Huron River report

[kroppe]

Fished the Huron last evening above Zeeb Road bridge near Dexter. Got an almost keeper sized bluegill and a feisty largemouth. Caught the bluegill on a crawler with a black 1/8 oz. jighead and the largemouth on the same jighead but with a 2 1/2" Powerbait grub in purple/green sparkles. Over the past week I have caught fish on anything I have thrown in the water:

- size 0 Mepps Aglia red/white w/white tail
- size 0 Mepps Aglia silver w/squirrel tail
- smallest size red Rooster Tail spinner
- size 5 original floating Rapala in shad
- black jig w/2.5" Powerbait grub in purple
- black jig w/nightcrawler

The water is a bit darker than tea colored. You can see the bottom in many places but not all. Water level seems down an inch maybe, even accounting for the weekend's storms. Current is fairly fast, but fishing sweepers and eddies is the ticket. Aluminum hatch on the weekends is prolific, but weekdays is almost on existent.

[Steve]

Kroppe, great report. The Mepps is a part of my arsenal that I had kind of forgot about until this past weekend when I drifted crawlers and caught nothing but chubs, but on the first pass with a Mepps, caught a trout.

[kroppe]

Fished the Huron above Mast Road on Friday night, in between and during the rain. The river was high, fast and muddy like chocolate milk. The water was totally opaque. Lost a Rapala in a maple tree and got no action on a Mepps. I called it quits as it was getting dark. I was feeling woozy from loss of blood due to mosquitoes.

[Steve]

I hear ya about the mosquitoes, I usually wear heavy long sleave shirt even on hot days and a head net (it sucks to breathe them). That way they can only get me on the hands.

[kroppe]

Fished the Huron again above Zeeb Road. Conditions were excellent. The water is down about 4-6 inches and is tea colored but clear. The river is extremely wadeable for significant stretches.

Used a #7 Rapala Shallow Runner in Shad and hauled out a keeper bluegill and an undersize largemouth. Also hooked something very feisty that jumped and did a tail dance, but lost him as I was about to pick it out of the water.

Weather was clear and 70 degrees, sun setting and the water was warm (I was wet wading).

[kroppe]

Fished the Huron in the Arboretum. I tried out my new fly fishing setup! I was really psyched as I have never fly fished before. I was using a 9 foot 5 weight rod with WF5F line and a 3X tippet. Also got some nice guide weight waders. I used small bass bugs and was casting to bluegill in the very shallow waters by the bank. I got two good bluegill this way. Then went to deeper waters and rustled up two small largemouth bass, again using the small bass poppers. Lots of fun. The water was high and very fast, and tea colored. If you lost your footing you would be 100 yards down the river in nothing flat. Virtually impossible to wade upstream against the current. Weather was clear and 75 degrees with a slight breeze.

Canoes, at times, were prolific.

I loved the obviously first time canoeing family who barreled down on me and would have dumped their canoe had I not been a nice guy and moved out of their way. Hey, there was only 75 feet of river, and my body was taking up 2 feet of it.

[Erik]

Dude you should try the sections from hudson mills to delhi. Its all catch and release for bass now, and from what some are telling me, theres some nice small mouths. I use to goof around there on my lunch breaks when I worked in dexter.


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Phish

[kroppe]

Phish,

I do have a secret spot in just this section. I plan on fishing it Friday a.m. when I play hookie. Funny thing though, that with all the smallmouth talk on the Huron, I have not caught a single one. Lots of largemouth and bluegill, with a pike or two, but no smallmouth. I am very keen to hook into one, though. I'll report on my results Friday.

Stream flow levels. In looking at the stream flow levels for the Huron through links on this board, the Huron looks as though it will take months for it to get back down to normal level from last weeks rain. The flow looks to be an almost straight horizontal line.
Does anyone know how long it takes this river to get back to normal flows after a rain?
Thanx,
Jack

[kroppe]

peddlerjac,

About levels, the short story is that the Portage Lake dam is owned and operated by homeowners (not the State of Michigan) and they can manipulate the water level to their liking for Portage Lake. The result is that there is a seesaw effect on the Huron downstream of Portage Lake. Last Friday the level was very high and you took your life in your hands when trying to wade in mid-stream. I fished it again this evening and levels were down a few inches, which was good. Color on Friday was dark tea in the shallows, and almost mud in mid-stream. Tonight it was clear in the shallows and tea colored in mid-stream. In contrast, when we had the "dry spell" two weeks ago the river appeared to be drying up. Three days without rain and people think there's a drought on.

