Betsie & Platte River fly fishing report - Oct 2nd

Finally some good rains on the Betsie River this week!  River was on the rise on Monday and a good number of new fish were on the move.  River is in great shape right now.  The cool weather and has been ideal for salmon fishing and it remains very good on the Betsie and Platte River.  The numbers are not as high and as the insane pushes of fresh Chinooks that the Betsie River saw a few weeks ago but fishing is still very good.  Highest numbers of fish are in the upper river now and many are on the gravel starting to spawn.  New fish are still coming into the river everyday now.  A few steelhead are starting to show up and that should be going strong in a few weeks.  Of late in the current conditions egg sucking leeches in purple & black, muddlers, large hex nymphs, nuke eggs and lots of different woolly buggers have really been producing.   For those looking to streamer fish a great place this time of year is the shoreline/river mouths in Platte Bay.  There are still a lot of bright silver Chinooks and Coho in the bay and these fish will just crush a streamer.  Top patterns are our Great Lakes Deceivers, Magnum Murdich Minnows, Fire Tiger and Polar Pig.

Recent rains have been good for the Platte River and has made for some good fishing!  Bright silver Coho continued to be passed thru the lower weir a few times a week and are heading up to the upper river in Honor.  Loon Lake has had some great fish in it the past week and another great place to streamer fishing for those looking for fresh run Coho.  

We do have dates open in October for float trips on the Betsie and Platte River.   If interested just email me at kelly@michiganstreamside.com  

For information and photos of upcoming fishing - updated Sept 17th (click here)

September 30th - Bruce and Marv with very nice Chinook and Coho salmon on the Platte River.  Had some excellent fishing today in the high winds and rain.  Fresh fish continue to come from Lake Michigan!

September 26th - Chris with just a giant Chinook on the Betsie River.  Had good fishing today and this one topped it off!  Heavy rains today and more new fish were really on the move today.

September 22nd - Bob fighting a nice salmon on the Betsie River.

September 18 & 19 - Both Ed's landed some nice salmon the last two days.  Finally some rain today!

September 18th - Jeff and Dave had excellent fishing on the Betsie River while floating with guide Erik Peterson.

September 17th - Cara and Joe with some nice Chinooks on the Betsie today while floating with Erik.  Excellent fishing with a bunch of nice fish in the net!

September 17th - Bob & Greg with some beautiful Coho Salmon on the Platte River!  The past week big numbers have been passed thru the lower weir and are on the way up to Honor.  Excellent fishing today!

September 15-17th - Had a great time with Steve, Greg, Dave and Bob the last three days.  We floated a few different sections on the Betsie and Platte Rivers along with guide Ted Kraimer and got some very nice Chinooks and Coho in both rivers.

September 14th - Erik and I got to fish this evening for a couple hours and sure found some bright silver Coho and Chinooks!

September 12th - Paul and Dan with a couple of huge Chinooks on the Betsie River.  Lots of fish in the river today!

Michigan Out Of Doors TV came and shot some great video of our salmon fishing on the Betsie River.  It was on there weekly TV show last week and can be watched online at: http://www.michiganoutofdoorstv.com/shows.cfm?VideoID=149

September 9th & 10th - Bruce and John with some great looking Kings from the Betsie River.  Just excellent fishing the last few days!  Leeches in black and purple were the hot fly the last couple days.

September 8th - Ross with just cool looking Coho above and Jim below with a nice fresh run Chinook on the Betsie.

September 7th - Rod, Gary, Jim and Dave had some excellent salmon fishing on the Betsie River today!

September 6th - Chad and Cyn with some excellent fishing on the Betsie!

September 4th - Blake and son with a nice Chinook on the Betsie River.  Lots of salmon on the move today.

September 2nd - Tom and John with some silver Chinooks just in from Lake Michigan.  Excellent fishing today!

August 30th & 31st - Chris, Mike, Dan, Mike and Bob with lots of Salmon on the Betsie River the last two days!

August 29th - Greg with just a beautiful fresh run Chinook on the Betsie River.  Excellent fishing today!

August 28th - Tom and Kris with some big Kings today!  Excellent fishing!

August 27th - Brian and Dave with some very nice salmon today while floating with Erik.  Excellent salmon fishing today!!

