Trout on the Fly

First Steelhead of 2012

2012-01-30T08:40:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was only my second time on the water in 2012 and my last chance to get a January fish in the bag. The weather didn't look overly encouraging with temps in the mid 20's, high winds, and several inches of fresh snow, but hey.....thats winter steelheading and you go when you can. We took our time getting up to the river on the icy roads and didn't start fishing until around 1pm. There were a few other people around but as expected the pressure was pretty light and we had our pick of whatever water we wanted. Our first spot didn't produce any fish but was incredibly scenic and made our decision to fish on such a cold day seem like a good one.

After a solid effort there with nothing to show we hiked upstream aways to a spot that is often over looked and has provided quite a bit of action this fall. Jeff hit a pretty little brown right off the bat on a parr pattern.

After a few more casts he broke off in some wood and it was my turn to give it a shot. With the water being up I tried to fish in close first and it payed off right away. I set the hook on a big fish and then proceeded to get worked over for the next several minutes. The fish was heavy and had alot more energy than I expected for a fish in late January. Finally after a close call with a downed tree and a few missed tailing attempts Jeff was able to get ahold of this big buck. He ate a hex nymph fished way down deep....

Gnarly looking mouth that looks more like a bruiser brown than a steelhead....

That fish made my day and marked my first of 2012...not too shabby. After a couple nips of bourbon and a few minutes to warm up our hands it was Jeff's turn again. He made a few casts and was asking where exactly I had hooked my fish. When he hit the inside seam just right I said "right there" and on cue he got clobbered by another heavy fish. From the hookup to the tailing of the fish it was literally an exact instant replay of what had just happened a few minutes earlier. The only thing different was this guy ate an egg instead of the nymph. Another gator....

Later dude....

Needless to say we went back up to the run to give it another try but it had already given up all that it could. We hiked upstream aways again and got in at a spot that I hit a handful from earlier in the year. It didn't take many casts for my hex nymph to get eaten again and immediately I was running down river in pursuit of another hot fish. This fish got me in trouble really quick. It took me around a log sticking out of the water and then under a deeply submerged log at the head of a deep pool. I tried my best to untangle the fish and even got the line free from the first log but it soon became obvious that this was a loosing battle. I could still feel the fish on but it had pulled alot of line out and there was no way for me to get the line out from under the log. It broke me off soon after but I didn't care...2 great battles on a frigid January day is about as good as you can get. Jeff fished that run for another half hour or so and then just as we were ready to leave he hooked up again. This fight was really short and sweet and within 1 minute he had a fresh hen beached on a sandbar...again eating the hex nymph. Unfortunately the fish wiggled out of his hands before I could snap a photo and headed off for the depths. We both just laughed and said it really didn't matter, our day had been made earlier and anything else was just icing on the cake. We fished one more run and then called it a day. I got a sucker on a nuke egg that I thought was a nice brown until I saw the bougle lips coming up through the water but that was it.

What great winter's day and an awesome start to what hopefully will be a great year of fishing. With a week of warmer temps ahead I hope to be back next weekend with my Dad and see if we cant find a few more.

2012: Plans, Resolutions, and Ramblings

2012-01-17T06:15:00.000-08:00

It's mid January and western Michigan has finally gotten it's first dose of cold winter weather. Nothing extreme, but a few days of temps in the 20's and a solid snow fall at the end of last week. This is the time of year were I un-wind a little bit and the fishing becomes more casual. After a fall of going both days every weekend I now pick and choose my days on the water a little more carefully and try not to force the issue if the weather looks unforgiving. I have only been out once since the New Year and got the big skunk. It was a very enjoyable day however, spent in solitude swinging flies with an old friend who I dont get to see near enough. That's what winter fishing is to me....a chance to get out when most others are at home. Fish are always better than no fish, but in winter that's hardly the most important detail. The peacefulness of a quiet winter's day on a stream you love is the best therapy I know.

Looking back 2011 was a solid year of fishing and I had a blast casting for everything from carp to steelhead, browns to musky, and nearly everything in between. As good as 2011 was I have some changes I look forward to in 2012. My main goal this year is to do more "traditional" trout fishing. Through the natural course of evolution as an angler I have become a big fish junky and spend most of my time fishing giant flies on heavy sinky tips and fast 7wt and 8wt rods. While I very much enjoy this sort of fishing and putting all the chips in 1 basket to find "THE fish" I feel somewhat disconnected from the trout fishing I grew up on. Big fish on big streamers is a thrill for sure, and I plan to do plenty of streamer fishing again this year, but so too is watching a wild foot long trout rise to a hendrickson dun or catching scrappy brook trout from small streams on attractor dries. In the pursuit of giants I have done very little normal trout fishing in the last year or two and I miss it dearly. This year I vow to spend more time looking for hatches, swinging soft hackles, and just fishing my light line trout rods again in search of the wild trout I love.
Speaking of rods, this year I believe will be the year of the bamboo revival for me. I have had a strong interest in bamboo rods since my college days and especially since I first fished my fathers 7ft 4wt T&T Classic. I have owned around 10 bamboo rods at one point or another but have slowly sold them off in favor of faster graphite higher line weight rods. Now that I have my needed streamer rods (which I enjoy in their own right) it is time for me to re-connect with my love of light line rods, which include slower graphite, glass, and of course bamboo. I have just purchased a 8'6ft 5wt 3/2 Phillipson Paragon which should be delivered this week and am in the process of pulling the trigger on a sweet old Winston IM6 8'6ft 4wt 3pc. I have a lovely little 7ft 3wt Diamondglass sitting in the corner of the closet that doesn't get fished nearly enough and I hope to slime the grip of that rod several times this year as well. If I can find a 7'6-8ft 4/5wt cane rod to round things out I will be truly content with my gear.
Lastly I look forward to doing a couple small trips this year. I would really like to head back up to the UP in early June and join my father on the Escanaba. I've only been a few times and have enjoyed myself immensely when I've gone. The fishing can be stupid good as well and I'm always up for that. Jeff and I are also looking at possibly 4 or 5 days in Colorado fishing some high elevation streams and lakes. We've talked about this for a couple years and this year maybe we will pull the trigger. Also talked about is a trip back to Roscoe, a trip down south to fish the Davidson, Soho, and Watauga, a few days back in the driftless region, and chasing bonefish/permit/tarpon in the Keys in February. Obviously all of those won't come to fruition but more than likely one or two will and I can't wait! Other than that it will be alot of local fishing on the many wonderful streams in my area for trout/steelhead/salmon/smallmouth/pike/walleye etc.
So here's to a strong 2012 and alot of bent rods!

