Its been a slow start to the springtime thaw here in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. We have had what some of the old timers say is one of the mildest winters of memory this year and while some may appreciate this like myself we need the snow as we rely on this for part of the water that keeps our rivers flowing, especially in the spring.
Coming into this past week the rivers were flowing in ranges that are similar to July and August-like flows. But like our weather patterns in the Upper Peninsula just wait as they can change in the blink of an eye. Overnight we received about 4 inches of snow and two days of rain and all of a sudden we were able to drop boats and float.
Now this didn't give us all the moisture that we need but it sure was helpful. We were able to grab the boats and hit the rivers in the last 48 hrs. We spent the first day chasing some steel with only one missed opportunity we took the next day to hit the trout stream which proved much more successful.
The river temps are stable at 34 degrees and flowing well. Again as the steelhead bite was slow the trout bite was steady with fish being taken on the swing, ripping streamers and nymphing. The ticket for the trout while nymphing was anything that represented a stone nymph such as 20 inchers and Kaufman's stone in brown or black. Both swung flies and streamer fishing the ticket was large and yellow as with our ice tea-looking water the yellow tones pop.
For now, we will keep doing our rain dance and we our looking forward to our 2024 season and all it will bring.