Good news for my fly fishing setup. I am getting better at flycasting and landed two small bluegill, one on a Sneaky Pete bass bug, and the other on a genuine dry fly! I don't know what kind of insect my dry fly was. I'm a rookie at this. There was a great mayfly spinner fall happening and I could hear the flies getting sucked in by fish. I was using a 9 foot 5 weight rod with WF5F line. I couldn't find any holes with slower water where the bass usually are. Just slow water about 4 inches deep, which is bluegill heaven. The rest of the water was pretty fast.

Last comment, the Huron River Watershed Council http://www.hrwc.org is a great Huron resource and the people at the office are really helpful. They emailed me a cool Excel spreadsheet with the gradients (slope) of the river at all of their observation points.

Hey Kroppe,
Was that you fishing At Delhi Sunday evening? If it was I stopped and talked to you. We tossed a can you netted in the river for you. Small world if it was you.
P.S. You're casting looked fine from where I was standing!
Looking at the charts, the river dropped quite a bit yesterday.

[kroppe]

Yo peddler,

I was fishing just downstream of Delhi, above Wagner Road where there is a Huron River Drive Bridge and a Conrail Bridge right next to each other. A guy in a red shirt came up to talk to me about fishing on the side of the road as I was pulling on my waders and stringing my rod. I didn't net any cans, because I don't have a net and no one threw me any cans, but I wouldn't have minded depending on the can's contents! :)

There were three kayakers banging the rocks above me, and while I respect people's rights to enjoy the river, they probably scared away any decent fish in the area. At least I landed two 'gills so the night wasn't a total loss. When I decided to head back to the truck it was almost pitch black and I had to wade across midstream, which was a pretty harrowing experience, owing to the high levels and fast current. I had to hope I didn't fall into any holes and get swept downstream a few hundred yards.

[mtorzews]

Last night I tried fishing the Huron river for bass. I fished the dehli rapids area and also up the river at hudson mills park. I caught 2 smallmouth each about a 1lb on large spinners. The fish seemed to be in slower pockets near fast water. Didn't get a bite at Hudson mills, however the water here is very clear and I could watch several bass(all little guys under 12 inches) and suckers swimming around. I threw every lure I owned at these fish. The only thing they looked at were the spinners, but they only gave a half hearted chase for these. If the fish at Dehli were acting the same way then there must have been quite a few fish there. If it were fished during a feeding time it could produce well.

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Michael T

[kroppe]

Michael,

Where did you enter the river while fishing at Delhi? From the MetroPark or from a bridge crossing on Huron River Drive or some other road? I've fished a half dozen spots in that general area and haven't seen a single smallie. Only largemouth, pike and bluegill, also a catfish or two.

[mtorzews]

I was fishing the upper part of the park, but below the bridge. The main channel of water was moving along at a good speed. I was targeting the slower pools and eddys just out of the main stream flow. The lower part of the park looked good for largemouth and pike as the flow seemed slower there.

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Michael T

[kroppe]

The smallies are on the bite! Fished one of my holes tonight and picked up a little smallmouth. Third cast brought in a bigger one, but still small. Both fish released. Fish had beautiful color and appeared to be very healthy. Went downstream and landed an 8 incher, foul hooked in the gills, and released. A guy upstream of me picked up an 18 inch pike. He said the pike was very good looking with good color.

It was a great night - Michigan football won, the Tigers won and the smallies are biting!

