Fly patterns

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 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)

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)

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 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)