August 27th - Kris and Tom with just a huge day on the river!  Excellent fishing today.

August 26th - Wayne and Mark with some great salmon today!  Excellent fishing with lots of fresh fish in the river.

August 25th - Bill with just a cool looking fresh run Chinook Salmon above!  Some excellent fishing today with huge numbers of salmon on the move upstream.  Had great two boat float trip today and Bill, Tim, Chris and Kyle all put some nice salmon in the net!

August 24th - Adam and Albert floated with Erik today and excellent fishing!  Big numbers of fresh run Chinooks on the move up from Lake Michigan.

August 24th - Dennis with just a great fresh run Chinook!  Lots of fish on the move today and some pretty good fishing for these early run salmon.

August 23rd - Meredith and Kevin with a couple of real nice salmon on today's float!  Lots of fresh run fish on the move today.

August 18th - Some good salmon fishing today!  Took Jordan Browne from Michigan Out-of-Doors today and he shot some video for one of there upcoming TV shows in mid September.  It was the prefect day for this with lots of action and some beautiful river Kings!  Muddlers and Leeches were our top patterns today.

August 18th - The best to way to check out a new rod is to fish it!  Had new Sage ONE 9' 9wt out today and it was just a great rod.  Extremely light weight with lots of power.  Casted a heavy streamer extremely well and fished a floating line just as well.  Had plenty of power to land some big river Kings and such good feel!  Will be in my boat all of salmon season for anyone that wants to cast one.   We do have a number of the models of this series in stock now!

August 17th - River guide Erik Peterson with a great looking early Chinook Salmon on the Betsie River.  Erik will be doing trips for us on the Betsie River this August and September.   We do have some dates open for those interested in float trips!

August 14th - Dave with a very nice fresh run Chinook Salmon!

August 14th - Alex with a very cool looking Chinook while floating with Erik on the Betsie!

August 11th - Mario with a nice fresh run Chinook Salmon!  Covered lots of water today and many holes were empty but did find a few very nice pods of bright fish.  Pretty typically for this time of year: many holes empty and then we find them and very hard to land!  Had a good day with Mario putting 4 in the net.

August 11th - Just loved my new Hyde Skiff on the Betsie River!  Being slightly narrower, lighter, lower sides and shallower draft all just seem ideal for these smaller rivers.

Aug 1st - It is not streamer time yet in the rivers but coming very soon.  Typically by mid August there are some bright silver Kings in the river.  Here are some of our top August salmon streamers.  Our Great Lakes Deceiver & Murdich Minnows are two of our top streamers for trophy trout and salmon.  These colors are very effective on early run Kings - Chart/White Glow, Green/White and Fire Tiger.  This time of year is just a great time for river and shoreline streamer action!  I have put a lot of time the last few years into targeting fresh King Salmon and the streamer we sell are the proven patterns that are in my boat.  These and some of our other top salmon streamers are now in stock and can be purchased online at Great Lakes Deceivers.  

August - This is the month for those looking for fresh run bright silver Chinooks!!

Photo From Salmon Season 2010 On The Betsie & Platte Rivers

October 1st - A nice Coho on the Platte River.  These fish typically continue to run much later in the fall than Chinook and can produce some good fishing in October.  Coho are great river fish as they are more aggressive than the Chinooks and will smash small streamers.

September 29th - Steve with a big Chinook Salmon on the Betsie River!  Had a real nice float today - very low angling pressure and some good salmon.

September 27-28 - Greg and Ralph with some nice fresh run Chinooks on the Platte River.  We floated a couple different sections on this river and found a few big pods the last couple days.

Sand Hill Cranes are kind of a strange bird and been seeing a lot of them this year!

September 26th - Dave with a nice Chinook on the Betsie River.  It was a little tough fishing today with numbers being fairly low.

September 25th - Dennis a cool looking Chinook on the Betsie River.  Found a couple real good spots today!

September 24th - Bob and Jim with some Betsie River Chinooks.  High dirty water today after heavy rains.  It was tough finding fish all day but finally came across a spot that was really full of them.

September 22nd - Chris with some nice Betsie River Chinooks! Sure had nice float today with beautiful weather and hardly any fishing pressure.

September 20th - Pat and Tom with some Betsie River Chinooks.  Found a couple good holes today!

