Jon Ray resides in the Traverse City area and guides the 190 mile long Manistee River in Northern Michigan. His season kicks off in March when the first few warmer days arrive and cabin fever is at its peak. Big streamers are on the menu to for the resident Brown Trout of the Upper Manistee. The Manistee is an old logging river that now provides plenty of timber for these Brown Trout to lurk within. Streamers are one of the best ways to coax these wary predators out, luring them into the chase of an easy meal. As the season progresses into late spring, Jon’s true passion is the dry fly game. Sulfurs and Mahgonies are up first, and then early summer brings in the big bugs like Brown Drakes and Hexagenia. The upper sections of the Manistee are slow winding and clear with a heavy canopy of trees which requires a much more technical cast. This makes stalking these browns an art form all its own.

By mid summer Jon is happy either chasing trout on the Upper Manistee with hopper and beetle patterns, or smallmouth bass in the lower Manistee on topwater with frogs and dying baitfish patterns. As Fall approaches and the days grow shorter and colder, it's now time for the Great Lakes strain of steelhead. These lake-run rainbows begin their journey into the Manistee River from Lake Michigan, and Jon stays busy hunting these fish with a variety of flashy streamer patterns. Jon floats these waters fishing steelhead well into December or until the lines start to freeze and it’s just too cold to fish.