10/18/08 – Manistee River

Today I made the trek back up to the Manistee to fish with Jack Cole (Top Photos) from Ludington & Ken Riley from Lake Ann. It was a beautiful day with warm temps and beautiful fall colors. But most importantly fish! I had not been on the Manistee since we left in early October so I did not really know what to expect. With the light run on the Muskegon I was not overly optimistic about the quality or numbers of fish we would find on the Big Man. I was delighted to find that I need not have worried. The Manistee has been receiving trickles of new fish throughout the season and while a lot of the early fish are in very poor shape and most have been given Last Rites, there are still good numbers of fish occupying the darker water waiting their turn to move up on to gravel. It was great fun to spend the day fishing holding water and being surprised by what came up from the deep. The males tastes ran toward caddis & egg patterns while the hens displayed a voracious appetite for the saddleback hex. The hens were so aggressive on this pattern that on a couple of them I just cut the line and left the fly for fear of doing too much damage as they had taken them so far into their mouths. Thanks, Ken & Jack for giving me another day on the Manistee. Next week I will be back on the Muskegon and I suspect I will spend my Sunday off making sure the steelhead gear is ready as I think that will have to be the focus for the rest of the season, at least on the Muskegon.

Dave