This PM River steelhead report is provided by the fishing guides at Indigo Guide Service.

Go to the West Michigan Fishing Report to see what’s happening on our other area streams… Good Michigan Steelhead Fishing with Nice Winter Weather.  Updated January 25th, 2010.

Water Conditions — Temps in the low 30’s with average water levels
USGS Real-Time Data for the Pere Marquette River at Scottville, Michigan

Steelhead fishing in the lower PM River has been good.  With reports of anglers getting into fish on everything from bait and lures to nymphs and streamers.  The upper and middle sections have not been as consistent, with a few good to ok reports mixes with bad to poor.  Hopefully the past rain will move some of those lower river fish upstream.

At this time, all of the landings are open, though slick… bring a long rope, sand and shovel.  The entire river is open and ice free, though this could change overnight with some cold weather.

A quick trip to the PM River on Friday produced a couple of nice fish.

This PM River steelhead report is provided by the fishing guides at Indigo Guide Service.

Go to the West Michigan Fishing Report to see what’s happening on our other area streams… We have snow and steelhead in west Michigan.  Updated January 2nd, 2010.

Water Conditions — Temps in the mid 30’s with average water levels
USGS Real-Time Data for the Pere Marquette River at Scottville, Michigan

Steelhead fishing on west Michigan’s Pere Marquette River is average to good considering the water temps are only a few degrees above average.  While getting into big numbers is a rare event in cold water a good angler should expect to contact a couple nice steelhead in a days fishing.  The river is absolutely gorgeous right now, with banks and tree branches buried under big fluffy pillows of white.  There is nothing like a bright colorful steelhead with snow in the background.

Winter Steelhead Tip
If you have good confidence that a spot is holding fish, either by a sighting or simply that gut feeling, then take your time.  Fish the area with several different approaches, sometimes cold water fish need to be stimulated into waking-up before their ready to eat.  It is not uncommon in the winter for the second person to fish a spot to have the most success.

A caught and released winter steelhead

We added a new page Winter Steelhead Fishing in Michigan to the Indigo site.

This Michigan fishing report provided by the guides at Indigo Guide Service, located in the middle of the Pere Marquette River between Ludington and Baldwin, just down the road from Barothy Lodge.

Go to the West Michigan Fishing Report to see what’s happening on our other area streams… Fresh Michigan steelhead with the Thanksgiving rain! Updated November 30th, 2009.

Water Conditions — Temps in the 30’s… cold
USGS Real-Time Data for the Pere Marquette River at Scottville, Michigan

With the thermometer not getting above twenty today, combined with wind and almost two feet of fresh snow, the PM River will be tough until everything stabilizes.  Under cold water situations steelhead and trout hate dropping water temps, nothing creates a worse case of “lock-jaw”.  Once the water temp stabilizes we should expect ok fishing, when it starts to rise it should be good.

I fished the lower Pere Marquette River with guide Walt Grau before the storm hit and the fishing was good, actually very good.  I made a short post on my guide page… We were finding a dependable pattern, I would have loved to get back down for another day before everything changed.  I would expect the lower river, from Indian Bridge down to be froze-up, possibly until spring.

One of the fish from Monday -- pre winter storm!

Jason Demeter from Elkhart, Indiana won the Mystery Fish contest.  Results are on the Indigo site…

This Michigan fishing report provided by the guides at Indigo Guide Service, located in the middle of the Pere Marquette River between Ludington and Baldwin, just down the road from Barothy Lodge.

Go to the West Michigan Fishing Report to see what’s happening on our other area streams… Fresh Michigan steelhead with the Thanksgiving rain! Updated November 30th, 2009.

Water Conditions — Temps in the low 40’s, perfect.
USGS Real-Time Data for the Pere Marquette River at Scottville, Michigan

The rise in water last week following the rains around Thanksgiving brought in a nice batch of fresh steelhead.  The lower river that was getting pretty dry, as far as steelhead numbers is again fishing good.  You just can’t beat fresh, eager, naive steelhead.  We have had fish in the net taken on everything from Storm Hot N’ Tots, Berkley Gulp Alive (soft plastics), large tube streamers and giant nuke eggs.

With the cold turn in weather that is predicted we probably don’t have to much lower river fishing left before everything freezes from Indian Bridge to Ludington.

Indigo Guide Mark Knee with a Michigan steelhead from the Pere Marquette, Mark took the steelhead on a Berkley Gulp Alive yesterday afternoon.