September 17-19th -  Chinooks on the Betsie River!

September 16th - Sean with a beautiful bright silver Coho Salmon on the Platte River.  Lots of rain this morning should bring some good numbers of fresh fish in from Lake Michigan

September 13-16 - Jeff and Sean with a bunch of great looking Chinook Salmon from the Betsie River the last four days.

September 11th - Doak and Dennis with some nice silver Chinook Salmon on the Betsie.  Got a little wet today but there were good numbers of fresh fish on the move.

September 10th - Mike and Chuck with a huge day on the Betsie River.  22 in net and our best day so far this fall.

September 9th - Tom and Ben with some bright silver fish from the lower Betsie River.  Had the river to ourselves today and found some very nice fish.

September 8th - Brad and Lindsey put a few nice Chinook Salmon in the net today.  Looking forward to floating with them again on Friday.  It sure felt like fall out today with lots of wind and cool weather.  Should be ideal for bringing more fresh fish into river.

September 8th - More of guys from Alabama coming down the river with guide Ted Kraimer.

September 7th - Tim and Bob with some very nice silver Chinook Salmon on the Betsie River.  Found some good numbers and had some good fishing today!

September 5th - Tom and Jim found some nice fresh salmon on the Betsie today!

September 3rd - Finally some cool weather and new fresh run salmon are on the move from Lake Michigan. 

September 1st - Betsie Harbor is just full of fish.  Water temps are very warm but just a great place to streamer fish.

August 27th - Had a nice float trip with the Denny family today on the Betsie River.  Hot weather sure did not help the fishing today and pretty much has stopped to push of new salmon coming into the river.  We did find one deep hole that was full of fish but just could not get one of those silver Chinooks into the net.

A great new Salmon streamer the Spin Psyco that was design by Eli Berant.  The casting squid (in the middle) has always been one of top lures for fresh run Kings and this streamer was designed after it.  It does have weight to it but casts very nice on a 9wt with either a Rio 24' DC Sink Tip (250gr is typically ideal on Betsie) or for longer casts in the lower lakes a Rio OutBound.  We do have all of these in stock and they will be added to our online sales section (hopefully tonight).

August 24-25th - Mike with a couple of real nice early run salmon on the Betsie River.  The last two days we floated a number of different sections and did find some nice Chinook Salmon.  Hooked about 25 fish in the 2 days.  It took covering lots of water to find a few nice pods and many sections of river are empty.  These early fish do really fight and putting them in the net is sure not the easiest right now.

Sage came out with the new TCX switch rod and like all new rods we had to go give it a try!  The 11' 9" 8wt is my new favorite switch rod.  Rod is so light in hand and balanced just perfect with Sage 6010 reel on it.  Was just the ideal rod with a floating line for fishing nymphs and eggs down deep with an indictor rig.  For swinging flies this rod is just perfect with a Rio Skagit lines & the Rio new MOW tips.   We do have 7wt and 8wt in this series in stock.

August 23rd - Susan and Merritt both put some just beautiful silver Chinook Salmon into the net!  That rain a couple days ago was just perfect timing and brought some pods of salmon up the river.  Did not even see an angler and sure enjoyed the day with these two!

August 20th - Some fresh run Chinook Salmon on the Betsie River!  August has been very warm and low numbers of fish in the river.  Of late a few are finally start to come but numbers were still very low today!

Salmon Photo From 2009 - click here

Salmon Photo Gallery Past Years - click here

 Lake Huron & Lake Michigan brown trout, salmon and smallmouth photos from the 2005 & 2006 season  (click here)

Steelhead photos from the 2005 season  (click here)

Trout photos from the 2005 & 2006 season  (click here)

 Trout photos from the 2004 season  (click here)

Lake Huron brown trout photos from the 2003 & 2004 season  (click here)

Michigan fly fishing opportunities this season include:

• Streamer fishing - always good, especially Spring and Fall
• Hendrickson (late-April/early-May)
• Brown Drake (late-May/mid-June)
• Isonychia (mid-June)
• Hexagenia Limbata (mid-June/early-July)
• White Fly/Ephron (late-August)
• Terrestrials - hoppers and ants (mid-July thru mid-September)
• Salmon (August thru mid-Oct)
• Steelhead (Oct thru mid-May)