MIBowhunter
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2002
- Messages
- 2,089
- Reaction score
- 0
Trout jump for grasshoppers
Late-season fishing is swell on streams
September 25, 2003
BY ERIC SHARP
FREE PRESS OUTDOORS WRITER
The regular trout season is winding down, and outdoors people are abandoning the streams for a tree stand in the woods. And that means most anglers will miss some of the best fly-fishing at the end of an excellent season.
To the majority of fishermen, fall fly-angling is associated with heavy rods, wet flies and salmon. Yet there's still plenty of time to fish dry flies with a light rod for trout.
Fishing with grasshoppers, big dry stone flies and patterns that mimic assorted ants, beetles and other terrestrial insects has been excellent for the past two weeks. It promises to continue at the same pace for as long as the weather remains warm enough for those insects to survive.
Most of the state's trout streams are closed to fishing after Tuesday, yet that doesn't mean anglers must put away their fly rods. Michigan has many miles of streams with extended seasons for trout. Some of them allow anglers to keep fish, others are catch-and-release, and a quick glance at the Inland Trout and Salmon Guide will show which streams stay open and for how long.
Walking down a trail to the upper Manistee River a few days ago, I was greeted by a squadron of grasshoppers exploding from the grass. Three of them landed on the river, and two didn't drift more than 30 feet before they were eaten by trout.
I had rigged a five-weight fly rod with a No. 8 Michigan hopper pattern and didn't even have to get into the water to start casting. Kneeling on the riverbank to keep my silhouette low, I dropped the fly three feet above the fish with enough slack in the line to let it drift down like a natural. The trout took it on the first pass, a 10-inch brown, and five minutes later another cast downstream produced a 12-inch brook trout.
In the next 2 1/2 hours I caught 19 more trout ranging from six to 16 inches on the hopper and a big generic stone fly pattern that has a long deer hair wing, yellow-tan body and thick brown hackle. While it was originally tied to mimic stone flies, I suspect that it looks to a trout like just another grasshopper, especially at a time of year when the fish are used to seeing long-bodied insects floating overhead.
This kind of fishing is best at midday, when the insects are most active and the water warms in the sunshine. I made a couple of forays to the river before 10 a.m. but soon abandoned that tactic because it was less productive.
Those trips produced a few fish on tiny tricorythodes spinners, No. 24s that mimic some of our smallest mayflies. But few trout were rising, and it was a lot more fun to come back in the afternoon with the grasshopper and stone fly patterns and stalk visibly feeding trout.
I ran into a similar situation one evening when I stayed until near dark on the South Branch of the Au Sable. As the light levels fell, so did the temperature, and the insects that had been bumbling about the banks and over the water in the sunlight just melted away long before the light did. And so did the feeding activity of the trout.
There's another advantage to wading the rivers at this time of year, especially rivers you fish a lot. Water levels are usually at their lowest.
Undercut banks, drowned trees and other structures that normally would be under four feet of water are now exposed or just under the surface. That allows anglers to see the places where the trout live in the spring and summer and understand what attracts fish to those places.
Late-season fishing is swell on streams
September 25, 2003
BY ERIC SHARP
FREE PRESS OUTDOORS WRITER
The regular trout season is winding down, and outdoors people are abandoning the streams for a tree stand in the woods. And that means most anglers will miss some of the best fly-fishing at the end of an excellent season.
To the majority of fishermen, fall fly-angling is associated with heavy rods, wet flies and salmon. Yet there's still plenty of time to fish dry flies with a light rod for trout.
Fishing with grasshoppers, big dry stone flies and patterns that mimic assorted ants, beetles and other terrestrial insects has been excellent for the past two weeks. It promises to continue at the same pace for as long as the weather remains warm enough for those insects to survive.
Most of the state's trout streams are closed to fishing after Tuesday, yet that doesn't mean anglers must put away their fly rods. Michigan has many miles of streams with extended seasons for trout. Some of them allow anglers to keep fish, others are catch-and-release, and a quick glance at the Inland Trout and Salmon Guide will show which streams stay open and for how long.
Walking down a trail to the upper Manistee River a few days ago, I was greeted by a squadron of grasshoppers exploding from the grass. Three of them landed on the river, and two didn't drift more than 30 feet before they were eaten by trout.
I had rigged a five-weight fly rod with a No. 8 Michigan hopper pattern and didn't even have to get into the water to start casting. Kneeling on the riverbank to keep my silhouette low, I dropped the fly three feet above the fish with enough slack in the line to let it drift down like a natural. The trout took it on the first pass, a 10-inch brown, and five minutes later another cast downstream produced a 12-inch brook trout.
In the next 2 1/2 hours I caught 19 more trout ranging from six to 16 inches on the hopper and a big generic stone fly pattern that has a long deer hair wing, yellow-tan body and thick brown hackle. While it was originally tied to mimic stone flies, I suspect that it looks to a trout like just another grasshopper, especially at a time of year when the fish are used to seeing long-bodied insects floating overhead.
This kind of fishing is best at midday, when the insects are most active and the water warms in the sunshine. I made a couple of forays to the river before 10 a.m. but soon abandoned that tactic because it was less productive.
Those trips produced a few fish on tiny tricorythodes spinners, No. 24s that mimic some of our smallest mayflies. But few trout were rising, and it was a lot more fun to come back in the afternoon with the grasshopper and stone fly patterns and stalk visibly feeding trout.
I ran into a similar situation one evening when I stayed until near dark on the South Branch of the Au Sable. As the light levels fell, so did the temperature, and the insects that had been bumbling about the banks and over the water in the sunlight just melted away long before the light did. And so did the feeding activity of the trout.
There's another advantage to wading the rivers at this time of year, especially rivers you fish a lot. Water levels are usually at their lowest.
Undercut banks, drowned trees and other structures that normally would be under four feet of water are now exposed or just under the surface. That allows anglers to see the places where the trout live in the spring and summer and understand what attracts fish to those places.
