Strong winds continue to keep fishing pressure low around the state. Most anglers have given up their fishing poles for the firearm deer opener November 15.

Grand River, Fergus, Ontario ? June 1-2, 2003

This report has one main purpose?to help anyone going to the Grand River in the near future spend less time experimenting and more time catching fish.

First, the river.  John Valk of Grindstone Anglers, one of the featured speakers at the Southfield Fly Fishing Show, hyped the Grand as having big brown trout rise all day, even in the middle of the day.  It?s not hype, that has been the case almost every time I?ve been there.

Hit the opener up on Michigan's Au Sable River. Good turn out of folks. Spent Saturday fishing the North Branch. Morning started out cold and clear and warmed up for some fun in the sun. The wind was playing havoc with most casters presentations. Water temps were 55 deg. in the upper section. Not much of a hatch going on with only a few small BWO's showing up and a few Hendrickson's in the afternoon.

I rolled a nice Brown on an olive rattlesnake streamer in front of some newcomers to the river. That was my big thrill of the day other than just being out for the opener. In Lovells,  the Lovells Township Historical Society had the new museum open for all. A lot of people came out to see this great new addition to the history of fly fishing in Michigan. It started on the North Branch and it is fitting that this is the new location.  There are some great events planned at the new museum this season that you won't want to miss.

A last minute trip to Elk Creek, PA proved to be a wise choice. A friend had just flown in from out of the country and was itching to get his Steelhead fix in. Thankfully he called to fill me in on the plans Saturday evening.  I had only an hour to get ready and agreed to jump in with the makeshift crew.  After stuffing the car with gear we headed out for the long drive to Pennsylvania. We hoped our timing would be  right as the river has already blown through and cleared out according to some sources.

Reports of winter holdover fish and fresh runs were filtering in. It had rained in the area on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and we had some concern that the water levels may have been to high and dirty. With action in the last couple of weeks slow in these parts we figured to make a go of it to the south.

On the week of 11/10/02 I stopped in at Flymart to see what was" biting" and was talking to John, (owner) about some choices on fishing in the next few days. He knows I love fishing the Big Manistee and some other local rivers and creeks but he suggested that I check out a place in PA. named Elk Creek. He made it pretty easy by giving me a detailed map. I was amazed to find out that this place is the same distance that I normally travel to get to Wellston, he also mentioned that because the weather had been pretty rainy the last few days that  I might want to get there soon. That was good enough for me so I gather up 3 buddy"s and our gear and headed for Elk Creek.

If fly fishing for Steelhead is something you can't resist then we would suggest heading over to one of our sister states - Pennsylvania right now. Things have been quiet on most of the local rivers here in Michigan, with anglers working very hard and being skunked or rewarded with a fish as a result. The Pere Marquette is running low and clear, and the conditions for "the" fall Steelhead run on the other rivers like the Big Manistee, Muskegon and Betsie have not been much better this week. Rain is the key ingredient needed right now and we only got a trickle of it.

The Elk Creek and Walnut Creek, on the other hand,? received some much needed rain this last weekend that really seemed to stir up the activity. Reports of fresh fall Steelhead,? that are eagerly taking offerings,? are coming in strong.? The water level drops quickly on many of these streams and may change the conditions fast. Most of the leaves have fallen already and the rivers are clearing up. Steelhead Alley, as coined by Rick Kustich author of Great Lakes Steelhead,??is made up by about 40 rivers in three different states. Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York.

We had some luck with Steelhead. But these were smolts. We managed to get the attention of a few native browns on BWO's and some wets. It was beautiful as the trees are just starting to show their fall colors. Another week and the colors should really begin to turn.

Fishing was slow on the Rifle and we decided to change our destination and move on up to Mio. There we would fish the Au Sable river below Mio pond. This turned out to be a great choice.

We met up at Harly Ensign DNR access on Lake St. Clair, which was as empty as I had seen it on a Saturday night. I guess the weather had put a lot of boats off the water on Saturday. We headed up north into Anchor Bay and visited a few of my haunts.