New Years Eve Float

2012-01-05T11:38:00.000-08:00

What better way to spend the last day of 2011 than floating with good friends looking for winter steelhead? We met up fairly early and got to work gearing up and dropping the boats in.

Bob and Dan went in one boat and Jeff and I in the other. We hung around the launch for a bit getting rods rigged and ready and the other guys headed downriver to the first stop of the day. They found this solid brown right off the bat.

They also had a very brief hookup on a mystery fish that got off almost immediately. The next run or two produced nothing and then we all pulled in to a good spot we rarely fish. As soon as Bob got into the sweet spot he hooked a heavy fish and the papparazzi went to work. Jeff was filming and I was taking photos.......no pressure! After a few minutes Dan was able to net a very solid and pretty fresh winter steelhead.

Released....

We fished another couple spots and couldn't buy a fish. Soon it was time for lunch and I couldn't believe the spread these guys had prepared! We had an appetizer of stuffed mushrooms and hot wings, with a main course of baby back ribs and cheesy mashed potatoes. I provided some cold Fat Tire's to wash down one of the most deliscious meals I've ever had....and certainly the best while on the banks of a river.

For dessert we passed around the bottle of bourbon a few times (read many times) and when it came time to fishing again I was ready for a nap!

The afternoon proved to be very slow. It got steadily colder throughout the day and the bite just seemed off. In our second to last stop, however, we had a little excitement. First, Jeff was able to stick this nice brown on a nymph.

Then, at the tail of the run, after swinging all day with no love, I felt two quick yanks and then a heavy thump. I felt weight and lifted the rod, causing the fish to roll on the surface. Thinking I had the fish hooked you can imagine my surprise when I was met with a slack line when the fish sunk back below the surface. I let a few expletives go and tried several more casts and a couple different flies to get that fish to come back....it didn't work. About that time Bob and Dan floated by and they reported loosing a big steelie in the run upstream that they had on for several minutes. That closed out our action though we did fish for another hour or so. Overall the fishing was kind of slow but we all had a great time and I can't wait to do it again next year. Here's to an even better 2012! Below is a short clip that Jeff made of the float.....watch it in HD!

Good to be Home (Week Before Christmas)

2011-12-19T08:33:00.000-08:00

I spent all of last week in the northeast traveling for work. I got to spend a few days in Maine which was pretty cool as it's the only state on the eastern seaboard I had not been too but other than that I am really glad to be home. Even just being gone for five days I felt really out of the loop and made plans to get back in the loop by playing outside all weekend.
Saturday I met up with Jeff around 8am and we headed north to do a cast and blast for probably the last time this year. We got to the grouse woods around 9:30am and hit some cover that Jeff recently found. It didn't take long for Loo to sniff out a bird but after a long run it took off without us getting a look at it. We pounded that spot and one other until around noon and only saw one more bird, which again nobody got a shot at. After the last several trips it has started to feel more like just hiking through the woods with a shotgun than it has actually hunting. More than likely this trip closes out my bird season for 2011.
Changing gears we hopped into our waders and headed to the river to see if the steelhead would play nicer than the grouse. We talked to a few guys in the parking lot and one boat passing by and it sounded like things were slow....a handful of trout but no steelhead for anyone yet. After hearing that I was surprised that I hooked a good fish after about 5 drifts in our first run of the day. The fish fought like a true winter steelhead, heavy and stubborn with plenty of alligator rolls when I got him into shallow water. After several minutes Jeff tailed this solid winter buck. He ate a rubber legged copper john.

Love those red cheeks!

We released the fish and then took a few minutes to try and thaw out our hands from the 37 degree water. When we started fishing again I went to the very head of the run, an area I never fish but Jeff said can occasionally hold fish. I'll be damned if I stuck not one but two more steelhead out of there in the next 10 minutes. First was this dime bright hen that smacked a clown egg. She fought wildly at first but I had bumped up to 10lb fluro for my top fly and really put the screws to her to keep her from going into a log jam. That tired her quickly and I beached her moments later. Egg muncher.

She had giant eyes.

Goodbye.

Next came this tank. Also on the clown egg and just a slob of a fish.

Hero shot.

Wow! A half hour into the afternoon and I was 3 for 3 on winter steelhead, thats something I can honestly say I've never done before! Unfortunately things slowed waaaay down after that. I managed to hook one more steelie way downstream from a deep slow seam. After a couple minutes the big buck alligator rolled and got tangled in my flies. Once that happened and I lost leverage and it was all over, but it was a great ride while it lasted. Right at dusk I found this brown out eating eggs...he was our only trout hookup of the day.

Jeff got the big skunk which doesn't happen to him often. I felt very appreciative to have gotten a handful of nice fish on a day when it seemed they were tough to come by.
Sunday I spent about 4 hours on the local river with my Dad. I had not been on this water since well before Thanksgiving so it was nice to get back. The weather was nice and the traffic was pretty light. I was surprised to see the water as high as it was and carrying a decent stain. The high sun and slightly colder water, however, didn't make things any easier for us and we got it handed to us pretty good most of the day. I managed our only hookup of the day while wading dangerously deep in a notoriously difficult to fish spot....but also one that almost always holds fish. This was one of my best fights in a long time, she ran me all over the pool and then used the strong current to her advantage and had me in my backing and into the next run in no time. Luckily I was able to get caught up to her and when I did Dad was waiting with the net. A bright and sassy hen one week before Xmas.

Even without alot of action it was a wonderful day. Fishing with my dad is always fun and we have a love for this section of river even if sometimes its not the most productive water in the state. 38 degree weather and no snow never hurts either! I have one more post for our New Years Eve Float and I'll be caught up. Stay tuned....

