Flyfishing the Great Lakes in Michigan along the shoreline & river mouths of Lake Huron and Lake Michigan - 2005 & 2006.
November 2005 - A huge Lake Huron Brown Trout inhaling a chartreuse/white deceiver. This is prime time for fishing the shoreline of Lake Huron.
October 2005 - Look for Lake Trout to be on the shoreline feeding on bait fish in Late October and November.
November 2005 - Low light is the time to fish these giant browns along the shoreline of Lake Huron.
November 2005 - Cold weather in the late fall brings huge numbers of baitfish in close along the shoreline and into harbors in Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. The big trout follow the food in close and are very aggressive!
October 2005 - A huge brown that is just about ready to be netted!
March 2006 - The big Lake Huron browns are feeding right along shoreline at ice out in the Spring.
March 2006 - Ice went out early this year making for some excellent fly fishing for brown trout.
Oct. 5th - Tom Buhr with a Lake Trout out in
Tawas Bay in Lake Huron. Big trout was caught
in about 8' of water just off the edge of
first drop off. Fast action 8wt rod is the
perfect rod for this fishing. The fly line
that was being used was a 24' 200 grain Rio Sink Tip
and the fly was one of our Great Lakes Alewive
patterns with is pictured below. Tom also
hooked the first big Lake Brown of the fall, out of
my boat, but hook popped out. A few browns are
starting to move around shoreline right now but not
in big numbers. Typically by mid October Lake
Browns are along the shoreline and river mouths of
Lake Huron in good numbers.
Oct. 4th - Here is a huge Lake Huron Smallmouth
Bass. Had good fishing this morning!
Caught three big Smallies and a couple of smaller
Lake Trout in Hammond Bay in Northern Lake Huron.
Saw a few big browns near the boat but no hook ups on them this
morning. For those looking for big lake browns
typically best action starts in mid October and last
till mid December. This morning all fish were
on the same fly - our Great Lakes Alewive pattern.
Sept. 19th - Fly fishing the shoreline of Platte
Bay right near the mouth of the river has been
excellent the past couple of days. Coho,
Chinook and even a few steelhead are being caught.
These fish are very aggressive and will smash
streamers. Deceivers, Fin Clip, Conrad Sculpin
and Half & Half have been our best producers of
late. In low light these same patterns with
glow in dark Flashabou added to them has really
worked well.
Sept. 14th - Tom Olenczuk with a fresh Chinook
Salmon that was caught while streamer fly fishing in
Betsie Lake right near the mouth of the Betsie
River. Excellent fishing this evening with big
numbers of very aggressive salmon - 5 salmon landed
and lost a few others. Tom and Jim
fished with me yesterday evening and this morning
and 10 Salmon were brought to the net in about 8
hours of fishing!
Sept. 14th - Here one of the big Chinooks making
a very long run. The fight out of these fish,
fresh out of Lake Michigan, is very amazing!
Sept. 13th - Here is Tom with another salmon
landed today. Hot fly was a Chartreuse and
White Conrad Sculpin. A slow strip was the key
today on the retrieve. Excellent morning
fishing even in bright sun today!
Sept. 13th - Excellent streamer fishing this
evening! We landed 5 big King Salmon and lost
a few other in about 3 hours of fishing.
Sept. 13th - Tom and Jim with a Betsie Lake
Chinook Salmon. Jim had the hot rod this
evening landing 3 of these big Kings.
Sept 12th - A beautiful King salmon caught
streamer fishing in Betsie Lake right near Lake
Michigan. The last few evening this fishing
has been excellent! Been hitting 3 to 6 fish
each night this week. Top flies have been a
glow in dark Half & Half (pictured below), black
Conrad Sculpin, and our Great Lakes Deceiver in
Chart/White. The new Rio OutBound lines are my
new favorites for open water streamer fishing in the
Great Lakes. The 8wt. type 3 sinking line has
been working just perfect of late.
Here is a pattern (glow half & half) that has
been working in low light or dark conditions for
Lake Michigan salmon.
August 22nd - Here is a big King Salmon out in
Betsie Lake just up from Lake Michigan. This
is a great time of year to streamer fish these big
salmon and Betsie Lake is the perfect place!
Right now there are good numbers of fish right around
the mouth and these fish are very aggressive.
This fish hit one our 6" Great Lake Deceivers in
Chart/White.
July 14th - The St. Mary's River right at
beginning of the Rapids. There are a few
Atlantic salmon around right now but fishing has
been a little slow of late. Our best luck came
fishing smelt patterns on sink tips down stream from
the Rapids.
July 4th - Tom Olenczuk with a big Lake Michigan
smallie from Grand Traverse Bay.
June 17th - David Frizzell with a big carp caught
fly fishing in Grand Traverse Bay. Carp are feeding in the shallow flats
this time of year and can be caught fly fishing.
May 25th - Northern Lake Huron has lots of great
places to fly fish for trophy size Smallmouth Bass.
Here is a photo of one of my favorite places in
Hammond Bay. This is perfect structure for
early summer smallies. Lots of rock and a nice
drop off.
May 22nd - Had a real nice evening fly fishing
the shoreline of Lake Huron. This time
of year there are so many places to fly fish in
Michigan.
May 22nd - A beautiful sunset on the sunrise side
of Michigan.
May 11th - A beautiful Lake Huron Brown trout!
Big trout hit a small Alewive pattern in about 6
feet of water. These big trout will stay
around shoreline for a while if water stays below 60
degrees. Look for some big numbers of smallies
to show up very soon. The next few days the
forecast is for more cool rainy weather.
Should make for some good shoreline fly fishing!
April 22nd - Here a beautiful Lake Huron Brown
Trout! Had perfect conditions out in the lake
today. The big lake has really warmed up fast
this spring. There are some browns around the
shoreline and the smallmouth bass are starting to
get active with water temps in the low 50's.
April 22nd - Here are perfect conditions for
shoreline fishing this time of year. Cloudy
foggy rainy and no big waves!
April 6th - Here is Rick Palazzini with a big
Lake Huron smallmouth bass. This time of year
there are lots of different species chasing bait
fish along the shoreline of Lake Huron. This
bass took a small smelt pattern.
March 31st - A giant Lake Huron brown trout
caught on one my Great Lakes Deceivers! Lake
Huron has turned into my favorite place to fly fish.
There are so many great places to fish and not many
people around most days. Just a great place
for those who love to streamer fly fish and are
looking for true trophy fish.
Here are two of our best patterns out in Lake
Huron this time of year. Perch and Alewives
are two of the main food sources.