookups is
a lot more. Landing them is strictly
optional, because a fish as powerful as a
salmon makes for some interesting combat
in a river as small as the Betsie.
A popular notion is that salmon will
not bite. But that is because my fishers
do not give then a chance and don't use
proper tactics. I can show you the tactics
( nymphing and swinging big flies) that
will help you to get them to bite.
Naturally the fishers that have discovered
this fishing with me rebook every year so
that September is usually booked a year in
advance. I sometimes have a day or two
available in September.
BETSIE RIVER
STEELHEAD
The rest of the year on the Betsie I
fish for that grandest of all fish - the
steelhead. Steelhead enter the Betsie from
the fall (particularly if there is a lot
of rain) into the late spring (May). The
bulk of the run occurs from mid March to
mid May depending on the year. Steelhead,
unlike the salmon, are generally in the
mood to bite and can be very aggressive
towards the fly. Steelhead will respond to
a variety of fly fishing tactics from
chasing a big fly to subtle nymphing.
Naturally I enjoy the big hit when
swinging flies. But over all the nymphing
will out-produce the swing. I can show you
both tactics. I hope that you will give
the swing a try and get the big slam.
After the glory years of the mid 90's,
when hooking unheard of numbers of
steelhead a day, came a long decline which
bottomed out in about 2006. Since that
time the run has been slowly building
largely on natural runs of steelhead. Many
of the catch and kill fishers moved on and
this as allowed a natural run to develop.
Many of the anglers who now fish the
Betsie realize how important it is to
release the wild fish. The MDNR had been
asleep on the Betsie and is only now
trying to restore the river to it once
great standing. Although I am not so sure
that we want the MDNR to attract attention
to the Betsie because the wild run of fish
that is developing is a treasure that
could easily be damaged. The MDNR will not
take any steps to protect a wild run of
steelhead because they are very invested
in the hatchery system. It should be noted
that many fishers are also invested in a
hatchery system that creates an
unnaturally high number of fish.
High returns of the mid 90's resulted
in a zoo, with fishers having to get to
the river at 2:00 in the morning in order
to have a place to fish. Right now we have
an increasing number of wild fish with the
best fishing in the last 10 years
occurring last spring. With few fish there
are also few anglers. A few years ago I
was guiding a party which had fished the
Pere Marquette the day before and had saw
at least 25 another drift boats. We saw
only one other drift boat and hooked a lot
more fish than they had on Pere Marquette
the day before.
THE BIG MANISTEE
SALMON
The Big Manistee also has a world class
salmon fishery that generally develops
later than the Betsie. I generally do not
move down to the Big river until the first
of October and then continue to fish there
until mid November switching. I generally
begin switching to steelhead and brown
trout in mid to late October. Much of what
was said about salmon applies to the Big
river accept that it much more crowded but
because it is much bigger than the Betsie
there are always numerous places to
fish.
THE BIG MANISTEE STEELHEAD AND
BROWN TROUT
Most of my winter steelhead trips occur
on the Big river, because access to the
Betsie is very limited in the winter
(snow). Also there are a lot of brown
trout and skippers which are great fun on
a 4 wt. The browns run from 12 to 25
inches and the skippers average about 16
inches. We steelhead using a combination
of swinging big flies with two-handed fly
rods and nymphing with strike indicators
on 8 wt. fly rods. For the browns we use 4
wts. and indicators with size 12 to 24
flies, because the bulk of the trouts'
diet in the winter consists of midges.
Occasionally we will hook a steelhead on
these light outfits. It is quite a
challenge to land a 10lb steelhead on a
size 18 fly and 6X tippet.
In the spring I generally steelhead
fish the Betsie. But on occasion the
Betsie is to high from snow melt. Then
I will go down to the Big Manistee,
because it will be the only fishable
option in the area. I transition to the
Big river in late April as the steelhead
run generally starts later there, later
than most people think. My last day for
steelhead there last year was May 22. We
hooked 6 steelhead and landed 3. As we
enter May the Big river is again a great
place for combining trout and
steelhead.
In November and again in April and May
streamer fishing for big browns is at its
best. Casting and stripping the fly while
watching for that big golden brown shadow
to appear behind your fly is very
exciting. We also do a lot of dry fly
fishing in May. There are numerous hatches
of caddis flies on the Big Manistee.
You can
reach Pete Micol at
231-383-0181.
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