From a Critic to a Believer

2011-12-05T12:28:00.000-08:00

Saturday started off in the grouse woods. This didn't last nearly as long as we had planned because within a few hours we were freezing cold and sopping wet. A cold hard rain with a stiff breeze and temps in the 30's doesn't exactly scream upland hunting. We toughed it out through two coverts and even flushed eight or so birds (mostly tree flushes or way out of range) but by about 12:30pm we decided this was a day much better suited to steelheading. We traded in our wet field gear for dry fleece and gore-tex and headed to the river.
Jeff and I have been on this water a handful of times over the last two weeks and it's fished the best I have ever seen it. We had been telling my Dad (who hated this river) about all the success we'd been having and naturally he wanted to get in on some of this himself. Unfortunately that did not happen. The fishing was much slower than it's been and we struggled to find fish despite fishing some choice water. Dad started off with a decent rainbow on his third cast of the day and that was all the action he got. We pounded that first run for over an hour, and just as we were getting ready to leave I hooked up on a nice fish. The fish dogged it for a bit before getting mad and making a handful of hard runs. The colder water temps definitely had the fish a little more under control though and soon Dad was able to slip the net under this chrome buck that ate a nuke egg.

And the release....I'll see you this winter!

Jeff got one more brief hookup at the tailout of the run but it happened too quick to know what is was. As we moved downstream a few of the runs we hoped to fish had people in them (which surprised us) so after quickly hitting a few small spots we hoofed it downstream to one of the better runs. This spot holds many steelhead at all times, yet even with three guys dissecting it from top to bottom we couldn't find any players. I was able to take two browns on a prince nymph but that was it. With limited light left we hiked back upstream and hit a run near the truck. It didn't take Jeff more than a cast or two and he was tied into a fish.....a really really big fish. The fish fought deep and bulldog like and refused to come off the bottom. Finally it looked like the fish was ready and Dad moved in with the net. As a bystander on the bank I had a bad feeling about the scene just as it started to go down. The fish started thrashing and alligator rolling when it saw the net and Dad tried his best to get the beast inside. Unfortunately the fish was too big and in the process snagged the top fly in the net and broke off. We all got a good look at what had to be one of if not the single biggest steelhead I've ever seen. 14-15lbs is an honest estimate. Needless to say that event closed out the night and we all had that fish on our mind through dinner. Dad was particularly bummed because once again this river had gotten the better of him and his confidence was as low as it gets. Luckily we had a plan for Sunday.
Some time ago I was talking to my friend Jeff Hubbard about this river and how my father had nothing but bad things to say about it. This river is notoriously stingy with it's fish and to say my Dad had not had much luck would be an understatement. Jeff said "bring your father up for a trip one day and I'll change his mind." Jeff owns and operates Outfitters North Guide Service (www.outfittersnorth.com) and knows this river as well as anyone. Jeff has given me all kinds of advice over the last few years, mainly in regards to swinging flies for our silver friends, plus I really wanted my Dad to see the river the way I do. It took almost 2 years after that conversation with Jeff but I booked us a trip and yesterday was the day.
Weather conditions couldn't have been better. It was downright balmy most of the day for December (mid 40's) with heavy cloud cover, intermitent rain, and water temps that jumped to 43 degrees by mid-day. We met up with Jeff around 7:15am and were launching the boat by 8am. Our first stop was one that I fish frequently and I had high hopes for a quick start. I started at the top of the run and my Dad at the bottom with Jeff showing him the prime water. It didn't take more than five minutes and a huge buck was carthwheeling out of the water attached to Dad's line. I just laughed to myself and then headed downstream to watch the battle. Unfortunately about that time the fish got into some wood and soon it was all over. Dad was upset but the day just gave off a certain vibe and I knew there would be more where that came from. I got one decent pull at the top of the run and sure enough when Dad went up there with the indy rod he hooked the fish almost right away. Dad's first ever adult steelhead from this river!

After years of frustration and doubt it had taken all of 45 minutes for Dad to see the light. With new found confidence and ideal conditions he put on a clinic for the next few hours. Next stop produced three browns with this skinny 17 incher being the best.

The next stop below that produced this thick buck almost immediately. It gobbled a small egg pattern and then proceeded to run my dad all over the pool before Jeff finally netted it. Smiles all around.

Literally three minutes later and Dad's rod was bent in half again, this time with a dime bright hen who ate the same egg pattern. As I ran upstream to grab my camera and Hub ran downstream with the net I saw a big grin on his face and I was laughing out loud. Dad was absolutely killing it and having the time of his life. This fish was so bright that the flash made it glow. The pic doesn't do this pretty gal any justice.

What was I doing all this time you wonder? I was stubbornly swinging streamers with no love and starting to question my sanity. We fished another run just downstream and I got a good pull but no hookup. The next run downstream looked particularly luscious and I swung it with confidence. Nothing. Dad proceeded to make one cast into the run and hook into a chrome rocket that took him to the cleaners. It cartwheeled and then ran him straight into a log jam. I was stunned that clean of a fish didn't want a taste of my hobo spey. For me, it was beginning to feel like a lost cause. Anybody who has swung flies knows the feeling....all you can do is keep your chin up and keep casting.
We stopped for lunch and had a delicious meal of NY strip steaks, rice, garlic bread, PBR, and a snickerdoodle for desert. I felt re-fueled and went back at it with a vengeance. We fished several good runs and even my dad stopped hooking fish. The air temp had dropped and a few other boats had now gotten ahead of us. Not too far from the takeout we got to Hub's favorite swinging run and I knew this was more or less my last shot. I fished through it twice top to bottom with a few different flies. Nothing again. Not even a pull. What the hell am I doing wrong? Feeling dejected we rowed down the river and Jeff pulled the boat into a spot I had never fished before. He said this was an overlooked spot he discovered a few years ago and that it was worth a few casts. I worked my way through the run without a tap. All the way at the bottom there was some wood in the water and I casted as close as I dared to the structure for my final cast. As my fly swung out into the current lightning struck and a chrome fish clobbered my grapefruit leech. After 7 hours of being an observer I couldn't believe that I had finally gotten a hookup. This hen gave me a spirited fight but I wanted it too badly to mess it up and soon it was lying in the bottom of the net. Jeff was grinning ear to ear and gave me a high five before snapping this shot.