[jnpcook]

My wife and I went on a canoe trip this afternoon with my parents, sister, and some friends from the Hudson Mills Metro Park to Delhi Metro Park (Skip's Canoe Rental). I threw in the fishing rod as I always do when I am near water. Started out canoeing mostly then I saw a good looking hole and cast into it. Caught a nice little small bass on the first cast. Tried a few more spots then my wife asked for the fishing rod. (I kindly handed it over since last canoe trip she did most of the paddling and I felt a little guilty for not helping her and fishing instead). I gave her a few instructions and before long she had a small bass that she landed. She kept the rod the rest of the trip and managed 12 fish including mostly bass, a sucker, a small pike and then her last fish she landed a real nice pike of around 24-26 inches. It gave a really good fight and gave her quite a surprise as she isn't used to catching larger fish. I had a great day watching her catch all those fish. All fish caught were on an 1/8 oz green and orange (with black polka dots) rooster tail. I have always had great success with rooster tails while fishing rivers. Mostly she just tossed the lure out to the side of the canoe and then let it drift back behind us at about the speed of the current without much reeling. The fish were caught mostly in the medium depth runs with moderate current although the large pike was caught in about 2 feet of water next to some lily pads about 3 feet off the bank in a rather slow moving current.

We may have seen you out there Kroppe. We passed one fly-fisherman on our trip today. We didn't talk to him but it looked like he was using streamers and was fishing near some downed logs.

It was a great day to be out on the river.

John

[Steve]

Sounds like more fun than a barrel of monkeys. :)

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http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/images/editors/me.jpg

[kroppe]

John,

It wasn't me you saw for two reasons: my fly rod is broken (operator error) and I wasn't out that day. Good news is UPS left me a note on my door saying they have my *repaired* fly rod!

I went out on the Huron today, beautiful day by the way, and landed three 7 inch or so smallies on a Rapala. One of them I caught in a classic structure pattern -- the dead water in FRONT of a boulder. This is usually a low percentage "shot" for me, I usually stick to the obvious stuff like deep holes or downed trees, etc. I wanted to try this technique as I have read about it alot, so I spotted a fully submerged, but large, boulder that was clearly affecting the current as the water passed above and around it. I cast the Rapala downstream of the boulder and I worked it up the side of the rock and then in front of it and BANG this little guy hit it hard and scared the crap out of me, since this was about 6 feet in front of me. It wasn't much of a fight because he was only 6-7 inches or so but the strike was frightening.

On another note, I seem to be foul-hooking a lot of fish lately. Also the fish seem to be striking short, catching only the rear treble of a Rapala. Is this typical for end of summer fish behavior, or is it something I am doing or are my hooks too dull? In the middle of the summer the fish would hook themselves real good in the mouth with both trebles (a pain to unhook) but now this is not the case.

Last comment, the river was gin clear (never seen this before) and low and very, very wadeable. As I was wading in midstream re-tying a lure I saw a school of suckers take up residence about 4 feet away from me in 3 feet of water. I was beating the banks and shallows for half and hour and the suckers never spooked. I dangled a bunch of lures in front of their noses and nary a bite.

That was different.

B.J. Kroppe

Fished a Metropark area today and the grins wouldn't stop. Fishing downstream, I used a very simple bug I tie (cream or tan chenille with a cream or tan marabou tail over a lead base)and teased quite a few smallies into biting. I saw a few white flies come off and switched to a #16 epheron dry and the fun really began. I mus6t have caught two dozen small smallies with 2 hours. On a dry! What's better than that?
The water was low and clear and I didn't see another fisherman or any canoe's. Life is good!

[Steve]

You guys are going to get me down there yet.

[kroppe]

OK, Steve, read this. Two words: Hawg Bronzeback.

What a day. Got in the river at 1pm, bright breezy day about 72 degrees. Water was just about perfect for wading, and sparkling clear. Waded into fairly new waters to me. Started by almost floating my hat in a deep cut below some rapids. Waded about 1/4 mile downstream of where I put in and started picking up 6-7 inch smallies on a Rapala. Waded further downstream, and hooked what seemed like a big fish, but lost him.

