Wife and I are planning to vacation in Michigan this summer (mid June). We’re going up for a nephew’s graduation party, but want to spend a week by ourselves. My question is where?
Would like a cabin on a lake or river. The UP might be nice. I want a place where I can fish during the day. Kathy just wants nice scenery and to relax.
Steve, Contact Rusty Gates at the Gates Au Sable Lodge (see our Sponsor page) and make your reservations. Gates is also home of the Michigan Fish-In - you can show your wife the place by going to the previous Michigan Fish-In pages:
Steve;
I’m with JC and LF on Gates Lodge. Beautiful river, good fishing, great food and wonderful people. Very, very laid back place to enjoy the wonders of Michigan.
While it would ber hard to quibble with Gates Lodge from a fly fishing pespective if you want more variety of scenery you might want to check out something on the Boardman river with Traverse city and Lake Micfhigan beaches nearby. If you want to go the U. P. the Seney Motel is just a stones throw from the Fox river though it’s more wadeable a few miles upstream. Restaurants in Seney are limited and they close early. Dad and I have settled for a beer and a bag of chips at the tavern after fishing too late more than once.
Mid June is usually prime time for the big Hex mayfly hatch. The flight bugs (spinners) are usually on the water by 10:30pm and the hatchers emerge anywhere from1.5 to 2 hrs later.
sometimes they over lap some.When conditions are just right the bugs will hatch most of the night. Very exciting dry fly fishing with size 6 to 8 flies if you catch it right
Trophy small mouth in the Sylvania Track ( not sure of spelling)in the Western Upper Penninsula of Michigan. It is a millionare’s fishing club bought by the state of Michigan 30 + years ago. It is a huge area the intereior lakes do not allow motors and the water is spectacular. Trophy smallmouth lakes are catch and release. Location wise it south of the Kewanaw Pennisula just north of the wisconsin border
I had an appointment earlier, I looked it up and it is now referred to as the Silvania Wilderness Area, the closest town is Watersmeet. The biggest smallmouth I have ever seen was caught by my dad on his first cast in one of the trophy lakes. It is all catch and release barbless fishing.
My wife and I canoe camped there on the second half of our honeymoon in the fall many moons ago the scenery is spectacular. I rigged her up with a weighted white marabou streamer on a light spinning rod( she does not fly fish). The water is so clear she could always see her streamer and when a fish rushed it she would give a little scream and jerk the streamer away from the fish. We saw bald eagles and loons almost daily.
I now live in Oklahoma but from what I have read the area has been preserved and is now a national wilderness area. In my opinion it is even more beautiful than the Quetico BWCA, Boundary Waters, Canoe area in Minnisota ,because it has a more divesified hardwood & pine forest. Did I say the water was beautiful. I remember portaging into a lake and gliding over a birch log in 20 feet of water and being able to see every detail of the bark. It makes my heart ache to think of it.