As I released her my hands were shaking a little bit and I decided I was done for the day. My dad briefly fished one more run before we rowed to the takeout and called it a day.
Rarely do things work out just how you hope....but today it couldn't have been better. Dad had his best steelheading day ever and became a believer after being the river's biggest critic. I put in my time, stuck to my guns, and came away with a hard earned prize and one I will remember for a while. I started swinging flies for steelhead about three years ago, and even though I've landed quite a few in that time each one is uniquely special and a trophy in their own right. Thank you to Jeff Hubbard for being a fantastic guide, and even more importantly, a really cool guy to hang out on the river with. If you have any interest in swinging flies for steelhead I recommend you give Jeff a call and book a trip. His passion for the swung fly is contagious and he will do everything in his power to make sure you have a successful trip. Next weekend can't come soon enough........what an awesome fall its been and this winter looks to hold a lot of promise!

Steelhead Catch Up Part 5

2011-11-29T19:22:00.000-08:00

With this post I am officially caught up! We returned from our week down south on Saturday evening, so naturally Jeff and I decided to get back after steelhead on Sunday. We originally were going to do a full day float but the travel fatigue made me think maybe a half day wade session would be a better choice. Jeff and I got to the parking lot a little before noon and were fishing before 12:30. The crazy part is despite perfectly nasty steelhead weather and ideal water conditions there wasn't a soul around. Not a single wading angler, not a single guide boat....it was almost eery how quiet it was. The silence was broken about 5 minutes into the first run of the day when a nice buck blew up on my clown egg and proceeded to tail walk down half the run. The fish gave me a great ride but I was relieved when Jeff tailed the fish and the skunk was broken just a few minutes into the day. In the process of getting the hook out of the fish's mouth the trailer fly got buried, past the barb, in Jeff's finger. I had to clip off the fly, leaving it in his hand, for the picture.

Once the fish was released came the task of getting the fly out of Jeff's hand. This isn't the first time this has happened naturally, so we had a pretty solid game plan. First, take a few sips of bourbon. Second, soak hand in cold river water for a few minutes. And lastly, pull like hell until it pops out. Following this bulletproof plan Jeff was able to get the fly out fairly quickly. Consider the blood a sacrifice to the fish god's.
While I was tying on a fresh dropper Jeff got back into the middle of the run and within a minute or two he too had a fish on. At first the fish stayed pretty calm and just hugged the bottom but that didn't last long. It took us on a long run downstream and jumped a few times before ultimately getting straight downstream and pulling the hook. That was a fish that I felt all along we would land and then got the upper hand 10 seconds before I would have tailed it. We went back to our respective spots, me at the top and Jeff in the middle, and it didn't take me long to hook another one. This fish was more chrome than the first two fish and acted like it! Somehow it stayed out of the big root wad that is in the middle of this run despite running right at it and jumping in that vicinity several times. I played the fish downstream and after a few more acrobatics Jeff tailed it in the same spot as the first fish.

And a cool shot by Jeff on the release.

I was beyond excited that I had fished for about 45 minutes and already had two fish in hand! I fished a little more at the top and then broke my flies off on the bottom so I decided to watch Jeff finish out the pool. All the way at the bottom the run shallows and then drops back into a small bucket thats often overlooked. I got a good vantage point because I had a feeling about that spot, and sure enough as soon as Jeff's flies dropped over the shelf I saw a huge flash and the fight was on. This was a huge fish and it didn't give Jeff anytime to do anything. It jumped twice and then blasted way downstream at mach speed. It started alligator rolling on the surface and within 20 seconds it was all over. That was one of those fish were you are nothing more than a spectator, all you can do it hold tight and hope for the best. Jeff was pissed and rightfully so, but I couldn't help but smile. Everyone hates to loose fish, but when it comes right down to it that's why steelhead are perhaps the most loved freshwater fish. They are downright crazy and wild and when you get one on that's particularly hell bent there is nothing like it. When a steelhead decides to really show off they'll make your jaw drop and leave you mumbling to yourself, and thats what its all about.
As we continued to fish our way downstream I could not believe how many trout Jeff was hooking! This water always has strong numbers of both browns and rainbows but usually they are tough customers and only a few smaller fish are hooked each outing. Jeff was fishing a "grouse hex" of his own design and the fish were literally jumping out of the water to eat this thing. Here is a great resident rainbow from a small chute that ate the hex.

He also pulled two or three browns from that spot. Meanwhile I fished just below him in the same run where I landed that beautiful hen my last trip here. Its a tricky drift and its easy for your flies to get swept out of the feeding lane so it took me a handful of tries to get it just right. Sure enough though, when the drift was perfect and the bugs dropped into the bubble line just right my bobber dropped hard and a chrome fish cleared the water 15ft in front of me. This will go down as one of the wildest steelhead I've ever hooked. It ran me clean into my backing and down around two bends. I was literally sprinting after it and watched in awe as it cartwheeled and flipped multiple times more than 100ft away. Finally I caught up to it and slowed it down but never could get her under control. Everytime I would try and get her head up for Jeff to tail she would make another run downriver. After three or four of these attemps she finally pulled the hook free and was gone. Wow! I went back up to the spot where I hooked the fish and promptly caught a fat little brown on a pheasant tail nymph...surprisingly my only trout of the day. As we worked through several more good runs Jeff continued to crush trout, including this cool looking brown with really red spots.

Every little run we stopped at he seemed to hook one or two fish and none of them were dinks. With about one hour left to fish we hoofed it hard downstream to a favorite run that we knew would be holding several fish. I took the faster water up top and Jeff took the gut of the run. I couldn't find anything in the real broken water but moved down to a small V that forms where I have hit some nice trout in the past. First drift through and yet another bobber down. Once again a nice fish erupted from the water and my fourth battle of the day ensued. This is a long run with very little snags or trouble areas so I let the fish tire itself out and more or less just hung on. After a few minutes it was beat and Jeff tailed my third fish of the day!

Thanks for a great ride and the icing on what had already been a very sweet cake!

With only about 20 minutes of light left we hiked back towards the truck to one last run that Jeff wanted to fish. Jeff got in and fished and I sat on the back and helped myself to the nip bottle. Right at dark Jeff hooked the last fish of the day. We both thought it was a steelhead at first but it turned out to be a sizable brown. Jeff slid it up on the bank and I grabbed this shot of one damn fine looking brown.

What a glorious day. We fished in solitude and both had lots of action with both trout and steelhead. This is why I'll take fall over spring any day...these are the best days of the year!

