Hareline Fly Tying Materials, Lure Parts, plus Cabelas are three places that seem to have the largest supply of fly tying materials. Lots of time craft stores have materials, Hobby Lobby, at a lower prices.
walt

I find blade speed some times makes a big difference, the Panther Martin spins fast and a Mepps spins much slower. Blade color does make a difference as well as size. I personally like to use Matins and Mepps, size 0 and 1. Brass color is my favorite.

No, I don't know anyone in that area any more. I started fishing the PM when there wasn't any flies only area west of Baldwin. I will tell you a trick to improve your strikes with spawn bags, buy some small chartreuse foam beads and when making your bags put on foam bead in the middle of each bag. this will make the bags glow and much easier for the fish to see. I still have over 150 hot N tots for drift boating that haven't seen the water in 20 years.
If you ever get over to the Lake Huron side my daughter and husband live in Oscoda. Not many salmon but lots of walleye and steelheads. She built her own rods and only uses spawn caught from the stream she is fishing in. Good Luck!
walt

Over the years I caught many salmon and steelheads in that stretch of the river. If you really want to get into it there is a book "What Fish See" by Colon J Kageyama that goes into detail what fish really see and what happens to the color of lures with depth. Good Luck
Walt

One thing that works well on salmon this time of year is spinners fished over spawning beds. depending on water clarity red and chartreuse blades work well. Plugs fished down stream over beds also will aggravate the fish to strike. A good place to fish the PM is at Branch MI. Get a stream map, there is state land access. There is an oxbow there that gives you hours of fishing and when you're done you are just a few yards from where you started. Good Luck!

In Venice, Casperson Beach has lots of jetties, Venice Pier is hot right now mackerel, pompano, jacks, and snook. Venice intercoastal inlet are all good places to fish

Hi Kelly,
You live near MI's holy trout water and Lake Margarethe is just out side of Grayling. But that's not the issue, finding fishing buddies. In my youth 70 yrs ago growing just north of NY City it was always a problem to find a place to hunt and fish. My Dad had a solution that worked for us and can work for you also. He would go to the local church parishes and talk to the pastors explaining our situation and asking for their help in gaining access. Most parish pastors know who hunt and fish in their congregation and usually are happy to help finding someone that fits your situation. You have the equipment and lots of time people who like to fish are always looking for people that have the resources. This approach was so effective that we always had places to hunt and fish near to home and far away. Good Luck!
Walt

I surf fish in the Sarasota FL area and the big difference between Gulf fishing and Atlantic fishing is most fish are at your feet right where you step off the dry sand. So instead of casting way out past the outer sand bar, try casting parallel to the shore. Walk the beach at low tide and find sand bars coming from shore or places where the outer bar comes into the shore these are pinch points where fish will stack up. If using jigs or live bait, let the bait settle to the bottom and then slowly reel it back to shore. Moving bait has a trickering effect on the fish. Using spoons, for mackerel, blues, or jacks speed is the ticket. The faster you can reel the better the results. Tides are very important, moving water moves natural bait which puts fish in a feeding frenzy. I am an AM fisherman, daylight to about 10 AM and there are good days and days with obstacles. wind direction. Many days with sw wind brings lots of seaweed. Heavy surf generates cloudy water which the fish don't like. I've fished the surf in this area for 25 years and you will find that at certain times of the year fish will be in certain stretches of the beach. Fall is coming and as the water temperature falls there will be large populations of migrating fish. Good luck!