Mark Knee with too many steelhead flies to choose from!

Pere Marquette River steelhead with a Grau's Tracer Bullet (giant nike egg).

Tying directions and recipe for the Grau’s Tracer Bullet…

Mystery Fish Contest... FREE GUIDED TRIP

Head over to the Mystery Fish Contest post for more information…

This Michigan fishing report is provided by the guides at Indigo Guide Service, Pere Marquette Michigan.

For a fishing report summary of the other west Michigan rivers, visit the West Michigan Fishing Report “West Michigan Steelhead Numbers are OK… Conditions and Weather are perfect”… updated on 11/21/2009.

Click here for a single page pdf version of this PM River fishing Report.

Water Conditions — Temps in the 40’s, upper half clear and lower river perfect.

Fishing Conditions — Steelheading on the PM River is consistently ok.  There was a light push of fresh fish with the rains earlier in the week but they have spread-out quickly.  We are getting into fish everyday but only a couple.  So again, I would say to expect ok fishing.

Streamers have been producing better than eggs or nymphs.  The fish are spread out but aggressive and streamers allow you to cover much more water than drift fishing.  For non-fly fishers, plugs have been the top choice.

A nice fall steelhead with an experimental "Dr. Colin Kageyama" inspired streamer... more to come on this as we do more field testing.

I got my copy of What Fish See by Dr. Colin Kageyama at FlyMasters of Indianapolis.

Morlock's 4 Eyes... recipe on West Michigan Fishing Report for 11/21/2009.

A Pere Marquette River fall steelhead... perfect!

USGS Real-Time Data for the Pere Marquette River at Scottville, Michigan

Barothy Lodge is the perfect place to spend your next Michigan fly fishing vacation, located in a great section of the legendary Pere Marquette River.  Barothy Lodge is also centrally located between the Manistee River and Muskegon River.

Ludington Michigan has much to offer any visitor, especially in the fall with the beautiful fall colors and great salmon and steelhead fishing.  Visit the Ludington Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (Ludington CVB) web site to learn more about our area.

This Michigan Fishing Report is provided by Indigo Guide Service.

Pere Marquette River Water Conditions — Temps in the 40’s, conditions are perfect.

Pere Marquette River Fishing Report — Steelhead fishing is good through out the Pere Marquette River with water conditions perfect.  The fish seem to be eager to bite and are full of action once you hook into them.  The salmon are about gone in the river and the egg bite is not as dominate as it had been.  While eggs will continue to be a top choice large streamers have started to produce.  The lower Pere Marquette River is still high but visibility is good, though the water has a black stain.
Please remember that the PM River is an all wild steelhead fishery… the more steelhead that are harvested the less there will be for years to come.

A perfect PM River steelhead caught and released yesterday.

A pile of Glow Nuke Eggs, a good choice when you need an attention getter.

Glow Nuke Egg, just the ticket for high dark or dirty water.

You can see a recipe for the Glow Nuke Egg along with many other steelhead flies on the Indigo Guide Service web site, Click here to see the recipe for the Glow Nuke Egg steelhead fly.

Click here for a great looking pdf version of this Michigan Fishing Report… perfect for a counter top or bulletin board.

USGS Real-Time Data for the Pere Marquette River at Scottville, Michigan

Remember to check out past reports for (November 13th, 2008 — Storm Hot’N Tot and November PM Steelhead) tips, fly patterns and possibly an outlook of future fishing.

This Michigan steelhead guide report is provided by Indigo Guide Service of west Michigan.

Pere Marquette Guide Report for October 30th, 2009… Halloween Edition!

Click here for a great looking single page pdf of this Michigan fishing report… perfect for your counter top or bulletin board.

Water Conditions — Temps in the 40’s, water high and dirty.

Fishing Conditions — With heavy rains last weekend the lower river became, for the most part unfishable — while the upper and middle sections were perfect.  It started raining last night and is predicted to keep going through the weekend.  This may make the upper and probably the middle sections tough to fish.  We are also having a windy day and this will add yet more leaves to the river.