A Return to Southern Trout

2011-11-29T10:57:00.000-08:00

I still have one more steelhead update to complete before I am up to date....but in the interest of keeping this blog chronological I wanted to report on the two days that I got to fish while down in GA for Thanksgiving.
Tuesday I was greeted by 75 degree temps and a mixture of sun and clouds. It felt great to be back into the foothills with a 4wt in hand after a couple months in a row of throwing 7 and 8wts. I went to one of my old stomping grounds where I use to spend alot of time and I have to say that this stream is a fragment of what it once was. This stream was hit by an F2 tornado back in 2005 and the damage it sustained is still evident today. The main problem is that much of the deeper water has filled in and now your hard pressed to find water over thigh deep. The number of fish, and even more importantly the size of the fish, also seems to be a fraction of what it once was. Still I had a good time and was fortunate enough to have some decent dry fly action. The first calm pool I came to had several feeding fish and it didn't me long to get a few hook ups on a #22 BWO emerger. I missed/lost more than I landed but I didnt care...casting a dry fly again felt magical. That bite didnt last long so I switched to a para-wulff style dry and a small copper john dropper. I worked my way through the broken pocket water and took a handful more fish both on the dry and the dropper. Nothing of any size but I did catch my first ever brook trout from this creek which was pretty cool. Please excuse the junky cell phone picture.

By 4pm things really slowed down and I decided to call it a day. Sorry no real pictures on this day, taking the DSLR out of the dry bag while fishing solo and catching small trout hardly seems worth it. I think I will start carrying my old point and shoot for just such occassions.
My main day for fishing came on Black Friday. Brad from the GSC happened to be in NC for the week as his folks live in the mountains and invited me up for some fishing on a nice stream the runs nearby. The drive up was incredible and seemed to go by very quickly.

**Disclaimer** I have been sworn to secrecy on this stream so please do not ask me where I was. I received a couple emails on FB asking about the photos but as I stated then and will state now...this is not my stream to give away. All I'll say is no its not a DH stream and yes it is public water. Now back to the regularly scheduled program :-)Brad and a few friends have been fishing this piece of water and finding some quality fish, mostly browns. Technical nymphing in low clear water was the name of the game. We located a pod of decent fish fairly quickly and I stuck this chunky brown on a micro glo bug.

I followed a few minutes later with a small brown that again ate the micro egg. About that time Vandy (also from the GSC) joined up with us and immediately hit a handful of brookies fishing a small streamer down and across. A short time later we noticed what looked like some quality fish eating on the surface in a deep flat upstream from us. Vandy went to check it out and within a few minutes he was yelling for a net. His 5wt was doubled over and the fish was running him all over the river. After a couple minutes the fish finally settled down and Brad slid the net under her.

Who says the south doesn't have steelhead? What a fish! Fish was just over 20 inches and fat as could be. The fish sustained a bloody lip from the battle but was just fine and swam away hard when released.

That was all I needed to see. I caught one more decent brown on the egg and then decided to get out of my nymph rig and tie on a dry. I didnt have any terrestrials with me (this is what we suspected they were talking) so I tied on a brown humpy and clipped the hackle flat on the bottom. That fly did the trick just fine and I was able to land 3 brook trout in short order, including this guy that went about 14 inches....not bad for a speck!

That top water action didn't last long and soon it was back to a nymph rig. Around that time Brad drove Vandy back to his cabin and I fished for a while waiting for Brad to return. All of a sudden I realized that the was rising....rapidly. Before I knew it the water had come up probably 2ft and there was some debris and color added to the flow. Brad came back shortly after and confirmed they must be releasing water. We waded around (carefully) and I was able to stick a decent rainbow on a copper john before we realized the water was coming up even more. We scrambled to the bank and thats when relaity hit. We were on the wrong side of the river and there are NO bridges for miles in either direction to get back across. We found a path and walked on it for a while. Every once and a while we would try and cross but the water was too deep and fast and it felt hopeless. Finally after almost an hour or failed attemps we found a very shallow gravel bar and were barely able to make it before our feet were swept out! We did what any sane fisherman would do....we hiked back upstream to the spot we had seem some big fish and fished from the bank with nymphs. I'm glad I did! First was this 18 inch bow that clobbered a pink san juan.

A few minutes later as we were getting ready to go I hooked an even better fish and the fight in the high water was on. Several jumps and hard runs ensued and I missed with the net more than once.

The fish was hooked solidly though and soon I was looking down at a fat 20 inch bow! Not a bad way to close out a day on the water.

We hiked back to the truck and called it a day. We then went into town and I was treated to some good southern food in the way of a chuckwagon sandwhich, fries, and a big glass of sweet tea! Thank you to Brad and Vandy for showing me around and I look forward to fishing with you guys again down the road.

Georgia Steelhead Coalition (Part 4)

2011-11-28T19:55:00.000-08:00

The Thursday before Thanksgiving my buddy Alex and two of his friends (Brad and Vandy) came up to Michigan for a 5 day steelhead bender. Alex came up this past spring and had such a good time he couldn't wait to get back, while Brad and Vandy were both knew to this game despite being avid anglers down south. The first night Jeff and I met up with the three guys we nicknamed the "Georgia Steelhead Coalition" over some mexican food and talked about the plans for the next two days of fishing. For the first day we decided to head to some smaller, easy to wade water not too farth north that was holding solid fish numbers. In the parking lot we took our time and with bluegrass music blasting went over the full blown steelhead indy rig setup.

Once everyone was properly rigged with bugs tied on we made the hike down to the river and more or less leap frogged and split in to groups picking the holding water apart. It didn't take too long for some action but things just weren't clicking. First Jeff lost what was either a decent skip or a solid brown. Next Alex lost 2 trout in a row. Then I proceeded to hook and loose a big steelhead, and then a few casts later, an upper teener brown. The next run downstream Jeff hooked and lost another nice chrome steelhead. A few small trout were landed but the majority of the morning was spent checking hooks and wondering what we were doing wrong?
Our spot for the second half of the day was farther upstream and it didn't take long for the bad luck to continue. Right off the bat in the first run we fished I hooked a hot fish that immediately ran me into a log jam, jumped, and snapped me off. Moments later though Jeff finally landed our first nice fish of the day....not a steelhead, but a fat resident rainbow.

