This and That

Once again, not a whole lot to report on since last week. We have not gotten above 29 degrees since the storm hit last weekend and the fishing and hunting has suffered because of it. Some of the local rivers have severe shelf ice and have slushy flows for much of the day. Jeff and I did get out for an afternoon of trout fishing on Thursday on some bigger water that we knew wouldn't be frozen. We started just before noon and it was only 13 degrees.

The river was low, clear, and freezing. Heavy frost still lined the far bank and it made for a beautiful backdrop.

We rigged up typical winter tailwater style with long light tippets and small nymphs and midges. We looked for some slower deeper water and went to work.

Five minutes in I saw my indicator twitch and came tight on a fish. It was only a 10 inch rainbow, but the colors on it were unbelievable. He ate a #20 rainbow warrior on 6x tippet.

Feeling pleased to have the skunk off so quickly I proceeded to hook another fish, a little bigger, about 10 casts later, which I promptly lost. Unfortunately after that things went downhill quickly. I didn't touch another fish the rest of the afternoon. Jeff hooked two fish, bringing one small brown to hand that ate a tiny egg. Other than that, cold hands and long light tippets made for alot of these.

Around 4pm we called it quits and went back to the truck to thaw out. It was really slow fishing, but then again what do you expect when its that cold? We each got to play with a couple fish which is better than sitting inside. Winter fishing definitely has a different set of expectations.
Friday I decided to switch things up and joined my Dad for an afternoon rabbit hunt. I grew up hunting small game in upstate New York but really haven't been more than a time or two in the last three years. I'll usually opt to steelhead fish or bird hunt, but with neither of those options panning out I decided what the heck. Long story short is that it was a cold windy day and we worked our tails off to find any rabbits. Finally, just as we were nearing the car at our first stop I kicked one up from under a big downed tree. Unfortunately we never got a shot and he disappeared the way rabbits can do. Moments later my Dad kicked up the second of the day, and this one didn't get away from his 20 gauge.

We then walked the short ways back to the Jeep and drove to our last spot which we only had about an hour to hunt. We didn't see a single bunny through some prime cover as we came to the final few clumps of cover before the car. With about 20 yards of cover to go I kicked one up from right under my feet and tumbled him at about 20 feet. Not a bad way to spend a winter afternoon...we didn't see a whole lot but we each got one shot and made them count.
We leave Wednesday to head down to Georgia for Xmas and I'm looking forward to spending a day or two on some of my old haunts. Hoping to put some nice bends in the rod as this winter is shaping up to be a tough one. Merry Christmas!

12/13

Not a whole ton to report in the last week. The temps have dropped even more and water temps are hovering in the 33 to 35 degree range. Managed to get out twice in the previous week and given the conditions I think we did ok. Friday evening Jeff and I fished locally for a couple hours before dark. It was a cold one and we had to bust through our first shelf ice of the year just to get in the water.

I decided to swing streamers since I had been indicator fishing alot lately. This turned out to be a poor choice, the cold water plus the fact that it was flowing quite low made swinging tough and I didn't have any interest in my flies. Jeff threw eggs and nymphs and in the second run we fished was able to connect on a gorgeous skip from a deep tailout. This fish was a longtime coming for Jeff who has put in a ton of hours this fall/winter without any love.

And the release...

Jeff was able to hook up with a decent trout in the same tailout but promptly lost it. It was soon dark so we made the hike back downstream to the trucks. Not bad for two hours on a winter evening.
Yesterday was a weird day. Most of west Michigan was in a winter storm warning and we were predicted to get 8-10 inches of snow over night Saturday and all through the day Sunday. You can imagine my surprise when I woke up to 34 degree weather and only about 2 inches of snow on the ground. Jeff and I quickly decided to run to the river and get in a few hours. Right off the bat I was able to hookup a nice brown on a small nuke egg.

The trout fishing continues to impress me this winter, especially on this river which in general is not anything special on the trout front. With the lack of chrome around I am going to explore it with my 4 or 5wt, light tippet, and some smaller bugs one of these days. Anyways, right about the time I released that fish the weather made a wicked turn. It started to snow hard, the wind was howling blowing it sideways, and you could feel the temperature dropping very quickly. We continued down to fish a few more runs but things were tough. Jeff hooked and landed the only other fish of the day, which was once again a quality brown trout.

