The Fish Whisperer – Pere Marquette Fishing Reports

The Pere Marquette River in Michigan has seen a sad salmon run this year according to guide Tommy Lynch of Hawkins Outfitters. His theory – a decline in bait fish due to over stocking in Lake Michigan. Tommy has spent most of his days on the P.M. in the last 30 years and has seen it at its best and at its worst. Check out what he has to say about this year’s salmon run on the P.M. at his website The Fish Whisperer. A couple years ago I was fortunate enough to fish with Tommy on the P.M. for steelhead. When we launched the boat in the morning Tommy asked me “what’s the biggest inland trout you’ve ever caught?” I answered “well I’ve only been fishing for trout for a year or so, my biggest is about 14-15 inches.” He replied “we’ll get ya a twenty incher”. Like it was that easy. He dropped anchor and showed my brother and I where to drift our flies. My bro and I had not been fly fishing much at this point and were still working a lot on line control to get good drifts, but when we did get a good drift through the hole we hooked a nice brown trout…..every time! All of them were decent size, and a few of them were hittin’ the 20 inch mark. It was then that I knew this guy knows the river well. We never did land any chrome that trip, but I wont blame it on the guide. He put us on fish and we just couldn’t land them. In a couple weeks I plan to head back to the P.M. to fish with Tommy and get my revenge on some feisty fall steelhead.