A Day on the Water

I hooked 8 big steelhead fishing spinning tackle with a jig under a bobber on the Big Manistee River.  Everyone else was probably putting bait on their jigs and lucky to hook more than one.  I landed 4, silver and dark Fall Fish and a fin clipped greenish hen that looked like fresh Summer Run Skamania plant.  I landed about 10 brown trout out of maybe 16 hooked.  At least 3 of the browns were on Center Pin with a #6 Opal Minnow Jig.  All of the rest of the fish were on spinning tackle with a Dark Brown 1/32 ounce...

Very few fishermen and no fish below the coffer, I also tried just above the coffer dam fishing 7 feet of water and nothing there.   9 guys had waded out on the gravel bar on the other side to fish in towards the deep current channel.  Here on the south side, it was a little crowded but thinning out.  I got in upstream and fished deeper water the rest of the day.  Over the day, most of the guys who could fish bobbers effectively, used jigs and wax worms and got one steelhead each. A guy out in a rubber raft across form me...

October 23, one for two for very hot steelhead on Yellow or Orange Candy Corn Glow Beads.  The smaller Steelhead was a very well fed, solid 21.5 inch male.  He was delicious.  I got 8 browns, most of them on white jigs. November  1, Slow tough day, I foul hooked a steelhead.. Late in the day two guys also using center pin tackle came in below me, one guy was quickly one for two on good steelhead that hit his brown jig with yellow head and yellow rubber legs.  I switched form beads to white jigs and started hitting browns quickly. ...

I used Poppers most of the day, all the hits were on variations of White Bob's Bangers. I got 4 nice fish, 1 Pike, two 18 inch Largemouth, a nice Smallmouth along with a smaller 12 inch Largemouth.  I also had a brief hot spurt on the 3/0 White Marabou Banger when I lost 2 good large mouth and got another 18 incher.  The second cast of the early morning with a 5/0 10 inch Wake Banger got hit on a rapid strip retrieve just under the surface.  The beautifully colored pike took it as crossed over the deep drop off from a shallow weed bed...

This tributary to Saginaw Bay is a medium small stream with a DNR boat launch near the mouth.  In the lower river, swells of rising and falling water in Lake Huron would reverse the small current and send rising water upstream for almost a mile.  Then the water would fall back out to the mouth carrying extra volume + the normal flow.  It would carve out or flush out a wider and deeper channel.  Big Bass, Small to Medium Pike, big walleye, Bowfin, Channel Cats and a rare Sheephead would move in during the spring and early summer.  There was good fishing...