Finally about 2:30 we decided to head back as we could hardly cast anymore without the line and rod freezing solid. The temp had dropped 15 degrees in about 3 hours and the windchill was in the single digits. Still it was a fun afternoon on the river and those are the opportunities you need to jump on in the winter. Today is frigid with high's in the teens and a stiff wind so it looks like I'll be tying flies for a few days. With any luck the end of the week will warm up a little and we can get in our float trip Thursday.

First Snows

It was only fitting that the first day of December coincided with the years first real snow fall. Naturally when I woke up to a few inches on the ground with snow still falling I threw the steelheading gear in the Jeep and headed for the river. Looking at a weather forecast first would have been a much smarter idea. The temps were in the high 20's which wasn't bad but the wind was howling and it made for some freezing guides and fingers.

After three fishless hours with fingers and toes begging for the heat of the truck I called it a day. I think the dramatic drop in water temps had the fish messed up and not interested in my flies. Once they get settled in to their winter lies things should improve....at least thats what you hope for.
Friday was back on the river with my Dad who took the day off of work. The temps still sat around 30 degrees but with no wind it made for a very comfortable and peaceful day on the water. The fishing was really slow but at least we didn't get the skunk. We started here....

I was able to hit two browns right off the bat on a flashback hares ear. This guy had amazing colors and is a real quality fish from this river.

Unfortunately the hot start didn't equal hot fishing for the rest of the day. I hit one more small rainbow and that was the end of my action. As we moved downstream we came to one of my favorite runs in this stretch.....

Our only steelhead hookup of the day went to dad right above the sunken log. He felt two big headshakes and then it was over....never saw it. We fished several more runs downstream without any luck and then finally called it a day. We saw a centerpinner on the way out who was fished waxies and he had only hit 1 skip and a couple small trout. When the bait guys aren't even hitting fish that makes it that much harder for us fly guys.
Saturday we decided to give the rivers a break and get back into the grouse woods after a couple weeks off. The late season re-opened on the 1st and I was excited to chase some thunder. We met up with Jeff around 9:30am and headed north.

Our first stop didn't produce a single flush so we went to a spot we had seen a bunch of birds at the previous few trips before deer season opened. Sure enough, right where we expected them to be, we busted the first two birds of the day. They took off out of pine trees way out in front of us, and as they had the last few times, crossed over the 2 track. We crossed the 2 track and started to work through some mixed cover when Lucy locked up to my left. As I went over to investigate I heard Jeff yell bird. Nobody could get a shot and I was pretty certain it was what had Lucy all worked up. This was pretty sparse cover so I didn't expect anything to hold tight. She wouldn't leave that spot and finally I could see a small spot in the snow where a bird had been sitting. I patted her on the head thinking that was it and started back towards Jeff and Dad. All of a sudden not 10 feet in front of me Lucy flushed the bird from under a small pine and it flew right at me. My first shot was almost straight up in the air and I missed. The bird turned hard to my left and threatened to make an impossible escape. I swung on it and squeezed off the second barrel at about 15 yards. Needless to say I was relieved when I saw it fold and crash to the ground. I'll give all the credit to Lucy for being persistant (and an assist to my retro 1980's vintage RGS camo trucker hat!)

Unfortunately that proved to be the only bird we got all day. We flushed a handful more but they never gave us good looks. Jeff fired one hail mary shot at the last bird of the day but it was flying mach 10 at about 50 yards and wasn't a real chance. Still, getting out to hunt in the snow and 20 degree weather was alot of fun and I'm psyched to have my third grouse of year in the bag. You have to cover miles of thick cover and have a little luck just to get shots at these birds.....killing one is a whole different story. When we finished for the day Jeff got this picture of our lone bird along side dads parker reproduction case.....high class!

Hopefully it doesn't snow too much in the coming week and we can get out another time or two before putting the guns up for the season. Beer battered grouse is now on my mind........