Newsletters
Happy Summer everyone! We are off to a great start here at the lodge. Summer trout fishing has really started to take off this week, the Hex hatch is happening on all our local rivers. Not your thing? There’s plenty of daytime hatches too. Mayflies in all sizes are out and about during the morning and evenings, best before the sun peaks, and as it is settling down over the tree lines, giving the banks and log jams some shade. Streamers work well during those hours as well. Mousing is productive too, best when the moon is slim and there’s not much light shining down on the river. Dark spots of the river will be your best chance! Upcoming, the terrestrials are next, Mid July we will start seeing those fish key in on hoppers and such, looking for an easy meaty snack. Some really big fish are being caught already and we expect that to continue. This time of year offers so many different fishing opportunities and we couldn’t be more excited. The Skamania are now up at Tippy Dam, a strain of Steelhead that makes their way up the river system usually starting in the early part of June. They fight with everything they’ve got and will eat anything the fall and spring run Steelhead would eat. We carry 100s of patterns and styles of flies, and we are always stocked with new exciting ones as well. Hard body baits and spinners are also stocked on our shelves. Of course, you’ll need accessories, and we have no shortage of those. Everything from leader, tippet, tools to waders, apparel, bags, nets and more! If you haven’t been in the shop in a little bit, you’ll be happy to hear we have recently partnered with Farbanks and we now carry Loon, Redington, Sage, Rio and Fishpond. The only thing that can make this season even better is if we were to get some more rain. We have been battling extreme fire danger, and much of the state has experienced large losses of acers due mainly to folks burning in this dry environment. So, with that make sure you’re extra careful in the area and do not burn, until we have the red flag warning lifted.
We are excited to announce our Demo Day on July 8th. Ben Hunting will be joining us from 10am-5pm, and along teaching trout, salmon, and steelhead seminars he’s also hosting a private one-hour casting class at 1pm. Services will be on site, with sample products from some of our newest product lines brought into the shop. There will be a tent outside (weather dependent) in which Sage, Redington, RIO Products, and Fishpond USA will be displayed. Take advantage of trying out new rods on the pond with casting advice from both Ben and Chelsea, experience different fly line tapers and determine what line works best for you and most importantly the rod you fish with currently, find that perfect reel for trout, smallmouth bass, steelhead, or salmon, or even chat about saltwater equipment and possible trips you might be taking. If you cannot make the demo day on Saturday, please stop by from 5-7PM on Friday for some brats and beverages! Both Chelsea and Ben will be on hand that evening to ask questions, obtain information, gather tips of the trade as well as offer tours of the shop and lodging opportunities. The casting class is a $40 fee, but you are able to use $30 towards shop purchases that day. We have a few spots remaining, as the casting class is limited to the first 10 to sign up. FYI, there is accommodations available for this weekend! We hope to see you there and we will have specials running throughout the day! You can sign up for the casting class by calling the shop at 231-848-4844
Hex season is here!! The Pine, Man and P.M. are hopping!! Should be good until the middle of July this year. We have some early run salmon in the Little Man showing up and Summer Run Steel and Kings showing up at the creek mouths of the Big Man. Smallmouth fishing is cranking on the Big Man and Upper Muskegon. Come call our guides and get out on the river in summertime, it is the right time for all that fun!!! Remember we have a nice continental breakfast in the conference center to get a little jump on the day before you head out.
Tight Lines and Big Tines Captain Mike
Happy trout opener! April 29th marked the opening of small streams and trout fishing here in Michigan! We held our first annual trout opener party. Which included great product deals, demo rods, casting pond contests and more. If you didn’t get to make it, next year you can expect the same great family fun! We will always hold it on the last Saturday in April. The weather was great on that Saturday but turned into a cold rainy snow mix for the next few days. That did not stop the bite however and we had a great turnout of people in the area. Now that we are moving into the first week of May, it is time to start thinking about hatches. You can look forward to a stonefly and caddis hatch here shortly. Temps were in the 30s/40s for the first few days, but it looks like things are taking a Michigan turn and by the end of the week, gone will be the snow, rain and low temps. We will be welcoming temps in the 60s/70s for most of the month. Salmon fry and smolt have got the trout active and with the warm temps brings fish closer to the surface looking for that juicy bug to pick off the top. A bonus to the lasting cold weather means Steelhead are hanging around longer. Especially on the Big Manistee river, if you’re in the area and need that last flying chrome pull! Tippy Dam has been packed with chunky trout this year, more than normal. Of course, spinners in gold silver and bronze are a solid choice. Hard body baits of the same will get an aggressive chase as well.