Steelhead numbers are still decent with enough fish to have fun.  I am expecting very good things when the water and leaves settle.  Steelhead are holding throughout the river but fishing is still the most dependable behind the spawning salmon or in the areas where salmon have been spawning.  Kevin Morlock

Martinez's Halloween Caveman

Martinez’s Halloween Caveman
***Materials in tying order
Tube… Eumer, small
Cone… bronze, medium
Tail… barred rabbit strip
Body… Hareline Dubbin, uv polar chenille, silver
Tinsel… pearl crinkle
Collar… barred rabbit strip

Storm Hot'N Tots and fall PM River steelhead seem to just go together... especially in dirty water.

Remember to check out past reports for (November 13th, 2008 — Storm Hot’N Tot and November PM Steelhead) tips, fly patterns and possibly an outlook of future fishing.

Barothy Lodge is the perfect place to spend your next Michigan fly fishing vacation, located in a great section of the legendary Pere Marquette River.  Barothy Lodge is also centrally located between the Manistee River and Muskegon River.

Ludington Michigan has much to offer any visitor, especially in the fall with the beautiful fall colors and great salmon and steelhead fishing.  Visit the Ludington Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (Ludington CVB) web site to learn more about our area.

This Pere Marquette Guide Report is provided by the guides of Indigo Guide Service, Indigo is the perfect choice for your next Michigan fly fishing, casting or center pin trip.

For other West Michigan fishing reports visit the Indigo Guide Service fishing report page for a summary of other Michigan Rivers.

Click here for a great looking single page pdf of this west Michigan fishing report… perfect for a counter top or bulletin board.

Water Conditions — Temps in the 40’s, water levels and conditions are perfect.

Fishing Conditions — Still some king and coho salmon around but steelhead will be the main story from here out.  Steelhead numbers are probably average for this time of the year.  Reports have ranged from a few people getting into a nice push of fresh steelhead and then nothing in the same area the next day… typical for early fall steelhead.  If you average all of the reports out I would say that a good angler should expect a couple steelhead on any given day.  Good news, like the West Michigan salmon run this year the fall steelhead are a little bigger than average.

All methods have been producing fish.  Fresh fall steelhead are usually pretty eager but I would say spawn and egg flies have produced worst… there are so many spawning salmon in the river it is probably spawn sent overload, there are also tons on leaves and junk floating making it hard for a dead drifted presentation to stand out.  Kevin Morlock

An average fall Pere Marquette River steelhead but to call one of these great fish average is a big understatement.

Fall steelhead are the best... when they roll into West Michigan it is time to hit the river. But please remember that the Pm River is not stocked with steelhead and to maintain this great fishery we have to let them go.

Fall West Michigan Steelhead Tool Kit

Pictured:  Storm Hot’N Tot, Storm Thunderstick, Steelhead Streamers, Center Pin Rod and Reel, Feather-Craft Leader Material and Big Bright Beads.

Just A Note:  Steve Martinez and I (Kevin Morlock) will be attending the FlyMasters of Indianapolis, twenty-year open house party this weekend.  The Open house is Saturday, October 24 and will include free food with many fly fishing reps. and pros. on hand to answer questions… among them will be Randy Fridlund of Amabilis Bamboo Rods, Trip Banks from Mustad, John Shaner of Hardy, Davin Ebanks of Grand Caymen, Sean O’Grady from Crossroad Vintners and the new Freedom 14 kayak.

Remember to check out past reports for (November 13th, 2008 — Storm Hot’N Tot and November PM Steelhead) tips, fly patterns and possibly an outlook of future fishing.

Barothy Lodge is the perfect place to spend your next Michigan fly fishing vacation, located in a great section of the legendary Pere Marquette River.  Barothy Lodge is also centrally located between the Manistee River and Muskegon River.

Ludington Michigan has much to offer any visitor, especially in the fall with the beautiful fall colors and great salmon and steelhead fishing.  Visit the Ludington Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (Ludington CVB) web site to learn more about our area.

This Michigan fishing report is provided by the guides of Indigo Guide Service of west Michigan.  Featuring trips on the Pere Marquette River, Manistee River, Little Manistee River, White River and Muskegon River, as well as summer Great Lakes flats trips in Ludington, Beaver Island, Traverse City and the Straights of Mackinaw.

For other Michigan fishing reports please visit the Indigo Guide Service’s fishing report page for a summary of the Pere Marquette River, Muskegon River and Manistee River.

Pere Marquette guide report for October 16, 2009.

Click here for a great looking single page version of this Michigan fishing report for the Pere Marquette River… perfect for a counter top or bulletin board.

Water Conditions — Temps in the 40’s, water levels and conditions are perfect.