Then I heard a loud thrashing splashing behind me, near the bank near a downed tree. I saw what seemed a large fish snatching a minnow or frog or bug or something. So I cast the Rap over there and let the current drag the lure near the tree and worked the lure along it, in about 3 feet of water. Then I thought I felt a snag, set the hook instinctively and knew I had a big fish. I didn't know what I had -- the biggest fish I have caught in the Huron have been pike and a fat catfish, so I thought I would be unhooking a slimy catfish. I retreived fairly quickly because I had lost some fish earlier in the day and wanted to avoid this. But I couldn't pull him in fast enough because I didn't want to pull the hook out of his mouth or break the line, so I loosened the drag and he went for the tree cover. I didn't want to get tangled in the tree, but too late. He hung himself up nose down, tail above water in the tree, and I couldn't pull him loose. By this time I knew it was a good sized smallie. So, rod in one hand, I broke a branch off the tree, pushed his tail back in the water and we were off to the races again. I took a spill, whacked my leg on a boulder (still hurts), and worked him back into mid-stream, clear of any obstructions. I thought to myself, gee a landing net would be a good thing. Of course I don't own a $5.99 landing net so I walked/fought him to the other bank and landed him on the grass. What a fish! He measured 16 inches, and at least 3-4 pounds. From what I have read on other websites, this is in the trophy category. I released him so someone else can catch him another day. I also emptied my waders and blessed my wader belt.

Shortly thereafter I caught a 12 incher, not as massive as the other but still a great fish. On my way out of the river, I burned my lure through the cut I almost fell in and landed two 8 inch smallies hiding in the leading edge of the cut. In all I caught about 20 fish, all smallies, not a single other species.

I should start bringing a camera, but I would have smashed/dunked it in my spill today, before I had a chance to use it to document my catch.

Couple of thoughts:
- Believe what you read about river smallies. They like classic structure: edges of holes, trees, undercut banks, boulders, etc. They are agressive.
- Wader belts are required equipment
- Landing nets are required equipment. ;-)
- Fishing at mid-day is tough when sunny. I fished two very similar days (bright sun) and the fish didn't start hitting until the shadows got long around 3pm.
- The Huron is a great fishing river, and stretches of it are a great smallie fishery.

[kroppe]

Had another good smallie day on the river. I'm on vacation, can anyone tell?

Used the fly rod today - 9 foot 5 weight. I fished most of the afternoon with a helgrammite streamer, with no success. I saw lots of fish look at and nibble at it, but when I changed to a sneaky Pete floating popper, everything changed. Lots of agressive strikes and many landed fish. To me, the helgrammite looked awfully realistic and if I don't mind saying, I was working it pretty convincingly along the bottom.

Landed and released a good 10 inch smallie on the 'Pete. That was a thrill on the long rod. Picked up a landing net which has increased my confidence immensely.

Sorry to fill the board with reports, but I am really geeked on the fishing in the Huron. I didn't know until this year that the fishing was this good. Plus it's only minutes from home. :)

Tomorrow I'm off again, this time to new waters. On the Huron, of course.

[jnpcook]

Hey Kroppe:

Don't feel bad about filling up the reports as isn't that what this area is all about? I enjoy hearing the reports especially since I haven't been getting out as much this year as I would like. I am heading up north this weekend with my wife and friends to do a hike-in trip with a canoe to a nice lake that has rainbows in it. I will post a report in the appropriate area when we return.

John

[Steve]

Kroppe, I have used a zip lock bag to protect my camera but have bought something new called a aquapac bag which supposedly lets you take pictures right through the sealed bag. Supposedly waterproof to 3m. We shall se.

[kroppe]

Went out today with the long rod into some new water. It was slow water, as one spot backs up to a dam and the other one backs up to rapids. The habitat in both locations was more largemouth/pike/carp territory than smallie haven.

Started with a small caddis I picked up at MacGregor's in Ann Arbor, nailed two fat bluegill, then switched to a minnow streamer of some description. No luck on the streamer so I switched to the trusty Sneaky Pete and like magic started hauling bluegill in.

I hooked one fish and it felt heavy, and I saw a flash of body (big) and a tail splash (big) and knew it was a pike. Then the line went soft, but I still had a fish on. Landed a bluegill with a bloody wound on both sides of it's tail/body from where the pike was trying to gobble it just as it hit my Sneaky Pete. Pretty wild. If the pike hadn't struck the bluegill short I would have had my hands full with a 5 weight and a good sized pike. So I started throwing a streamer, looking for the pike but couldn't find him. Saw a GIANT carp and dangled the streamer in front of him. I sort of wanted to hook him and sort of didn't, if you know what I mean. He probably went 10 pounds and would have been hard to land.

