Fly patterns

A leech profile with an egg hot spot, recognized as one of the most effective flies on Great Lakes tributary steelhead streams and, per Current Works, less intrusive than most patterns for selective fish. Betts fishes it for Pere Marquette fall salmon, and Michigan coho anglers swing it through runs and tailouts. Dead-drift or swing black, purple or olive bodies with chartreuse, orange, red or pink heads from September through April; #8 versions take pink salmon.

Swinging flies (spey / switch) · Indicator nymphing · Chuck and duck · Streamers

A bright pink and chartreuse head over a leech body on a #2 to #4 3XL streamer hook, 'one of the most reliable Midwest swung fly patterns' and exceptional in cold winter water when steelhead are lethargic. Swing it slow and deep on a Skagit head and sink tip from November through the spring on the Muskegon, Manistee and U.P. rivers.

Swinging flies (spey / switch)

Black marabou and schlappen over peacock and orange Ice Dub with pink and copper Flashabou, on a 25 mm Senyo shank with a trailer or a Daiichi 2461. Originating on the Muskegon, it is 'great through fall' when steelhead have switched from lake alewife to river shiners and respond to flash. Swing it from October through December.

Swinging flies (spey / switch)

The deer-hair-head sculpin archetype that every Michigan articulated streamer descends from. Slimy and mottled sculpins are the most available forage in Michigan trout streams (about 90 percent of prey in the Anna River), so a #4 to #8 Muddler fished dead-drift and stripped along the bottom works year-round; small Muddlers #8 to #12 serve brook trout, and a weighted #8 takes pink salmon.

Streamers · Swinging flies (spey / switch)

Current Works' Steelhead Bugger #6 sits in its Michigan top five, and U.P. guides run a beadhead Woolly Bugger #8 in black or green in the nymph rig. Dead-drift it as the point fly with an egg trailing, or swing it through tailouts; it covers leeches, sculpins and crayfish at once.

Indicator nymphing · Chuck and duck · Swinging flies (spey / switch)

The most-cited Michigan salmon fly: black, olive and purple buggers for Chinook and coho, 'essential' on the Pere Marquette, swung or dead-drifted into staged fish from September through October, especially in off-color water. A #8 beadhead in black, olive or pink is the standard pink salmon fly on the St. Marys and Carp in September, and #8 to #12 buggers serve brook trout and small browns all season. Downsize and slow down for trout, upsize and add a hot head for salmon.

Streamers · Swinging flies (spey / switch) · Indicator nymphing · Chuck and duck

Current Works reaches for black leeches (String Leech, Silvey's Tail Light, Miles Davis, Larimer's Reverse Marabou) in high, dirty water, when a dark silhouette shows better than any natural color. Betsie salmon anglers use dark leeches with flash dead-drifted or swung. Fish it during spring runoff and after fall rains.

Swinging flies (spey / switch) · Chuck and duck · Streamers

Current Works strips a Flashtail Clouser on sink tips for fresh Betsie and Manistee salmon, and chartreuse/white and pink Clousers are coho standards. In white and gray it doubles as a smelt or alewife imitation for St. Marys Atlantics in late June and July. Fish it with fast strips in the lowest holding water above the lake.

Streamers · Swinging flies (spey / switch)

Krystal Flash and Flashabou-winged flies (Pope's, California Neon, Pink Pop Cycle) built for coho, which respond to flash more than kings. Chartreuse is best in low light or slightly murky water. Strip or swing them for fresh chrome coho in the lower Platte, Manistee, Betsie and St. Joseph from mid September into November; the recommendation is general coho lore, not Michigan-sourced.

Streamers · Swinging flies (spey / switch)

A yolk-sac fry imitation in Chuck Hawkins' spring Great Lakes top five, dead-drifted or swung when Chinook alevins emerge from the gravel in March and April; fish also take it as a caddis larva dislodged by spawning steelhead. Michigan TU notes alevin and smelt patterns are effective in spring on rivers with a prior fall salmon run.

