Great Lakes
Fly fishing in Michigan
Short answer
Michigan fly fishing is spring-fed sand and gravel river fishing, with wild brook, brown and rainbow trout, plus Great Lakes steelhead running the same rivers. The Au Sable, Manistee, Pere Marquette and Muskegon are the headline waters. One all-species license covers everything, inland trout season opens the last Saturday in April, and the Hex hatch in late June is fished after dark.
What makes Michigan different
Michigan's trout rivers run on groundwater through sand and gravel, so flows and temperatures stay steady and there is no snowmelt blowout to plan around — the season runs on a calendar rather than on the weather. Two things follow from that. The first is the Hex hatch: Hexagenia limbata is a very large burrowing mayfly that emerges after dark in late June and early July on the Au Sable and Manistee, and the whole fishery reorganises around casting blind, in the dark, at the sound of a rising fish. The second is that these rivers are open to the Great Lakes, so the same water that holds resident wild brown trout in June holds steelhead out of Lake Michigan or Lake Huron in November. Michigan also has a good claim on American fly fishing's most-used dry fly: the Adams was tied in Mayfield, Michigan in 1922 by Len Halladay for a visiting angler, Charles Adams, who fished it on the Boardman.
What trout and other fish are in Michigan?
- Brook trout
- The state fish and the only native trout. Wild populations are strongest in the Upper Peninsula.
- Brown trout
- Wild and often large. Brown trout were first planted in United States waters in a Pere Marquette tributary in 1884.
- Rainbow trout
- Resident stream fish, and the same species as the lake-run steelhead.
- Steelhead
- Autumn and spring runs out of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.
- Chinook and coho salmon
- Autumn runs. Big fish, and not always interested in a fly.
Where to fly fish in Michigan
- Au Sable River
- The Holy Water, from Burton's Landing to Wakeley Bridge, is flies only and catch and release.
- Manistee River
- A heavy Hex hatch and a serious night fishery; the lower river gets steelhead.
- Pere Marquette River
- A flies-only catch-and-release section upstream, and the best-known steelhead water in the state below it.
- Muskegon River
- Tailwater below Croton Dam. Steelhead in season and good dry-fly water in summer.
- Boardman River
- Near Traverse City, and where the Adams was first fished.
- Upper Peninsula streams
- Small, cedar-lined wild brook trout water — the Fox and the Escanaba among them.
When to fly fish in Michigan
| When | What is happening |
|---|---|
| April | Inland trout season opens the last Saturday in April — 25 April in 2026. Black stoneflies and the first Hendricksons. |
| May | Hendricksons, then sulphurs and caddis. The best daytime dry-fly fishing of the year. |
| Late June – mid-July | The Hex hatch, after dark. Big flies, big fish, and a lot of standing still in the dark. |
| July – August | Tricos and terrestrials in the morning, and mousing after dark for brown trout. |
| September – November | Salmon first, then steelhead on the Pere Marquette, Muskegon and Manistee. |
| December – March | Year-round gear-restricted sections stay open, and the bigger rivers hold winter steelhead. |
Do you need a license to fly fish in Michigan?
Yes. Licenses are issued by Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
| License | Price |
|---|---|
| Resident, annual | $26 |
| Non-resident, annual | $76 |
Figures are the DNR's 2026 rates for an annual all-species fishing license, each including a $1 surcharge. The 2026 license is valid through 31 March 2027. Prices change — check with the agency before you buy.
Rules worth knowing before you go
- One all-species fishing license covers trout and salmon — there is no separate trout stamp. Everyone 17 and older needs one.
- The statewide inland trout season opens the last Saturday in April, with a long list of year-round and gear-restricted exceptions.
- The Au Sable Holy Water and the Pere Marquette flies-only water are artificial flies only and catch and release.
- Trout rules are set stretch by stretch under a stream type system. The DNR's inland trout and salmon regulations map is the quickest way to check a specific piece of water before you fish it.
Regulations change every year and vary water by water. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources rule book is the only authority — this page is a starting point, not a legal reference.
Flies that matter in Michigan
Each of these is a card in the deck, and each has a full page in Our Fly-brary.
Keep reading
- Do I need a fishing license? — how licensing works across states
- How to read water — where trout hold, anywhere
- Best time of day to fly fish — the seasonal logic behind the table above
- Our Fly-brary — every fly in the deck, explained
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The deck
54 flies, drawn by hand, in your jacket pocket.
A 54-card fly-fishing deck of original hand-drawn flies, each explaining what it imitates. Made by a father-and-daughter team in Eagle, Idaho.
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