# North West guys too tight liped



## COHO (Jan 16, 2003)

not much talk about n, w streams . hows the water level, hows the bug hatch. whats going on with the rivers around baldwin, lundington, manistee, how bout the roads & bridges in those areas, just seems like the guys on the east side give more updates. i hate to go up this weekend 1 mile from the jordan, and drive all the way to the ausable to fish . i'll be up over the 4th weekend and will report back on tues, or wed. hopefully we will have pics without signs in the backround, or bridges. come on guys give up some info


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## shotgunner (Jan 15, 2003)

You'll be fine north of Wexford. No need to burn fuel headed east. Bridges and roads all functional, rivers fishable levels.

Good luck with the trip.

Edit: No first hand knowledge re the high precipitation areas. I thought there was recent report on Pere Marquette, green light/decent water levels.


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## thousandcasts (Jan 22, 2002)

You say "the northwest guys are tight lipped," like that's a bad thing.


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## GordyJorgenson (Jun 24, 2008)

The Hexes are going on most of the rivers. Everybody is out fishing during hexes no one has time to report, I'm at the shop till 7pm then i'm going out for the 8th day in a row. Don't be worried about water levels as everthing has settled down, some rivers have a nice stain but that is about it. The Pine may be the only one thats a little hairy right now. Bug wise I wouldn't waste much time if you want to get in on the action with cold temps in the forcast this may be the peak time. The hatches may run a little longer with the cool temps but bugs may be more sparse. Wake flies have also been good. We like the repution of being tight lipped, helps catch the big browns.


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## FlyFishingAttorney (Dec 26, 2007)

thousandcasts said:


> You say "the northwest guys are tight lipped," like that's a bad thing.


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## fishenrg (Jan 9, 2008)

Actually, there are no more fish up here, sorry! :lol:


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## Carpmaster (Apr 1, 2004)

It takes us that live here a long time to learn in most cases!!! also as stated above there really arent many fish up here!


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## brookie~freak (Jul 8, 2007)

Loose lips= ruined fishing spots.


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## Whit1 (Apr 27, 2001)

Actually quite a bit of informtion is exchanged in all the forums. It may be done out of sight via private messages and emails rather than in the open forums.

MS does have a policy for discussing river fishing and it is the same for all forums that touch the topic of river fishing. It can be found at:

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/forum/showthread.php?t=168596

As long as the posts adhere to this policy they are fine. River conditions, hatches, etc. are usually given, but not always in the forums. One thing I always look for before responding is the member's profile. I am reluctant to hand out information to those who, for whatever reason, not taken the time to let us know a bit about themselves. This was important eight years ago when the membership was small and it is even more so today with a much larger group of sportsmen and women.

I do know MS members who used to post some great fishing reports with excellent photos who no longer do. One of the reasons is the fact they have been ragged on by others for posting the reports in the first place, even when the stream was not named and heaven forbid, to some, if they keep fish for the table. Those kinds of negative reactions have taken their toll on the desire and/or interest in giving reports in these threads.

My own fishing has been curtailed due, in part, to fuel costs and for me the drive is quite short compared to most MS members. I'm also going to be having my right hip replaced in Sept. due to the fact that in the past month the pain has escalated to the point where the old one must go. With most guys increasing time constraints, cost of living generally, and especially the cost of transportation have cut back on trips.

As for reports and info passed in the threads as long as the site's policy is followed there's nothing wrong with them. We do encourage such reports due to the fact that they are very popular and if no specific information is handed out in the open forums there's not a thing wrong with doing so.


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## COHO (Jan 16, 2003)

i know the rules whit1, actually got some good info from gordy & shotgunner. i know how a guys spot can go down hill if someone says too much , just gettin tired of reading the same 3 or 4 posts on the N W forum cause i'm geeked i'm gunna be there in 5 more days:yikes::yikes:


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## GordyJorgenson (Jun 24, 2008)

COHO I live near the PM river and fish it daily. Any ? shoot me a pm


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## Ultra-Light (Oct 4, 2007)

brookie~freak said:


> Loose lips= ruined fishing spots.




No argument here, then some........


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## Steelheadfred (May 4, 2004)

Here is a NW report.

Bass on inland lakes are in post spawn mode, water temps are around 71.5-76 depending on the lake. If you like fishing bedded fish, try the big water bays - I understand they are still spawning there.

Whitespinner baits are working at times in 6/8 feet of water with good weed growth. If they bite another color other than white, they thought it was white.

Watermellon Tubes fished Carolina style are producing both small and large jaws in 8-12 feet of water - in the glacial lakes, the sweet spot is the flat on the bottom of the drop off. This pattern is consistent on the three different glacial lakes I am fishing. Wattermellon tubes are outfishing all other colors 10:1 - not sure why they like that color so much. Also catchign a few fish prospecting on Craw Rattle Traps.

