Our drift boat had not been on the Pere Marquette River for more than a minute when guide Jon Kolehouse rowed past two wading anglers whose fly rods were fully bent, each hooked to a large fish. A few moments later we rounded a river bend where another drift boat was wedged against the bank; a man was sitting in the boat with a videocamera, recording two companions in the water as they landed a chinook salmon, the fish so big it formed a sagging semicircle in the net.

Everywhere we looked there were dark torpedo shapes in the clear shallow water, some darting off as the boat passed by, others laying log-like in shallow pools and runs.

It was not yet 8 AM, and we'd just launched at the Green Cottage access in the flies-only section of this famed Michigan river, some 60 miles upstream from where it enters the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. The launch itself had been unlike any I'd previously seen. One-boat-wide and 40-degree steep, it featured about twenty fiberglass-coated steps. Kolehouse backed his trailer to the top of the steps, then rolled the boat off the back and pushed it down the steps into the water.

"I go through a boat every 2 1/2 years," he said. "This tears up the bottom bad. Nothing I can do about it, though. It's worse where we're going to take out. Not as steep, but you have to drag the boat about a hundred feet overland by rope."

Kolehouse does this every day at this time of the year, because huge numbers of chinook salmon are present, having migrated from the big lake to spawn, after which they die. Soon the salmon run will be over, but then steelhead start running up with each freshet of rain, and they're around all winter.

This 7-mile-long section of the Pere Marquette is restricted to fishing with flies only, and while the majority of anglers here cast with fly rods, some use spinning tackle, employing flies beneath casting floats and weights. Since April, this section has also been restricted to catch-and-release, meaning that no fish may be kept.

As a result, on this Thursday of the first week of October, a rough eyeball count on the first mile of river suggests that anglers are outnumbered ten or more to one by salmon, an evaluation that is not so hard to make because the fish are everywhere and easily spotted, primarily shallow over gravel bottoms.

Lowell Jobe of Minneapolis and I, both fishing with Kolehouse, are testing brand-new fly rods made by Quarrow, a relatively unknown fishing rod manufacturer, and it doesn't take long to find out if they're up to the task. My 8-weight rod is bent to the max after just the fourth cast, as an 18-pound salmon takes a weighted nymph, blows up on the surface, and then heads downtown. In an hour we each land a pair of fish, briefly hook and lose several, and have numerous close encounters.

The chinook salmon are so plentiful that, while scrambling to the beached drift boat to get my camera and photograph Jobe, my legs tail-bump a 30-incher. At one point, Jobe has a really big chinook on, probably 25 or more pounds, and he has to chase it downriver, his powerfully bent 9-foot 9-weight rod notwithstanding. About 100 yards from where the fish was first hooked, it scoots under the deep far bank and breaks off in a root wad.

This is how it goes for the entire day. Fishing is almost all by sight, spotting and stalking salmon in the water with the aid of polarized sunglasses. Many more salmon are hooked momentarily and lost than are landed, and some are inadvertently foul-hooked, in part because spawning-run salmon sometimes cluster and as a drifting fly runs into a fish, the angler mistakes this for a strike and sets the hook. When this happens, you try to coax the fly out or break it off.

There is 100 percent natural reproduction in the Pere Marquette, meaning that these fish, unlike in many other Great Lakes tributaries, are not the result of repeated stocking. So releasing these fish will be beneficial. Elsewhere, stocking by state fisheries agencies is what keeps salmon and steelhead numbers high. But the Pere Marquette is loaded with shallow gravel, which makes perfect spawning grounds; using polarized sunglasses, it is possible to occasionally spot a hen salmon turn on its side and thrash its tail as she scoops out a redd and deposits eggs.

This is actually the tail end of the great salmon run, and slightly past the peak fishing time. The month of September is generally prime, since the fish, having run about 60 miles upriver from Lake Michigan, are lighter colored and stronger. By the end of October, if not sooner, all of the Pere Marquette's salmon will be dead - these fish all die after spawning, and then the steelhead migrate in.

Steelhead are in the river all winter. November is a prime steelhead fishing month, not only because the fish are powerful and colorful, but because the weather is still tolerable; later, ice, snow, and extreme cold make this a game for the hardiest anglers.

Jon Kolehouse, who has been guiding for many years, is fully booked from September into mid-November, and spends 130 days guiding and another 100 fishing for himself, something a 28-year-old bachelor with a yen for fishing can easily do. An excellent guide, he gets right out there with clients, coaching and helping. Early on, for example, he advises Lowell Jobe to manipulate his rod in different directions to really put the pressure on a big fish and land it quicker than he would have otherwise. And, noticing that at first I'm casting my nymph at an entire pod of fish, he correctly suggests that I would do better to sight-fish for individuals at the head or side of the pod.

The Quarrow rods proved to be more than up to the task. I fished with both a 9-foot 8-weight version and 9-foot 9-weight in the ML3 series. Both are moderately priced (approx. $299) two-piece premium graphite rods that will be available through dealers this winter, and which help me literally manhandle many of the fish. This contrasted with the horror stories I had earlier heard back at the Pere Marquette River Lodge about all of the broken rods (from a different manufacturer) they'd received for warranty replacement.

There's plenty of river to fish with whatever weapons you choose. Although anglers use fly rods for fishing outside of the flies-only area, spinning and baitcasting rods and other terminal tackle can be used. This type of fly fishing is not very difficult. Basically you need to be able to make a good roll cast with a long and fairly strong fly rod, since you fish with a weighted fly and a light piece of lead. Varying amounts of lead are necessary to get the fly down and drift it along the river bottom, and a lightweight float or fly indicator is pegged some 4 to 6 feet above the fly to help you detect strikes.

In the Pere Marquette you fish by wading, even if you use a drift boat to access pools and runs. Earlier in the run, most fish are in the deeper holes and hard to spot, while later they are shallower and easy to see if you have good polarized sunglasses. And friend, there are a lot of fish to see.

For lodging, river, and fly fishing information, contact the Pere Marquette River Lodge, http://www.pmlodge.com/ and 231-745-3972. This lodge and full-service fly fishing shop is located in Baldwin, Michigan.

For guided fishing, contact Jon Kolehouse at 231-652-4967. In addition to the Pere Marquette he guides on the Muskegon, Manistee, and Grand Rivers, using all types of tackle, and fishing either from a drift boat or 18-foot jet sled. Costs for a 10-hour door-to-door day are $295 for two anglers, and includes tackle, grilled shore lunch, and transportation; the only extra is fly costs, since you will lose a lot of flies in a day.