Will fishermen be able to stay dry during wet weather?
John RaffelBIG RAPIDS – A wet weekend was expected to put a damper on fishing but anglers were still hopeful of finding some favorable spots.
“This rain is going to slow it down for a couple of days,” Tanner Havens, of Frank’s Sporting Goods in Morley, said. “They’re doing pretty good for perch by Davis Bridge, along with some walleyes. They have to weed through the small mouth bass and the little pike that have been stealing all their bait, I hear.”
The DNR said at the Big Manistee River, the Chinook activity at Tippy Dam slowed down. Anglers reported steelhead, brown trout and lake trout above and below the coffer. Steelhead catches were on the slow side, the DNR said.
“We have now entered the days of prime steelhead fishing,” Chelsea Pete of the Manistee River Lodge, in Wellston said. “We have good numbers already. With the recent warmer temperatures, fishing has been a bit slow. We predict there will be a change over the weekend. Fishing flies and hard body baits have been working. There’s still a few salmon around, but they’re too old.”
At Manistee Lake, coho slowed as the weather has warmed back up the DNR said, adding there were reports of anglers getting good numbers of cisco at Grand Traverse West Bay.
“They’re getting some nice steelhead on the beach and on the pier with spawn and they’re getting them on Tippy, and throughout the Manistee River,” Dewey Buchner of Don’s Sporting Goods in Manistee said. “They’re doing good on perch at Manistee. This is the best time to be pike fishing, with sucker and a bobber or whatever they like to try. Perch are hitting on perch minnows and wigglers.”