Please take note that I dont consider myself much of a bass fisherman, I use my 16 foot jon boat that is set up for steelheading, along with my plug reels, so take everything I reported with a grain of salt, even though I am enjoying bass fishing a couple nights a week, and one day on the weekend..


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## Ranger Ray (Mar 2, 2003)

I caught a couple trout. Thats todays report. :shhh: Don't tell the fish police I said anything.


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## COHO (Jan 16, 2003)

Thanks for the report Steelheadfred, ray, i wont tell the fish cops nothin


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## brookie~freak (Jul 8, 2007)

Last night my brother, my new fishing buddy Matt, and I drove up to the Big Manistee below hodenpyle. Dark skies and thunderstorms all the way. The river was up higher than normal and stained. We were hoping for some dry fly action but there were no risers and only a few caddis fluttering near the banks so I went to a large, heavily weighted streamer. Only managed one 17" brown that fought well. We hiked downstream to a spot that is a good night time spot hoping to see some hexes and large rises. After dark we only saw a couple of flies and they were only a few sporadic rises. At 11:30 pm we hiked out of there to head south and checked out a spot on the Little Man. Water looked a bit up and slightly stained but no hexes or risers so we headed down to the PM. Fished one usually reliable spot on the upper river for about 45 minutes without seeing one hexagenia or hearing one rise. The flows and clarity were perfect. I know that somewhere someone must have had good hex action but we weren't anywhere near it. Heard a report from the Ausable that they had a good hatch/ spinner fall the same night.


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## chet17 (Jun 18, 2007)

Fished the manistee below 72 last night with my brother, we managed to catch and release these two (20" and 22"). Had a few spinners hit the water, but it was very sparse. I think the big storm that went through put the spinners down. Great emergence after dark that lasted about an hour. I would expect the emergers to stay consistent throughout the week, but the night time temps are supposed to get low so it might slow thinks down quite a bit. 

Both of these fish had multiple lampreys on them. I don't think I have ever caught a good fish in this spot that didn't have a lamprey on it.

Tight lines everyone.

Havn't figured out how to get the pics uploaded to the site from my computer yet, but I'll post them as soon as I do. Do you have to have them uploaded on a different internet site to upload them to a post or can I upload them from my computer?


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## brookie~freak (Jul 8, 2007)

Good to hear that someone caught some nice fish last night. We also figured the weather had something to do with the lack of flies. The storm must have been pretty bad- lots of trees down between baldwin and mesick. 
The trout I caught had two lamprey marks on it as well. I believe these are from small chesnut lamprey. We've seen some in the Manistee over the years.
To post your pictures you have to upload them to a photo hosting site first. We would love to see them.


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## chet17 (Jun 18, 2007)

Ya, it tells me I have to have 15 posts to upload them, so as soon as have 15 I will.


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## ausable_steelhead (Sep 30, 2002)

Yeah COHO, the whole post thing's getting alittle stupid, but oh well. I fished a couple NW rivers and another spot off the big lake earlier this past week. The rivers were stained and still up some, but I thought at nice levels. Caught a bunch of nice panfish of various species, including about a 9-10" gill, some trout, a few carp, lost what looked like a smaller steelhead(about 5lbs) in spawning colors, and a 35" gator. Piers were slow, as well as the rivers for salmonoids, but still had fun. Spoons, crawlers and waxies worked best; released everything but 3 bows'.


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## toto (Feb 16, 2000)

Tried a NW river the other day, caught lots of bows, and browns......oh wait that was in Tennessee, sorry.


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## Whit1 (Apr 27, 2001)

toto said:


> Tried a NW river the other day, caught lots of bows, and browns......oh wait that was in Tennessee, sorry.


Silly Toto........................:lol:

Bill, with all the rain we've had the Great Lakes might be seeing a rise this year which I think will bode well for pier and beach fishing this fall. George and I are beginning to stock up on the "secret lures" that we used with such success last November thanks to your tip. We'll even get some for you, but in other, more experimental, colors such as: black, biege, purple, and mauve..........whatever the heck "mauve" is.........:lol:


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## COHO (Jan 16, 2003)

you guys still getting rain every other day up in antrim & char ?


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## ausable_steelhead (Sep 30, 2002)

> you guys still getting rain every other day up in antrim & char ?


No, it's been dry the last few days, but I'll take some more.


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## thousandcasts (Jan 22, 2002)

It's rained enough. No need having those early kings shoot way up river and not hold in spots where I normally get them down low. :evilsmile


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## COHO (Jan 16, 2003)

thanks for the replies guys


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