Betts Guide Service

Betts Guide Service works both the Au Sable and the Pere Marquette in Michigan. On the Au Sable, which runs more than a hundred miles to Lake Huron, the eight miles between Burton’s Landing and Wakeley Bridge known as the Holy Water are fished along with the reach below Mio down to Cummings Flats. Boats are custom eighteen-foot Headwater jet boats and Hyde drift boats, the latter fitted with heaters for cold months. Days are sold as full days at $500 for two anglers, half days at $395 to $400, and five-hour evening hatch trips at $250 to $350 running afternoon into dark, with a third angler adding $150. Spring from March into May puts steelhead alongside brown and rainbow trout; June through August brings smallmouth, trout and Skamania steelhead; August through November is king and coho salmon plus fall steelhead; winter returns to steelhead. The famed Hex hatch and heavy caddis emergences drive the dry fly work, with streamers on sink tips, freestyle nymphing and fry patterns filling the rest. Gear, tackle, flies and bait are included, and fish cleaning is done at no charge.

On the Muskegon the guided water runs from Thornapple to Pine Street and up above Newaygo toward Croton Dam, a river that never freezes and so fishes the year round. Steelhead peak in late February, March and April; May and June bring trophy brown trout on the sucker spawn with gray drake, isonychia bicolor and cinnamon sedge caddis coming off; and June through August is the best of the smallmouth. On the Big Manistee the same boats work the salmon and steelhead runs.

Betts fishes the Grand at Grand Rapids, a river it calls the biggest annual steelhead migration of any water in the Great Lakes region. Fishing is done from boats, by wading the rapids and shallows, or from shore, depending on flow and how far up the fish have pushed. Salmon and steelhead come through in the fall, steelhead hold through the winter and into spring, and summer turns the river over to trout and warmwater fish.