Fishing in Inland northern lower peninsula

On warm, muggy nights in late June, when bats and whippoorwills swoop above the silky currents of trout streams and fly anglers in most parts of the country are climbing out of the water, tens of thousands of anglers set out for the rivers in northern Michigan. They usually try to reach their selected spot while they can still see well enough to wade safely, and then wait patiently and hopefully for something that many of them think about all year: the hex hatch. The night-hatching Hexagenia limbata is the nation’s biggest mayfly, and it can appear in such incredible numbers that huge cannibal brown trout that normally wouldn’t even dream of feeding on a surface fly lose all sense of caution and go on a nightly mayfly binge.

The Au Sable and Manistee Rivers in north- central Michigan have the best-known hex hatches (the flies usually start the hatch downstream and work up toward the headwaters over a two-week period). But hexes, often referred to by locals as the Michigan caddis, can be found virtually everywhere in the state, even on Lake St. Clair near Detroit, where the locals curse the “Canadian soldiers” that can gather under street lights in such numbers that cars skid on the greasy patches created by their crushed bodies.

Hexes are maddeningly unpredictable, but as a rule the hatch usually starts after midnight and can consist either of a smattering of flies lasting 10 minutes or a blizzard hatch that goes on for two hours. The spinners can return to the water anytime from dark to dawn, and anglers often observe two peaks of activity during the night, switching from hatcher to spinner imitation as needed.

The fish can be just as schizophrenic as the insects. Sometimes a fantastic hatch or spinner fall will fill the air and water with hexes, yet not a fish rises. Experts say this usually occurs in the first few days of the hatch, when the fish haven’t yet keyed on the big flies, and near the end of it, when they are so stuffed with food that they don’t need to eat.

Hex anglers usually fish No. 8 to 12 imitations, although the bodies of the flies are only about 11/2 inches long at a maximum. The usual routine is to locate undercut banks and bends that have good habitat for big trout, listen for the “gloop” sound of a feeder, and then stare into the darkness until eyes accustomed to the gloom can spot the rising fish.

Sometimes anglers come back to work the same monster night after night, and these two weeks probably see more trout over 20 inches taken from these waters than the rest of the season combined, largely because of the hex hatch but probably also because so many anglers are out fishing at night. The biggest confirmed fish taken on a dry fly during the hatch is a 10-pound 8-ounce brown landed near Grayling.

The forests of northern Michigan have largely grown back, albeit different forests than the horizon-wide stands of enormous white pines that once covered the landscape. The Au Sable, one of the most storied trout streams east of the Rockies, fell on hard times again in the 1980s and 1990s. With sewage, phosphates, and other pollutants removed, underwater plant growth declined dramatically, and many anglers say that a lack of plants to feed insects and hide fish is the reason that the population of trout over 8 inches has declined, although baby fish are still plentiful.

The state plans two long-term experiments to fix the problem. One involves increasing the amount of “large woody debris,” (such as fallen trees). The other involves grinding up oak and maple leaves and dumping them into the river in an effort to enrich and improve the chemistry of the river bottom. Some scientists believe that decades of mismanaged timbering operations resulted in the gradual impoverishment of the river’s ability to sustain large amounts of insect life.

That’s not to say that this fishery is poor. A declining Au Sable is still a better trout stream than many that are still in their prime. The spring Hendrickson hatch, which usually coincides with the opening of trout season, still produces excellent dry fly fishing for 12- to 18-inch brown trout. Many anglers prefer to fish the Manistee, which flows west to Lake Michigan, even though its headwaters lie within 10 miles of those of the Au Sable, which flows east to Lake Huron.

One of the most popular ways to fish both streams is from an Au Sable riverboat, which is somewhat of a cross between a canoe and a bateau. Between 18 and 23 feet long, and 3 to 4 feet wide, this boat was designed to separate two fly anglers, with the anglers at the front and the guide at the rear. Instead of a paddle, the guide usually steers the boat with an ash pushpole. The boat’s speed downriver is controlled by dragging chains and by increasing the amount of chain let out as the current gets stronger.

Another hatch that causes fish to go wild is the gray drake hatch on the Pere Marquette, usually in mid-June. This river gets regular stockings of brown trout (many anglers have fought against similar stockings on the Au Sable). When the gray drakes get going, it’s common for flycasters to take 10 or more 12- to 16-inch browns in an evening, and most anglers say that by the time the fish reach that size it’s impossible to tell stocked trout from those born in the stream.

Relicensing the hydroelectric dams resulted in agreements between the states, federal government, and utility companies that have provided better-regulated water flows. As a result, a marvelous brown trout fishery has developed in the Manistee below Tippy Dam, where anglers routinely catch stream-resident browns that run from 3 to 8 pounds. Most of these fish are taken on spawn or plugs, but fly anglers take a few on streamers.

The northern Lower Peninsula abounds with smaller streams that hold excellent populations of brook and brown trout, nearly all of them dependent on natural reproduction. Most of these streams have healthy populations of aquatic insects that start popping out with the little black stonefly hatches in April, just in time for the traditional last-Saturday trout opener, and continue through a sequence of caddisflies, stoneflies, and mayflies that almost always sees the season close before the hatches end. Indeed, on streams with extended seasons, Indian summer can bring excellent dry fly fishing on Blue-Winged Olives, tiny Tricorythodes, and white mayfly patterns well into October.

The area also has hundreds of lakefront resorts, ranging from mom-and-pop cabins to world-renowned lodges, which offer excellent fishing for walleye, smallmouth bass, and panfish. Among the best lakes in this region are Leelenau, Mullet, Burt, Cadillac, Mitchell, Walloon, Fletcher Floodwaters, Houghton, and Higgins.