Indicator nymphing · Swinging flies (spey / switch) · Streamers

Feenstra's rabbit-strip and flash sculpin, sold by shops as the Aqua Nuisance: a size 1 or 1/0 fly that 'shines during the fall and spring months when fish are aggressive,' in low light and stained water, for steelhead, salmon and large trout. Feenstra fishes it fall through spring and rates it best in water over 38 F. Swing it on a heavy tip through the deep runs of the Muskegon and Big Manistee.

Swinging flies (spey / switch) · Streamers

Feenstra's articulated egg-and-fry: a size 10 rear hook wound with white grizzly marabou, joined by mono to a size 6 egg hook that carries craft eyes, a possum collar, pearl flash fins and a pink Ice Dub thorax. It reads as an egg with a fry attached, which is what drifts below spawning gravel in spring and behind salmon redds in fall. Drift it under an indicator or swing it slow on the Muskegon, Manistee and PM.

Indicator nymphing · Swinging flies (spey / switch) · Chuck and duck

Kevin Feenstra's all-purpose sculpin: a grizzly marabou tail, an emu-feather body palmered with schlappen, mallard flank fins and a possum or wool head. Devised as a smallmouth fly, it became a favorite steelhead fly that Feenstra describes as working year-round for multiple species; swing it on a sink tip in the Muskegon and Manistee.

Swinging flies (spey / switch) · Streamers

Feenstra's winter sculpin: purple grizzly hen, dark olive marabou, merlot and avocado Flashabou, a possum and moss-blue dubbing head. His reasoning is that sculpins take on the colour of the river bottom, and in late winter the Muskegon's bottom moss runs brown-olive to blue-green, so the fish key on olive with a purple cast. Swing it, or slow-strip and swing it for winter browns; tie it on a hook rather than a shank if you mean to strip it.

Swinging flies (spey / switch) · Streamers

Kevin Feenstra's articulated sculpin on a trailing hook, layered hen hackle and grizzly marabou over a pine squirrel tail, and Chuck Hawkins' post-runoff pick for drop-back steelhead: it matches the gobies, sculpins and chubs spent fish eat as they recover in April and May. Swing it, or bounce and swing it along the bottom, through runs below spawning gravel once the water clears on the Muskegon, Manistee and Grand.

Swinging flies (spey / switch) · Streamers

Kevin Feenstra's shank-tied sculpin, the fly he says is most often in his box: a rabbit or pine squirrel tail, an emu-feather body palmered with schlappen, Fire Tye flash, a bulky Kraken dubbing head and a marabou veil, with the trailing hook on a braid loop. Swing it with the strip free of the hook, or pierce the strip with the hook to strip it, for steelhead and large browns on the Muskegon, Manistee and Grand.

Swinging flies (spey / switch) · Streamers

Shank or tube-tied swing flies of two to four inches, fished Intruder-style #2 to #4 by U.P. steelhead guides and #4 to 1/0 for Great Lakes salmon in chartreuse, red, orange, black and blue. Pink and orange or black and blue for steelhead aggression in fall and high water; swing on a Skagit setup with 12 to 14 ft rods.

Swinging flies (spey / switch)

Soft-flowing marabou speys in flame orange or chartreuse are a Great Lakes steelhead swing standard, 'Spey Buggers' appear in U.P. swing boxes, and Perfect Fly lists Spey flies among St. Marys Atlantic salmon patterns. Swing them broadside on a floating or light tip from fall through spring; darker shades for clear water, bright for stain.

Swinging flies (spey / switch)

One of Chuck Hawkins' top ten Michigan flies, a parr imitation that is 'great for early spring in the Midwest' on any river with a migration of salmon parr, for steelhead, brown trout and salmon. Anna River browns selected stocked coho smolts over sculpins in May, so fish it March through June on the Muskegon, Manistee, PM and Betsie.

Streamers · Swinging flies (spey / switch) · Indicator nymphing

Pink salmon favor small bright pink or chartreuse beadhead flies with ample flash, so scale everything down: #10 to #14 nymphs and small eggs. Fish them in the St. Marys rapids, the Carp and the Chocolay from late August through early October, heaviest in odd years, in clear water; switch to bright eggs in faster water.

