So often when I visit a fabled water, my expectations are no where near reality. The place looks, feels, and fishes different than I expect, for better or worse. Peering down at the Pere Marquette for the first time, it was exactly how I had pictured it: low gradient and tannic-colored as it winds through tight overhanging pines and hardwoods. The substrate alternates between sand and gravel while undercuts and large woody debris provide shelter for sulky brown trout. In the spring and fall, the angler may see steelhead or salmon over the gravel. Having seen anadromous fish in rivers this small before, I know the awe, and even the adrenaline, they render in the angler.

Pat Kochanny, vice-chair of the Michigan Council, gave me a warm welcome and a tour of the PM, as the locals call it. We started in Baldwin, a nearby town with an interesting history. Baldwin was a major endpoint for the Underground Railroad. A couple decades after the Civil War, the actual railroad dumped some of the first brown trout in the nation into the Baldwin River, a tributary to the PM. One hundred and fifty years later, Baldwin is renowned for two things: salmonid angling and jazz. How can you go wrong in this town?

Many anglers visit the river for the steelhead runs. The rest of the season, the river offers exceptional brown trout fishing, particularly during the hexagenia hatch. In a few weeks, North America’s largest mayfly will emerge from the PM and other upper Midwest waters en masse. I’ve heard the hatch gets so thick that certain municipalities have to fire up the snow plows to clear the slippery bugs from the road.

The catch is that this hatch occurs at night. Anglers get on the water just before dusk. As the evening fades into total darkness, they fish large dry flies just feet from their rod tip, waiting for the explosive rise of a large brown. Trout throw caution to the wind at night, and anglers report 20”+ fish rising inches from their wading boots. The hexes provide one of the nation’s best opportunities to land a 20-30” trout on a dry fly. Even if you only catch smaller fish, every brown looks big and toothy at 2 am.

Across Michigan and Wisconsin, this hatch is the highlight of the year for anglers who aren’t afraid of the dark. I hope to see at least a couple hexes in Southwestern Wisconsin in a few days, so keep checking the blog for a firsthand account of this unique angling opportunity.

On the PM, Pat and I waited most of the evening for rising fish. We tossed a couple streamers, drank a few beers, and talked about TU efforts in Michigan to pass the time. I didn’t have my notebook handy for this discussion and remembering the plethora of TU projects Pat told me about has proved overwhelming. To sum it up, both the state council and the local chapters are highly involved with hands-on stream restoration, fundraising, and political lobbying.

Stream restoration efforts have focused on minimizing sedimentation and restoring in-stream cover. The soil in Northern Michigan is predominantly sand and the rivers are predisposed to sedimentation. Over the years, logging and residential development right along the river have created unstable banks and unnatural accumulations of silt and sand in spawning gravels.

Pat’s home TU chapter, the Pine River Area Chapter, has been particularly active restoring banks on their home rivers. The day after we fished the PM, Pat took me on a tour of the chapter’s work. The chapter has installed brush weirs to sweep out excess sediment from spawning gravels. Furthermore, they have worked with landowners to re-vegetate high cut banks that threaten residences as well as the river. Pine River TUers have also worked with the state on dam removal projects and lunker structure installation. The chapter certainly deserves kudos for their tremendous work and accomplishments. Be sure to check out my photos of these project sites.

Glacial activity in Michigan generally precluded the accumulation of large boulders, so logs, undercuts, and overhanging vegetation are particularly important in-stream structure. In addition to providing protection for trout of all life stages, large woody debris (LWD) is essential for nutrient entrapment and serves as a foundation for the entire food chain. For years, boaters and even anglers have removed LWD to ease accessibility. On rivers such as the PM, Michigan TUers have worked to restore LWD while still maintaining the navigability of the waterways.

The Au Sable is a particularly good example of LWD restoration. TU’s home river is full of great looking log formations that have been implemented by anglers throughout the years. The upper Au Sable offers the type of water that just begs to be probed with a big black streamer. I did just that with Bob Andrus, an Au Sable river guide and active local TUer.

Bob floated me for a couple miles in his Au Sable river boat, a unique canoe that is popular with local anglers and guides. In addition to a paddle, the river boat captain uses a pole to negotiate the channel and position the angler. The original riverboats were made of wooden planks that would swell, so the boats were kept in garages in the water. Some of these boat garages are still visible today, providing memorials to the river’s past.

A few browns obliged my woolly bugger, particularly during the sporadic spells of drizzle; however, I encountered more rapid-fire action later in the evening while fishing with another TUer and guide, Terry Warrington.

Terry took me to a section of the South Fork of the Au Sable near the famous Mason Tract, a large land preserve along the river. We plunked the LWD with streamers while waiting for the evening rise. I rolled one 13-15” brown in a tight pocket amongst some logs and landed a few smaller fish. An hour or so before dark, the fish began to rise with regularity, and we caught a few on brown drake imitations. Towards dusk, the trout suddenly began to refuse the imitations that were effective minutes before. We tried sulfur spinners and a plethora of other mayfly imitations without success. Finally, as darkness set in, I tied on a #10 Gray Wulff and fooled a couple trout, including one that was 12-14”. Before we left, I had to toss a streamer, of course. An unweighted muddler drew a couple strikes before I lost it to one of the pool’s many logs.

Standing in TU’s home river in the dark, I knew I had at least tasted what Michigan fishing is all about. I look forward to returning some day for the hex hatch and another memorable fishing experience.

Click here to see the photos.

Visit www.mctu.org to read more about Michigan Trout Unlimited.