Chris Izworski, reporting from Michigan on the current state of the Boardman this Thursday morning in mid-May.

The Boardman at the Mayfield gauge is running 142 cubic feet per second this morning, which is right at the historical median for the second week of May. After three weeks of elevated flow that pushed the river into the upper end of its workable range, the Boardman has settled back into the rhythm a Traverse City area angler recognizes as a normal mid-May fishery. Water temperatures are sitting at 49 degrees in the cool upper reaches and climbing into the low fifties downstream by mid-afternoon.

The Boardman does not get the attention the AuSable or the Pere Marquette get, and the local anglers who fish it day in and day out are not unhappy about that. It is a smaller river, a quieter river, and in many ways a more honest river. The browns are wild. The brook trout in the upper reaches are wild. The fishing is what you make of it, on water that asks for a careful approach rather than a long cast.

The Window This Weekend

Today and tomorrow look like the cleaner days of the week. A weak frontal system passes through northwest Lower Michigan tonight, but the rain totals are light and the river will absorb it without changing the fishing meaningfully. Saturday brings a stronger system and rising water through Sunday. Plan your week around today and tomorrow if you can.

The longer-range forecast suggests next week will bring warmer temperatures and the kind of stable stretch the Boardman has not seen since opening day. If this weekend does not work, next week looks like the better target.

What Is Emerging

The Hendrickson hatch on the Boardman is essentially finished in the lower river and tapering in the upper reaches. A few cooler tributary mouths still hold Hendrickson activity in the afternoon, and a size 12 dry will take fish there, but the river as a whole has moved past it.

The sulphurs have arrived. The Boardman sulphur emergence runs slightly later than the AuSable, generally peaking between seven and nine in the evening. A size 14 Sulphur Comparadun or a Parachute Sulphur is the right starting fly. The Boardman has educated fish, particularly in the well-known runs near the river’s middle reaches, so a long fine tippet matters. Drop to 6X fluorocarbon when fish are committed and selective.

Caddis are the workhorse of the day. Grannom caddis in the morning, tan caddis through the afternoon. An Elk Hair Caddis in size 14 skated through the riffle heads will move fish. The Boardman responds well to a swung soft hackle wet fly, which is a method many AuSable and Pere Marquette anglers do not use enough and which the Boardman fish have never been trained against.

Where to Go

The middle reaches between Brown Bridge Dam site and Sabin Pond fish well in current conditions. The river there is varied: pocket water in the upper sections, flat runs and gravel-bottomed riffles in the middle, and the long slow water above Sabin. Each section asks for a different approach. Wild browns from eight to fourteen inches are typical. The occasional larger fish holds in the deeper bend pools, and they are catchable on an honest evening drift.

The upper Boardman above Forks fishes well for the angler willing to walk in and work small water. Brook trout are present in the headwater tributaries, and the river there has the kind of small-stream character that rewards careful presentation over distance casting.

The Practical Read

The Boardman in mid-May is the kind of fishing that quietly becomes a person’s favorite over a season. It does not put on a show the way the AuSable does. It does not push the kind of large fish the Manistee tailwater does. What it does is fish honestly, day after day, for an angler who is willing to read the water carefully and work small flies on long tippets. This week looks like a good week to be on it.

For live Michigan stream conditions and a full picture of the state’s trout network, see the Michigan Trout Report. Daily reports continue tomorrow.