Fishing The P-M, A River For All Seasons

Here’s a How-To, When-To for One of Michigan’s Most Storied Streams

By Bill Semion

            Doc Green’s and Birch Hole. Whirlpool. Rosebud and Jorgenson’s. And Merle T. “Simmy” Nolph. If you’ve ever slipped a wader leg into the swift, westward-flowing waters of West Michigan’s Pere Marquette River, you might recognize those names. If you haven’t, you should.

            The Pere Marquette, named for one of Michigan’s pioneer priest explorers and flowing cold and clear from springs to the east of Baldwin, is just as storied in its trout, and salmon history.

            It in the hearts of all trout anglers (or should be), because it was the first stream in the nation to be planted with brown trout, brought to Michigan by boat and wagon to Flint, then carted cross-country to be reared at a hatchery and, as Frank Willetts, the tallish ponytailed owner of the Pere Marquette River Lodge in Baldwin will tell you, planted into the river on a Tuesday in 1834. It was designated a Natural Wild-Scenic River in 1978.

            Willetts hosts anglers from across the country at his lodge at the start of the flies-only stretch, to fish those storied holes I named above.

             “It’s simply an awesome cold water fishery because it sustains a huge migratory fishery and having the top 8.6 miles as flies only also enables our browns to grow to exponential form,” Willetts says. “Along with those you get steelhead, salmon, and coho, and also white suckers, which are a huge food source for the trout.

            “Our winter steelhead usually start showing up around Oct. 15 to gorge on salmon eggs. The salmon start trickling into the river the third week in July, and in the ‘little man’ (Little Manistee, just a few clicks north of the lodge off M-37) the third week in June,” he said.

            Deciding on which of the river’s 22 public accesses to use in spring depends, of course, on conditions. Water temperature is key, he advises. “Forty-two degrees is optimum. Colder temperatures below 34 degrees make fish sluggish.”

            While I learned to fish the PM’s steelhead by sight, Willetts says most fish the holes with a strike indicator, which looks like a bobber. 

            “You should rig like this: fly, another (dropper) fly, split shot, then the indicator. Use a size 12 swivel,” he said. As for flies, there is only one real choice in Willetts’s book: an egg fly. “Egg flies, and possibly stonefly and hex (hexagenia limbata) nymphs. On eggs, use size 10 or 12 hooks and 8s and 10s on stones and hexes.”

             Winter steelies are primarily in the holes and spring breaks, they’re in center water on the gravel. So if you’re fishing the wrong spot at the wrong time of the year, you’re fishing empty water.

            “Winter fish spawn as soon as the water temp creeps up to 40 or 41 degrees. So as soon as you get warm-ups starting in March or even February you’ll see hen fish on gravel,” guide Ryan White said.

            “ Steelhead are our most coveted fish and I try not to rake gravel if I don’t have to,” Willetts explains.

           

When You Go

            The PM Lodge also offers a full-service Orvis shop and plenty of advice, as well as river maps and guides. The PM has excellent access for anglers on foot; however expect plenty of company especially in early April. Closest airports are Traverse City and Grand Rapids. The river is fairly swift, so you may need a wading staff. For information, call 231-745-3972, or go to www.pmlodge.com.