This Pere Marquette guide 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… Steelhead and the bunny hex, updated on March 23rd, 2010.

Water Conditions — Temps in the high 30′2 to low 40’s with low and clear conditions.
USGS Real-Time Data for the Pere Marquette River at Scottville, Michigan

I’m sorry to say that all reports from Ludington to Baldwin on the Pere Marquette have been poor.  We had lots of people show up this weekend, we are in a low point in the up and down cycle that makes up a steelhead run and the water has shifted from perfect to low and clear.  The bright side is that once you hit bottom there should be nowhere to go but up.  And again, as steelhead runs cycle we should expect our next wave of fish soon.

When fishing is tough it sure does strike a nerve to come around a corner, after miles of nothing, to find some guys that have found a group of spawning fish… they already have three of them on a rope and their still trying for the last couple including the female.  I believe that the last ivory-billed woodpecker ever seen was shot and eaten by a guy from Louisiana.

The Pere Marquette is a completely wild, self-sustaining steelhead fishery and unfortunately suffers from year around unlimited harvest.  I don’t know of another Midwest river that has this many users, wild fish and year around harvest.

A wild Pere Marquette steelhead with a sparkle egg.