Wayne Knight wrote ...

"Goat"
We were planning to stay either at...
Upper Manistee River State Forest Campground
or...
Goose Creek State Forest Trail Camp
It will be tent camping and nothing that plugs in.
and if I can roll out of the tent and catch a few
while my coffee is boiling that would be perfect.

Any input on either site?

The only one I am familiar with is the Upper Manistee Campground.

To address all of your comments and questions in one setting-

Don't let the famous water thing intimidate you. While all streams have
different characteristics, they can all be "attacked" by breaking the
bigger water into smaller parcels. In the Manistee you don't have much in
the way of boulders but lots of instream structure and many shaded
undercut banks. Cast to the edges of each and you should be fine. The area
near the aforementioned campgrounds is one of my favorite places to toss a
humpy with a two weight and watch those little brookie make like little
sharks attacking the thing. I've only been stumped there once and I've
been going to the area for 11 years now. I've not seen any big browns come
out of that area but that doesn't mean you won't have a shot at one.

Sounds great. If I catch nothing but brookies I will be happy. Nothing
againt
the big browns, it is just not what this particular trip is all about.

Getting away from the crowds shouldn't be too hard, the Manistee does not
get the canoe traffic the Ausable gets and that will be after school has
started. Even during the hexagenia hatch which is the big fisherman
attractor event in late June, one can find elbow room on that river. There
are plenty of honey holes so you don't need mine but it's only a hole in
the wall downstream from the yellow trees.

I forget if you posted what days you were going but I'm going to be coming
back through there sept 16th or 17th.

We will be up there the 11th, 12th, and 13th.
This was planned on purpose to be after school starts, after the big
hatches,
after the holiday, and not on a weekend. The main purpose of this trip is to
relax, hang out with a good friend, and hopefully get in some good fishing
while
doing it. Originally we were going to go up the 18th-20th but my buddy has
an
appointment with a river boat, some sort of 3 generation birthday thing his
mother
set up and will not tolerate his missing. So we moved it up a week.
Thanks again for all the info. I can't wait to get up there.

Chad