Manistee River - April 25 2015

Got a chance to fish with my good buddy Mike on Saturday for some Steelhead action on the Manistee River.  Mike has been one of my outdoor mentors teaching me cool things about fishing since about 1985 when we first met.  We have fished on more Adventures than I can remember.

This weekend my friend wanted to help me understand Plugging and other river boat fishing techniques.  I normally spend my time wading in my favorite water, however Mike insisted that I get a taste of the action from the boat.  Having been unsuccessful in my two prior trips to the river this year, I said SURE.  It would also help me learn something new.

The weather was great and we did not see many people fishing - it was opening weekend for Walleye and Trout.  As you can see from my photo below there are no other people as far as you can see.

We were able to get some action right after setting up our gear, however the first fish (very large) was stripping line off and then jumped into the air and spinning around.  This bout of acrobatic effort was successful in getting the line across the mouth or behind the gill plate and cut off about 10 inches of the leader line.

This was followed by a few more strikes with no hook-ups.

After using the oars to bump our anchor off the bottom a few more times, we quietly drifted the baits back into yet another hole and WHAM there was no mistake it was FISH ON....

You can get an approximate size of the fish shown here by Mike's size 13 boot.  I only say that because some people have a trick of holding fish out at arms length to make them look much larger.
Below is me showing off my first Steelhead of the 2015 season.

We moved up river to a different spot and I was able to pick up my the fish below that was super fresh and the eggs were not loose yet.

I wrapped up the day in the early afternoon with my third fish which was a real fighter and was also fresh and full of spawn.  For those people who are wondering, I do often catch and release.... today was for dinner.

The water temp was 46.8 F and of the three fish I put on the rope, one was spawned out, one had loose eggs (used for spawn sacks) and one was still tight ( saved for drift fishing )  We did not see or catch any male fish... probably still far up stream with all the hens.

I would say that given the fresh fish on April 25th, people should still be seeing good action up river for another week minimum.  Drop back fishing should hold good through the middle of May or later.

Good Luck and Tight Lines.