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My family and I are going up to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula this summer for a summer fishing trip. We’re going to be staying on the Paint River. My dad, brothers, and I are planning to float the river a couple times; once for the smallmouth and again for the muskies. This year will be the first year fly fishing for smallmouths (I’m also going to fly fish for the muskies ). When we floated the river in past years for the smallmouth we casted orange jigheads with brown twister tails and overhead spinners. Any advice on what patterns to use for the smallmouth and muskies would be great.

A little background on the river.

The time when we go up there is usually last week in July or first week in August. The water level is usually normal to low, unless there was a large amount of rain recently. The depth of the river goes from a foot or less in the riffles and runs to pools that can be eight to fifteen feet deep. The bottom composition changes on the float path. It is mostly gravel with a couple stretches that are weedy and a there were a couple boulder fields to float through.

This info is based on the last time we floated which was two or three years ago.

Any tips or advice on what to do or what to use would be welcome.

[mfick]

I usually use rabbit strips for tails, and bead chain eyes (red) for slower water. The brown and yellow is a killer combo. Have fun!






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[smallieFanatic]

Clouser minnows, white-over-chourtrouse, orange-over-black are two combinations that have worked well for me.

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[spinner]

Thanks for the tips.

Anyone else got any ideas?

[big_fish]

fishing for muskies are ya dont forget top water I like divers and sliders red and white are always a good combo as for streamers well the Gen-x bunny leach is a good choice again in red with a white tail ad some flash to seems to add that little extra to get the strike I wish I had some pics for you maybe one of the other guys has some as for smallies hands down clousers are my all time best producing fly for me (and about a couple hundred thousand others)I am a fan of chart over white ,brown over orange(craw fish colors) and gray over white and again add flash but remember with clousers when tying them less is more not to much hair Bob Clouser him self has said the best ones he has ever used has been very sparce in hair and the flash a little longer than the hair everyone wants to tie them to bulky this is all my 2 cents but I have a fish or two under my belt good luck and be careful bring us some pics

[spinner]

Thabks for the info I am tryimg to get as many ideas possible for this trip.