Bay City's Brady Layle hooked, landed and released this female steelhead
during an early January 2007 float trip on the Michigan's Pere Marquette River.

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Spring-Like Conditions Make
Winter Steelhead Fishing More Comfortable

West Side Michigan Streams Lure Fishermen in Search of Chrome

January 7, 2007
By: O. J. Cunningham

Word on the web is that there are steelhead in the rivers on the West Side of Michigan.

Steve Fraley's Baldwin Bait and Tackle (BBT) web site, www.FishBaldwin.com shows good results on a consistent basis for the Pere Marquette River.

At the Pere Marquett Orvis shop in Baldwin, www.PMRiver.com , Frank says they've "got more fish than people" in the river. Fishing Reports say that there is a great number of Winter fish in the PM system.

Both the Orvis Shop and BBT have special pricing on lodging and January guided float trips.

To the North, on the Manistee River, Tim Roller's www.UltimateOutfitters.com says the Winter Steelhead fishing as typical.

Roller says, "There are decent numbers of fish scattered from Tippy Dam all the way to the lake. You'll still want to fish in "winter mode". Fish slow and methodically. Spawn, either bottom-bounced or fished under a float is deadly right now.

To the South, at the Muskegon River, Chad Betts also reports, www.BettsGuideService.com ,that there are Steelhead to be caught.

According to Betts' site, "Winter fishing has been great so far this season! There are a good number of steelhead throughout the system. Over all, fishing has been good to very good depending on the technique and the weather."

Weather forecasts for the upcoming week show a definite cooling trend. But there may be a few more days of "comfortable" January conditions.