While Brad and Jeff continued to work that run I moved downstream to a small narrow chute and on my first drift through I had a explosive take. I set the hook and was immediately met with a cartwheeling chromer at near eye level. I was alone with no net so I really didn't think I had any shot of landing this fish. It took me out of that pool, over some shallower gravel, into the next pool and then started to go around the bend. Finally I was able to stop this gal and clumsily tailed her with my rod tucked under my arm. What a gorgeous fat fish! Unfortunately being alone all I was able to do was get off one quick "fish on bank" picture being letting her go.

That fish made my day but I really wished that one of Georgia guys could have hit it. We fished our way downstream back to the truck and things quieted down until the last run of the day. In one small chute I first hooked and lost (without ever seeing) what I believe to be another steelhead, and then what I believe to be a BIG brown. That was all she wrote....if we had landed half of what we hooked it could have been a banner day!
The next day was very different. The GSC (Georgia Steelhead Coalition) rented a drift boat and we got out on to some big water. The three of them were in the one boat while me, Jeff, and our buddy Dan were in Jeff's Hyde. A true motley crew, already a few nips of bourbon deep, dropping in.

Despite the river fishing pretty well this year and holding a good amount of fish we really got our tails handed to us. Jeff got the only hookup for the day in our boat and it lasted all of about 2 seconds. A big fish rocked his sculpin from a productive run and with 2 head shakes snapped his 12lb tippet like it was 7x. Neither Dan nor I even had so much as a pull....at least not confirmed. Luckily the GA crew came through in the clutch! After being a ways apart for an hour or more they came floating passed us and I'll be damned if Brad didnt come tight on a fish right in front of us fishing an indy rig. The next few minutes were tense as hell and would have been a riot to watch. In our boat it was full on blow by blow coaching, and in there boat it was nervous excitement as 2 of the 3 had never seen a steelhead before. Doin work on the big water....

When Vandy got the fish in the net after a couple missed swipes both boats started going nuts and we both pulled over for some photos of the trophy. You'll always remember your first and I'm sure Brad will never forget this stud that smacked a small egg pattern.

A group shot....

And the release to complete the experience....

A small celebration ensued and the bourbon took several passes through the group. Brad with shaking hands toasts a hard earned fish. Cheers bud!

That was ALL she wrote....other than an excellent grilled streamside lunch by Mr. Cole there wasn't much to talk about for the rest of the float.
I had to leave the next day to head to GA for Thanksgiving but the guys bummed around for a few more days a little farther north on yet another stream and had a good time. A few more steelhead were hooked and lost (everyone hooked at least one), a few coho's were landed, but Brad landed the only other fish giving him 2 for the trip.

All in all the whole experience was alot of fun. One of my favorite things about being a flyrodder is the awesome people you meet along the way. In general fly fisherman are just really cool down to earth guys and Alex, Brad, and Vandy were no different. Nice fishing with you dudes and I'm sure we'll have some more laughs and good times in the future.

Steelhead Catch Up Part 3

2011-11-28T17:15:00.000-08:00

The following weekend we spent Saturday chasing grouse and then got out for an afternoon session for steelhead. After getting a handful of fish the week before I decided to go back to the switch rod, sink tips, and streamers looking for my first fish on the swing for the year. I had swung flies for several days dating back into early October but had yet to hook one and was really starting to loose confidence. We had received a good dose of rain and the river looked perfect....up a little bit with a light stain. Jeff and I hiked up to a couple favorite runs and it didn't take long before my sculpin pattern got smashed. The fish proceeded to go totally nuts and tear up and down the run cartwheeling like a mad man. Jeff scrambled down and got in position and I eased the fish into shallow water. Just when it seemed the battle was over the fish made one last alligator roll and the hook popped out....I was furious! God knows how many hours I had spent swinging streamers without any love and when I finally connect the hook pulls free. Luckily my anger only had a chance to burn for a few minutes. At the tail of the run I made a cast tight to some wood and as the fly swung out in to the current it stopped hard. I assumed I had snagged an underwater limb but that was quickly erased from my mind when the "snag" started headshaking. This fish again fought hard and jumped several times but we were able to land this one. Fish on the swung fly are extremely hard earned.....but there really is nothing else like it.

After the fish swam off my hands were shaking and a little nip of bourbon was just what I needed to celebrate and calm the nerves.

Not to be outdone Jeff resumed fishing the run upstream and within a few minutes he too had a cartwheeling fish on. This one was quite a bit smaller but very chrome and hotter than hell. As I went to tail the fish it the trailer fly got jammed into my finger and the fish proceeded to pull so hard it broke off the fly attached to 8lb tippet in my hand. Somehow the front hook stayed buried in the fishes mouth and we were able to land it and get a few pics. The hook didnt quite make it to the barb so I was able to get it out without too much trouble and only a little blood.

This fish had a clipped dorsal fin plus that long torpedo shape, making us believe it was another skamania fish that entered the river sometime this summer. They are much less common than the fall run fish but there are still a handful around and they will remain in the river until they spawn sometime in February. Below is a very funny clip Jeff shot with his GoPro camera. It shows both fish giving us fits while trying to land them/take pictures. Steelhead truly are a wild creature.

Running Silver from colehatch on Vimeo.

Steelhead Catch Up Part 2

2011-11-28T16:04:00.000-08:00

The following weekend I spent both days on some more local water. That Saturday I fished with my Dad and we got an early start on some water down low in the system. The first run we fished looked fantastic and sure enough after a half an hour of good drifts my bobber dropped hard and I felt headshakes. Unfortunately that was as far as it went....the hook immediately popped out and I was left standing there wondering what I could have done differently? When we finished up there we moved down to a hole that my Dad really likes yet I have never caught a fish out of. All the way down the trail I was complaining about wasting time and pointing out all the other "better" holes that we should be fishing instead. Of course you know what happened....Dad hooked a fish pretty much right away at the head of the run and made me eat my words. After a spirited fight I was able to tail this super clean buck for him. Two years in a row, on nearly identical dates, Dad has caught a bright buck from this exact spot, for his first fish of the year.

