It’s true!  The recent warmer weather brought a small push of steelhead into the rivers, and this is just the beginning!    The cold nights and warmer days are melting snow at a great pace to keep the rivers fishing well without flooding.

Steelhead this year are running larger on average, thrilling anglers and our guide customers alike.   Bobbers have been the better way to go so far this spring so far, but Backbouncing spawn along the bottom has produced great results as well.

Word has gotten out that there are steelhead in rivers like the Big Manistee, and as a result, more and more anglers are showing up to take advantage of the angling opportunities.   Coupled with the brutally cold weather the winter through at northern Michigan, soft water anglers are itching to get back on the water.

Waters like the Manistee have anglers fishing up by Tippy Dam, for not only steelhead, but for the brown and rainbow trout that find their way up to the dam to take advantage of the food supply that clusters close to the dam.   Anglers have found fish downriver at Highbridge, Bear Creek and even Rainbow Bend.   With fish spreading out throughout the river, this bodes well to spread out the angling pressure as well.

Smaller rivers northward haven’t seen as many fish returning yet, but with as much ice as there is still on the lakes, and even on Lake Michigan, the run is just in its beginning stages.

It may be cold out there, but big Steelhead are biting in the rivers!