Switched spots and fished more slow water with mucky bottom and lots of vegetation. Landed many bluegill and one largemouth (small). Again saw huge carp, I would say bigger than 10 pounds each, there were three of them.

I must say I like the faster waters with gravel/cobble bottom, which is prime smallie turf. I do like catching pike but the habitat isn't as dynamic or exciting in my opinion.

[kroppe]

Forgot to mention that I ended the day using a foam-bodied ant and it was driving the bluegill absolutely nuts!

[kroppe]

On Sunday fished a stretch which is turning out to be great for smallies, downstream of Zeeb Road. The river is mighty high and fast, dangerous to wade unless you've got to get your fish fix. :) Bushwhacked upstream and passed up a bunch of likely spots, and got in where it is shallower. Worked my way downstream with the long rod using a 1/0 size frog popper/streamer. Along the way I hooked, fought, landed a nice 8" smallie. The sun was on its way down and since the river was fast and I didn't know this area real well I got out. I'm really looking forward to lower water. I also read something about "fall turnover" when the waters get colder and fish come in to the shallows. I think this won't apply much to shallow river fish, but it might trigger a fall feeding binge.

[kroppe]

Fished the Huron on Sunday. River is still high and fast. The flow is almost 10 times the average for this time of year. Fast water made it hard to get streamers down in the holes, so I used the trusty Sneaky Pete on the long rod, fishing structure in the shallows.

I landed and released a nice 11" smallie, which was a pretty good fish. Also C&R'd a smaller smallie and a rock bass. The day was beautiful, with temps in the high 50's or so, sunny and slightly breezy.

I would like to hear some tips from anyone who has had luck fishing streamers or nymphs for bass in rivers. I just don't see how you can get them down far enough, fast enough, especially in high/fast water. I tried using a weighted streamer early in the day. To get the streamer down fast enough, I needed two small split shot, but this made casting frightening. On the back cast, when the rig hit the end of its travel, the rod took such a shock I was afraid I would break the rod. This was only with a fairly gentle back cast. I couldn't see how I could make a 70 foot cast with this rig without breaking my rod. The best I could manage was a lob cast, not much different than a gentle roll cast, about 20-30 feet in front of me.

Last, I tried using an unweighted zonker and it didn't seem very interesting to me (or the fish), because it wasn't heavy enough to get down, it was just kind of suspending just under the surface, and upon retrieve came up to nearly the surface. Any tips here would be appreciated.

[jnpcook]

Kroppe:

You could try either a sink tip line or a full sinking line to get your fly down faster. I personally have not used a full sinking line but do own a sink tip line that I use while steelhead fishing. It is better for casting (still nothing like casting a dry fly) but I have found that it won't sink as fast as using the split shot. I personally do not enjoy casting with split shot either. I believe the full sinking lines can be purchased with different decent rates depending on how fast you need to get the fly down. I will let the deep water experts answer better but this should give you something to get started with. I usually fish rather shallow streams so I usually use a floating line with a weighted streamer (usually olive wooly bugger) when I want to get to the bottom.

John

[kroppe]

Great fall day on the Huron. 70ish degrees, sunny and breezy. Water is getting lower, very wadeable in stretches. Fished near Nichols Arboretum, C&R'd two nice smallies in the same hole. Got to put on a bit of a casting demonstration to the throng of people enjoying the river from the bank in the Arb. That was fun and funny at the same time. Got a few "oohs" and "aahs", and I am a novice caster, putting it generously.

[kroppe]

Was out of town for a week, finally got back on the river. Water is really high and fast, but clear. Fished a couple spots with my son, he got a sunfish and I got a little smallie on the long rod. I'm teaching my son how to river fish, and it is fun/frustrating at the same time. He's 5 and loves to fish, but he's too small to get in the water yet, so he fishes from the bank which to him, isn't as exciting as what Dad is doing.

