PM Fly Fishing School
This past weekend (6/13-6/14/2015) I conducted a fly fishing school at the Pere Marquette Rod and Gun Club on the banks of the Pere Marquette River at Baldwin, Michigan. The 20 students had a great time. We managed to do our casting exercises between the rain storms; none-the-less, we received between 2 and 3 inches of rain in two days, and the PM zipped up at least a foot, if not more. We were a bit worried that the water might be a tad high for the students to be wading about and collecting insects, so they held forth on the bank and Jim Hagar and I seined insects, scuds, and steelhead fry for everyone to examine closely, before returning all the collected critters back to the river.
Sunday evening Jim and I floated the river with guide Tommy Lynch in search of some big browns. We had hoped to “mouse” them up, but the high, dirty water dashed all hopes of that. So, under Tommy’s instruction, we slung big articulated streamers. I managed to pull 6 very nice browns out to roll on the fly without a single hook up. Jim had fish chase his fly, too, and managed to hook one on a chartreuse and white articulated streamer of Tommy’s design. Tommy know ever inch of the river, and fishing with him was great fun. The mosquitoes stayed home and the weather was very pleasant. All in all a very fine evening of fishing in high water conditions.
Insect collecting is always a highlight with the class. It’s great fun to see what the river holds, talk about flies to match them, discuss angling tactics, and so on, right there on the river bank. Photo by Krista Conard
A very nice PM brown in the hand of Jim Hagar. Look at the big fly it ate.