After seeing that fish come out of that hole I of course put in a little more effort, but alas, that spot continues to embarass me. I walked away shaking my head. After that we drove upriver a ways and fished several other nice spots but couldn't find anymore takers. We finished up the day in what is probably my favorite run in the river and a spot I had already seen a few steelhead hooked this year. I switched my dropper to a black wooly bugger and it didn't take more than a few minutes for me to come tight on a fish. The fish never left the water but fought down and dirty using the heavy current to her advantage. Finally I coaxed her into some calm water and Dad tailed my first steelhead of the season.

After some closer inspection as well as some comments from friends I am pretty sure that this hen was actually a skamania summer fish as opposed to a little manistee strain fall run fish. The fish was quite long but extremely skinny.

I felt a huge waive of relief come over me as I released her as I had been gripping tight all fall after going multiple outings without a fish to hand. We figured that was a great way to end the day and decided to walk back to the truck for a beer!

The next day I met up with Jeff and we decided to try a river that really doesnt see much pressure except for the spring. Sure enough we were the only truck in the lot and had our pick of the best water to ourselves. The water was as low as I've ever seen it and also overflowing with leaves. It made fishing pretty tough but we stuck it out through several good holes looking for a chrome bullet.

After a few hours the only fish we found was the small brown that Jeff hooked on a hex nymph.

The leaves had also gotten unbearable so we decided to head back to the same water Dad and I had fished the day before to try and stick a few fish before dark. It turned out to be an excellent decision as we went 3 for 3 in a few short hours.

That put the cap on a damn fine weekend! Below is a short clip Jeff put together using his GoPro showing a few of the fish doing what they do best.

Chrome from colehatch on Vimeo.

Steelhead Catch Up Part 1

2011-11-28T15:33:00.001-08:00

It's unbelievable how fast this fall is flying by! It seems like just yesterday bird season was opening, and yet here we are in the final week of November. Needless to say I have continued to lag behind in my posts and I have a ton of steelhead stuff that I need to get updated....so much so that I'll break it into several entries. The first one will be the start of steelhead (end of October) and hopefully by this weekend I can have it totally updated and current going forward. Here goes it...........
There is a certain river not far from where I live that is possibly one of the best steelhead rivers in the country, but at the same time is quite intimidating and alot different than many of the smaller tributaries that I spend most of my time fishing. Jeff and I poked around on it last fall a little bit and found a handful of fish but still didn't feel like we "knew" it. We decided to book Kevin Feenstra for a day to truly teach us about the river and to pick his brain on all things swinging; lines, tips, flies, rods, etc. Kevin more or less wrote the book on swinging for midwestern steelhead and we figured there was no better person to make sure we were pointed in the right direction. The day started early.....

We fished through some good looking water swinging sculpin and leech patterns, and had a full decent pulls, but the fish were just not committing. Finally hope was restored as I heard Jeff yell from the front of the boat and I turned around to see his switch rod doubled over.

Right away it was obvious that this was a BIG fish and we floated downriver after it as it put on quite a display. After several minutes the fish was boatside but the first netting attempt didn't go well.

The fish dove under the boat and threatened to get away, but the 15lb flurocarbon was strong enough to pull him back to the surface and this time he slipped into the net with ease.

What a tank! One of the bigger bucks I have seen in my several years of steelhead fishing. An honest estimate was 13-14lbs. The fish clobbered my personal favorite steelhead streamer, Feenstra's aquatic nuisance sculpin.

And a full body shot courtesy of Kevin Feenstra...

We continued to fish great looking water and try all kinds of flashy attention grabbing flies.

Around 2pm we broke for lunch and we had a delicious meal of pork chops and garlic/butter slathered potatoes.

For the first hour or so after lunch we had several hard pulls yet somehow none of the fish got the hook. After that things slowed way down and soon we were at the takeout. It had been a tough day but we learned alot and could not recommend a better guy to spend a day on the river with than Kevin. Visit his webpage at www.feenstraguideservice.com for fishing reports, fly recipe's, or to book a trip of your own. Back at the truck I grabbed this shot of the river below before heading home.

Upland Catch Up

2011-11-14T15:26:00.000-08:00

As is always the case, fall goes by way to quickly. As a result I try and spend every waking second that I'm not at work in the woods or the water and naturally my blog falls way behind. Today is the last day of the 1st grouse season and it will remain closed until Dec. 1. I figured this would be as good a time as any to put up some of the many photos I have taken this season in the woods. Below is a little "mini" essay that I wrote for a message board I am a member of and I think it is a perfect introduction to the photos that follow. Enjoy!

I was introduced to the grouse woods at a young age, tagging along behind my father and uncle carrying a BB gun before I was old enough for my own shotgun. I shot my first grouse when I was 13 and I can still remember the event like it was yesterday. My father was beaming when he retrieved that large red phase for me and it's memories like these that will stick with me long after I am able to hunt anymore.
We moved away from the grouse coverts we loved when I was 16 and it would take me nearly a decade before I returned. As is normally the case life got in the way. School, sports, and girls occupied much of my time and my memories of crisp fall mornings and fleeting grouse grew dimmer each day.
Four years ago my wife and I were fortunate enough to move back to the north woods. We moved largely for family and the fishing, but I was also chomping at the bit to get back after the birds I haden't chased in what seemed like an eternity.
Since that time I have enjoyed many excellent days in the field, none more special than those spent with my father and good friends. This season has been truly exceptional and I wanted to share some photos with you all. When winter hits and the season ends its days like these that I see when I daydream. Frosty mornings, brilliant foliage, the haphazard flight of the woodcock, and the sound of thunder crashing through the aspen stands. In the perfect world.......it would be forever fall.

Overall this has been a great season. We've had great hunting weather and have seen strong numbers of birds just about every outing. Our shooting left a lot to be desired but at least we got our chances and managed to knock down enough to be satisfied. Hopefully we will be able to hunt a few more times in the late season but you just never know. It would be nice to kill a few more birds but even if not it's been one to remember.

The Past Few Weeks

2011-10-18T16:20:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks have been all over the map. We had some nice cool weather at the beginning of the month but then had about 10 days of record highs with some days creeping into the low to mid 80's! Those temps made bird hunting tough and threw a little curveball into the thoughts of the anadromous fish. Still, like always, we made the best of some tough conditions and just pressed on.
On the 6th Jeff and I got out for a few hours after work to probe for steelhead. The water was pitifully low and clear and we knew things would be difficult. I got 2 decent trout, a rainbow and a brown, within my first 10 drifts fishing a small peach glo bug at the head of a deep run. That proved to be the only action we would have until right around dusk. I spent some time playing with the camera....not a bad way to spend an evening.