Also saw a school of huge suckers/carp moving up the river. Is this the right time of year for sucker runs? These fish had to be in the 8-10 pound range.

Temps were in the upper 40s, mostly cloudy and gusty winds which hindered casting at times.

[kroppe]

The winter bite is back on! Fished a honey hole and C&R'd a 17" walleye, of all things. Walleye are established in Portage Lake, and the Ford Lake/Belleville Lake area, but I have not known them in the Dexter-Ann Arbor stretch. Also picked up a beautiful bronze smallie, about 15". He was completely and uniformly bronze colored, not green as in the summer. The color of the bottom and river is bronze due to decomposing leaves, so he was perfectly camouflaged. Both fish came on white jig head with purple/sparkle grub. I switched to a black jig/black grub and hooked a monster smallie, but lost him (of course). Technique was to cast the jig across a deep hole and S-L-O-W-L-Y retrieve along the bottom.

Temperature was about 30 degrees, overcast, gusty winds and steady snow showers. A great day. Flow was up a bit, but I was wading in the shallows and casting across a hole, so not really fighting the current. Didn't see another soul on the river.

I'm headed out Wednesday a.m. at sunup again to dredge the same hole with grubs.

[kroppe]

Another banner day on the Huron.

Hit the river at sunup. Temp was about 20-25 degrees, slight breeze, snow squalls and whiteout conditions occasionally. Water is up a bit, but clear.

On the second cast into a deep hole, hooked and landed a 15" smallie. Beautiful bronze color. On the third cast, I set the hook into what I thought was a stump, but turned out to be a pig of a smallie. I brought him in fairly fast as I have bad luck with thrown hooks. Barely got him in my landing net due to his length. He measured out at 20", based on calibrated marks on my rod, and at least 5 pounds.

I was definitely thinking, "smallmouth for Thanksgiving dinner", but remembered that it is catch and release in this stretch, and I wouldn't see another Thanksgiving with my current family if we had fish for dinner. That fish would have fed a family of four with no problem.

Later landed and released a 13" smallie. All fish came on a black jig/black 3" grub. Once the heavy overcast broke up after 9 a.m., the fishing shut down.

Great fall/winter fishing on the Huron.

[Shoeman]

Hey Kroppe, I see you're still fishing the Huron. I need some additional practice with my new 8 weight. I would love to go get some steelhead, but my mom is recovering from hip surgery and I better stick around. What flies would you recommend for early winter smallies? Black leech, streamer?
I used to fish the Huron years ago. Since moving to the East-side, I havn't been there lately. My favorite stretch was below Barton. From your recent posts, are you fishing the frog-water near rapids or just the slower holes?
Shoeman

[kroppe]

Shoeman,

Not sure what you mean by frog water. I am fishing a deep hole. The Huron is very different than the PM or Muskegon in that the holes are few and far between; the Huron has a somewhat uniform or gradually changing depth. The PM and Manistee have tight bends and deep holes in the outside (generally) of the bends. On the PM almost every bend in the river offers a hole or depression.

I think a black leech or wooly bugger would be excellent and almost a sure thing. The trick is to get it on the bottom, and to do it at first or last light. I have fished the same hole on a number of days recently and the fishing shut off after 9am even when overcast. Any dark, bulky fly would work. Maybe like a muddler or even a bucktail streamer if tied in a dark color.

You would almost have to use a chuck and duck rig to get the fly on the bottom. I tried this once with my 8-weight on the Huron, with no success. Maybe I should try again. A floating line is a pain for chuck and duck, I'm thinking of spooling my fly reel with monofilament and using a chuck and duck rig. Either that or use a sinking line or a long sink tip. The smallies are at the heads of the pools, so the lure has to get to the bottom immediately.

Anyway, it's fun hooking pig smallies in the snow! They feel like a ton of bricks because they don't move much in the cold water, they just sit there in the deep water using their weight against you. You can do it if you get out there. Think dark colors, on the bottom, worked very slowly.

[Neapolis]

Kroppe - I enjoy reading your Huron river reports. Why don't you start a new thread with your next update so it doesn' take so long to load? Just a thought. :)


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Neapolis
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