Indicator nymphing · Euro / tight-line nymphing · Swinging flies (spey / switch)

Current Works fishes Rabbit Strip Leeches on sink tips with 9 to 10 weight rods for fresh salmon in the lower Betsie and Manistee, and MidCurrent lists bunny leeches with hot-spot heads #2 to #6 for aggressive steelhead. Strip or swing it through the first holding water above the lake from late August through October.

Streamers · Swinging flies (spey / switch)

Betts reports large trout and steelhead 'feeding heavily on Chinook salmon fry along the shoreline' of the Muskegon from March into June, when salmon fry, steelhead fry and sucker fry are the bulk of the trout diet. Feenstra adds that sucker fry have a purplish hue, so lavender and pink tones work. Strip or swing a #8 to #12 fry along shallow edges.

Streamers · Indicator nymphing · Swinging flies (spey / switch)

Perfect Fly lists wet flies among St. Marys Atlantic salmon patterns, and Atlantics feed on caddis and midges from mid July through August. A swung soft hackle covers emerging caddis pupae and Sulphurs on any Michigan river; swing it down and across in riffles at dusk, or hang it below a dry.

Swinging flies (spey / switch) · Dry fly · Indicator nymphing

Atlantic salmon arrive in the St. Marys tailrace in late June eating smelt and juvenile salmonids, and 'stripping large baitfish imitation patterns on sink tips can provide for some exciting strikes' until the Hex hatch in mid July switches them to insects. A three to five inch white and silver baitfish also takes lower Au Sable Atlantics below Foote Dam on streamers through the winter.

Streamers · Swinging flies (spey / switch)

U.P. steelhead guides add white Zonkers and White Deaths #8 to the spring rig when smelt and shiners are in the lower rivers. Dead-drift it under an indicator or swing it through runs from April into June on Lake Superior tributaries and the St. Marys.

Streamers · Swinging flies (spey / switch) · Indicator nymphing

A cigar-shaped deer-hair dry that is skated or dead-drifted over holding Atlantic salmon. Generic to Atlantic salmon fishing and not named by any Michigan source for the St. Marys; a niche option for warm, low water in late summer.

Dry fly · Swinging flies (spey / switch)

A big, bright marabou attractor that a Michigan guide lists with Egg Sucking Leeches and Intruders as 'bright flies that bring out angry strikes from the salmon.' Swing or dead-drift it at the head of the pool where staged Chinook and coho hold in September and October.

Swinging flies (spey / switch) · Chuck and duck · Streamers

A bead-chain-eyed West Coast salmon fly with a bright chenille body and long tail that sinks fast and swims hook-up. It is a generic aggression fly for Michigan Chinook and coho, swung or bounced through runs in September and October; Michigan sources do not name it.

Swinging flies (spey / switch) · Chuck and duck

Feenstra's bright-day leech: a marabou tail, olive Ice Dub body palmered with schlappen, mallard collar, bead-chain eyes and a wing of holographic gold flash topped with red, gold and green. A very bright fly for a bright, sunny day; if an aggressive fish is in the run it will draw attention in the sunlight. Swing it on the Muskegon when the low winter sun is on the water.

Swinging flies (spey / switch) · Streamers

A layered swing fly from Feenstra's favorites: a peach or pink rabbit tail, polar chenille through peach Estaz, and a wing of mallard flank sandwiched with grizzly marabou. The mallard turns semi-transparent in the water and the fly wobbles like a baitfish. A big-water fly for the Muskegon and Manistee when steelhead are aggressive in spring and fall.

Swinging flies (spey / switch) · Streamers

A classic eastern Canadian Atlantic salmon fly, swung or waked on the surface. Its use on the St. Marys is unverified; the notes found no Michigan source naming classic Atlantic patterns, so treat it as a generic option for July through October rapids fishing.

Swinging flies (spey / switch)