Fishing Conditions — Spawning king salmon everywhere from Baldwin to Walhalla and steelhead and coho salmon in the lower PM River.  Best of all fishing pressure is very low.  This is a great time to swing some great big streamers for the kings, it is awesome to see a twenty pound buck rush forward to destroy a big bright fly.  Rumors have it that the steelhead fishing was hot earlier in the week on the North Ludington Pier, this should mean that there is a big push of fresh steelhead heading our way.

Tip — Many anglers are now using fluorocarbon leader for it’s benefits of low visibility and faster sink rate, many are also having knot troubles.  Recently I’ve been testing Feather-Craft fluorocarbon against my favorite brand for the last few years and I’m going to switch to the Feather-Craft.  It comes on a great spool with line keeper but best of all it takes a knot very well with no slip, a major problem with other brands of fluorocarbon.  Kevin Morlock

A spool of Feather-Craft fluorocarbon leader, salmon flies and fall leaves on the Pere Marquette River.

Along with great fluorocarbon leader, Feather-Craft of St. Louis has a great selection of other fly fishing supplies and gear.  They have a nice shop in St. Louis, a printed catalog and web site… click here to visit the Feather-Craft web site.

This PM River salmon slammed a huge purple marabou streamer first thing in the morning.

Bob who is pictured in the photo above with the PM River salmon that grabbed the big purple streamer that Bob had tied, lives in Oregon where he is really getting into West Coast steelheading with the two-handed spey rods.  The salmon was caught on Bob’s new custom C.F. Burkheimer spey rod that worked great for our Michigan salmon… it was a beautifully made rod and a great story of how Bob and his wife enjoyed choosing all of the options for the new spey rod.  Of note Bob is wearing a hat from The Fly Fishing Shop of Welches, Oregon… Bob cannot say enough good things about the folks at this shop.

Remember to check out past reports for (October 23rd, 2008, Good Steelhead at the Ludington Pier and PM River Mouth) tips, fly patterns and possibly an outlook of future fishing.

Barothy Lodge is the perfect place to spend your next Michigan fly fishing vacation, located in a great section of the legendary Pere Marquette River.  Barothy Lodge is also centrally located between the Manistee River and Muskegon River.

Ludington Michigan has much to offer any visitor, especially in the fall with the beautiful fall colors and great salmon and steelhead fishing.  Visit the Ludington Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (Ludington CVB) web site to learn more about our area.

Pere Marquette fishing reports provided by the guides at Indigo Guide Service of West Michigan.  Featuring trips on the Pere Marquette River, Manistee River, Little Manistee River, White River and Muskegon River, as well as summer Great Lakes flats trips in Ludington, Beaver Island, Traverse City and the Straights of Mackinaw.

For other Michigan fishing reports please visit the Indigo Guide Service’s fishing report page for a summary of the Pere Marquette River, Muskegon River and Manistee River.

PM fishing report for October 10, 2009.

Click here for a nice looking single page pdf of this PM River guide report… perfect for a counter top or bulletin board.

Water Conditions — Temps in the 50’s, water a little stained and high.

Fishing Conditions — What a great time of year, the fall colors are starting to show and fishing on the Pere Marquette River is excellent.  The recent rains and fall like weather conditions have raised river levels and has brought a new crop of salmon into play as well as some beautiful fall steelhead.  King salmon are still on the center stage but we are anticipating some excellent fall steelhead fishing.  Nuke eggs in orange/chartreuse and peach/white have produced some great fish over the last weeks.  Eggs and oversized caddis larva have accounted for some nice browns and steelhead that were holding behind the spawning salmon.

Salmon are currently all over the spawning gravel and stacking up nicely in the dark water behind the gravel.  Don’t be surprised when you hook into a feisty steelhead or brown trout gorging themselves on salmon eggs in the dark water behind the salmon.

Remember to check out past reports for (October 10th, 2008, Big King Salmon & Flies To Catch Them) tips, fly patterns and possibly an outlook of future fishing.

Barothy Lodge is the perfect place to spend your next Michigan fly fishing vacation, located in a great section of the legendary Pere Marquette River.  Barothy Lodge is also centrally located between the Manistee River and Muskegon River.

Ludington Michigan has much to offer any visitor, especially in the fall with the beautiful fall colors and great salmon and steelhead fishing.  Visit the Ludington Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (Ludington CVB) web site to learn more about our area.