We are excited to announce we are working with some awesome brands that are new to the shop! The newest to join our family is Redington, Sage and Fishpond! There are some brand new rods, single and two handed that are rigged up and ready to test cast in the casting pond out back. We just did a huge restock of tying products, all your favorites and some new things as well from Hareline. The fly bins are overflowing with nymphs, streamers, dries, beautiful hex flies, smolts, fry patterns and more. We have a great selection of bass poppers and pike flies, along with some deadly mice patterns. We course have the same variety of everything you need in the tackle department as well. We always carry a variety of nets, beads, spinners, body baits, floats and more. Centerpin and baitcasting fishing has been extra popular the last few years and we carry Okuma, Bloodrun, Nova and Raven for those of you who are looking to get into or just need a new rod, we all know you can never have too many!
We are excited to reveal the brand new remodeled cabins! The guys have been working hard to complete these two cabins and make them beautiful inside and out, when they are finished with the last minutes details expect to see some photos! We always strive to make sure our guests love their stay and enjoy the beautiful peaceful lodging we provide.
Overall, this month has got everyone out and about and we are happy to see you all in the shop to check out new things or come back for the things you know you can always find here. Follow along for future product updates, promos, fishing reports, lodge news and events!
Thanks for everyone that came over to our trout opener party, we are stocked to the gills with SAGE, Redington, Fish Pond, flies that work everything you need for your day in Northern MI. Our guides have some open dates for the best month of the year catch an occasional steelhead or a trout on a dry fly in the same day. End of the month we will have Drakes Hatching so get the dry fly gearready. Small tributary fishing around here is some of the best around, the little Manistee and Bear Creek make excellent wading opportunities. Shoot us a call mention you read this newsletter to the bottom and get 15% off anything at the fly shop.
Tight Lines and Big Tines Captain Mike
Big things happening soon in our neck of the woods! March is the beginning of peak spring steelhead season and we have not been disappointed. Not only are the good numbers of fish in the system, especially as of late. We are getting a lot of big ones to hand. The weather has been in our favor for the last couple weekends, 40s and sunny. Although that doesn’t make for the best fishing days, it’s a refresh to get us out of the winter blues. Last week we had a large snow system move in and the bite was on fire! It has been steady ever since. Beads, as always in translucent orange pink and chartreuse color ways have been the ticket for us. Flies, like stones, buggers, eggs and PT nymphs are a great grab as well. If things are getting tough don’t be afraid of jigs with a wax worm.
The Little Manistee River will be opening from the flies only water down to the weir on April 1st make sure you have your fishing license renewed or bought before then. Trout season coming April 29th and with that the whole Little River will be open along with the Pine. Shop hours will be extending on March 23rd. We will be doing 8-6 Thursdays Friday and Saturdays. Catch us then to get all the gear and advice from folks that are in the know. Speaking of the shop, we are getting tons of new products in. Flies, rods, reel, waders and more. We are restocking up on crank baits too. The shop has a great selection of both fly and gear fishing products. New brands of beads are making their way through the door, and we strive to make sure we support local company’s and listen to what our valued customers have to say on products they’d like to see.
We were at the Midwest Fly fishing show this past weekend, and we had a great time. Thanks to all the great folks to came by the booth to support the shop or just to say hi. Fly shops depend on people like you who show us support by visiting the website, interacting with us on social media, stopping by the shop, lodging or guiding with us, or just sharing the word about us here in Wellston. We look forward to the schools we will be hosting soon, like center pin, intro to fly fishing, kids school and more. We hold these events here and take advantage of the beautiful casting pond we have on site and the conference center. We also rent that space out to folks who need a place for a party, meeting or anything else. Keep following us for more information and fun things we are doing here at the shop.
Hi Guys spring is finally here and the Steelhead are in good numbers, Bear Creek will be peaking fast and the Little Manistee is going to be opening soon. The Little Man will have a very good early spring (opens April 1) as a lot of fish have made it past the weir and are still up getting ready to spawn. The Big Man seems like a traditional timeframe as years I can remember I would plan on seeing Steelhead in the Big Man this year well into May. We are finishing up our 2 cabins that had the fire and they are going to be obviously completely new inside both will have a full kitchenette and 2 bedrooms they should be ready to go before next newsletter middle of April. We still have a few open guide trips for this spring, and get your Pine River trout days on the schedule as you know those are restricted and very special. Excited to see everyone this spring, and as always Tight Lines and Big Tines Captain Mike
We have been experiencing a Michigan winter here in the northern area. We started out with a few weeks of quality snow, and a bunch of it! This brought many folks up to the Manistee National Forest area, excited to hit the snowmobile trails, ski resorts, pull out the shanty’s and get out on the ice! Once everyone enjoyed their holiday season, taking advantage of “taking it easy” we were all excited to get out and enjoy that first snow. Winter came in hard, giving us feet of snow at a time, which made getting out on the river a bit more difficult, just a bit of ramp shoveling and warmer boots! By the time January came rolling in things evened out for us and we had some cooler, but not freezing temps with a few flurries here and there.
This really helped our fisheries and allowed the fish we already had to settle in and be much less finicky, making the bite more active and predictable. A fun thing we had in the fall, leading into winter was the Coho salmon hung around for much longer than usual and we had fresh ones coming up very late as well. This only helped and made not only salmon fishing better but more coho, hanging out and new ones pushing up means, more egg drops! Steelhead really keyed in on this and we were able to confidently put numbers in the net. Speaking of Steelhead, we had a great number of Steelhead push up from the lake during that time as well. January ended and February began with freezing temps, high of 10 sort of cold. We benefited from that, getting some more snow which is what we want. Now a few weeks into February we are having what we call a “spring winter”, the last week or so has been very mild, temps around 35 average during the day. A great thing for fishing, both in a weather stand point and it gave us a “warm up”. This is when all the guides and fishy folks get super excited. There’s just something about going from fridged temps to a couple days of 40 that turn those fish on! We have been taking advantage of that lately. We are still finding chrome fish, along with the hold overs. Looking forward to March, we are expecting the Steelhead fishing to continue to produce for us. Even on the tougher days we are still seeing bobbers down. Beads, in a pale orange or pink have been good, egg flies of the same, stone flies, wolly buggers, and egg sucking leaches always work as well.
We have some pretty cool things happening around the shop, upcoming and current. Lodging deal continuing until March 1st, just $75 a night. We have 5 beautiful cabins set back in the woods, with plenty of privacy and parking for boats and trailers. You can head out the door, onto your snowmobile and straight to many trails that span 100’s of miles. We are also located within 15-20 minutes of Caberfae Peaks, and Crystal Mountain. Both excellent places to enjoy the day on the slopes. Several restaurants are near by and a short drive to Manistee. The fly shop is fully stocked and we carry everything you’ll need to find success on the river. Staff is always available for information on local places to visit or anything outdoors! We have also updated our website. Featuring more photos, information and a list of all our current and upcoming events. At the moment until March 1st we are hosting a kids coloring contest, winner receives a guided fishing trip. We are hosting free tying classes on Saturdays at 4pm too! Casting and center pin classes will held here also at a later date. Check out manisteeriverlodge.com for all the details and more information on events and deals, to meet our guides, check out the lodging and watch virtual tours of the cabins and shop! The shop is open 9-5 everyday until March 15th when we will extend those hours.