Towards the end of the evening, strategically positioned in one of the best steelhead producing runs in the river, Jeff had a bobber down at the head of the run. When he set the hook the rod doubled over and the hooks held just long enough to see a bright chrome fish come up just under the surface thrashing his head side to side. Right as Jeff yelled "STEELHEAD!" the hook popped and sent his whole rig flying right into his face. It had only lasted a second, but it was exactly what we had come for. We tried for a few more minutes but soon it was too dark to see anything and it was time to make the long trek back to the truck. It's exciting to see fish around this early when last year we didn't have fishable numbers until November. Now, if we could just get some rain and colder temps (which is suppose to start tonight) we should be in great shape for a solid fall of fishing.
A few days later we headed north a little ways to try to find whatever fish would eat an egg. Although the day was beautiful it made for really rough conditions on the river. Salmon were around in absurd numbers and literally clogged every fishable area in the river. When you looked into the clear water flowing by you could see a egg parade tumbling down the river bottom. I've never seen anything like it, and it immediately solidified in my mind that fishing eggs was a waste of time. I took some pictures instead.

We also got out for two floats recently. The first was on some smallmouth water we fished alot over the summer. we fished tons of water with all the proven flies and moved 2 fish, which came on the first 5 casts of the day (1 smallie and 1 small pike). After that we never saw another fish. It was heartbreaking but informative....we believe alot of the fish migrated to the lower part of the river which is much deeper.
The last float was on some trophy trout water as part of our 3 day trip to the NE part of the state. Low clear water made things really tough. I was able to stick 2 smaller browns, neither over 14 inches, and Justin and Jeff each landed a planter rainbow. I turned 1 very solid fish and pricked a second fish that looked to be in the upper teens but that was it for the day. As is the case all over the state....we need rain to get the fishing back on track. Luckily, we had good beer and good company.

As tough as the fishing has been, the bird hunting has been fantastic. I'll follow up with that report shortly........

Transitions

2011-10-04T19:04:00.000-07:00

This time of year can be both rewarding and frustrating. On one hand many things that were shut down all summer are picking back up and become real possibilities. On the other hand, nothing is firing at full force yet and you can quickly spread yourself too thin. Streamer fishing for big browns is on hold until we get some water, the egg bite is slow because the fish are stuffed from the biggest egg buffet they've ever seen, and bird hunting was shut down this past weekend due to some wild weather. So many things are so close to busting loose but right now its been about picking and choosing your battles.
Thursday after work Jeff and I headed out to a local piece of water to look for some early chrome. This time of year these outings can come across as a wild goose chase. You know how it is, so and so at the fly shop had a neighbor who told him a buddy hit a steelhead below such and such a bridge. Nothing you can confirn...but it's also in the realm of possibility, so naturally you are obligated to check it out first hand. So with that we rigged the switch rods with indy rigs and walked in to a few of the choicest runs in the river. First cast of the day it was bobber down and I was into a steelhead........only not quite the kind worthy of a magazine cover. After a scrappy fight I had the little egg chowing skip in hand and it confirmed that migratory fish had indeed reached this river and things are officially game on.

A few casts later Jeff hooked a small rainbow and it seemed like we had stumbled into a red hot egg bite. Unfortunately right about that time we looked upriver and saw a tremendous storm barreling towards us. Within a few minutes it was time to take shelter from the heavy rain, wind, and violent thunder and lightning. That more or less ended our night. We fished for a few minutes after the storm passed but the water was now littered with leafs and the bite appeared to be over. The good news is Jeff went back last night on his own and popped the first adult steelhead of the year a short ways upriver. Things are just starting but its a good sign to have chrome in the rivers this early. With some rain and an increase in water levels this could be a banner fall.
Sunday Dad and I headed north for a mixed bag of fishing. Dad rigged his 7/8 switch to fish for Kings and I strung up the 5wt to try and capitalize on the egg bite. The river was crowded beyond belief and this made the trout fishing a lesson in humility. I hooked and lost one solid brown and saw one or two other decent fish but that was it for me. With the smorgasbord of eggs in the river right now the fish are well fed and getting them to take an imitation when they have a limitless amount of the real thing is very difficult. Dad had fun playing with plenty of salmon as would be expected. Some were snagged but a few had wooly buggers in their jaws so who the heck knows what happened. All I know is it was fun to watch some giant fish crash around and Dad had a blast. I tailed a few "fresher" fish for him and took a few pics.

With that last fish we called it quits and headed back to the Jeep for a cold beer and then the drive home.

I dont know if I'll be able to get out at all during the week but we already have plans for Saturday and Sunday and I am also taking off 3 days next week (TBD) to fish with Jeff and our buddy Justin who'll be coming up from Texas. Everything from steelhead to smallies are on the agenda and we'll also be tromping through the grouse woods from Lake to Crawford counties. Fall is good........

End of Summer Mish Mosh

2011-09-30T18:46:00.000-07:00

Can't believe its been a month and a half since my last post! Summer has transitioned to fall, but between moving, my brother's wedding, and seemingly a million other things I just haven't had the time to sit down and type up any new reports. Make no mistake though, I have been fishing and bird hunting quite a bit so I have plenty of new content to throw up in one whirlwind report. I need to get back on track and start posting weekly....this is my attempt to get myself back to speed!
Ok....the end of August was interesting to say the least. Some summer steelhead showed up in a few west side rivers and Jeff and I spent a day down in the southern part of the state looking for them. We got clobbered with brutal thunderstorms but toughed it out and we actually each hooked (and promptly lost) a chrome summer run fish. We each landed a fish as well....they just weren't what we thought they were going to be. This fatty smacked a purple/black skamania leech on a fast retrieve.

Next up on the agenda as we neared the end of August was something I had never tried before.....thunderstickin' for Kings! It's something I've always wanted to try but never had the proper equipment or anyone else who wanted to go. After a trip to Gander Mountain I got setup with the only spinning rod/reel that I own and after grabbing a handful of fire tiger thundersticks it was off to the river. What we found was some of the most exciting fishing I've ever seen. Jeff hit a fish right off the bat but after a short fight it busted his 12lb like it was nothing. A few minutes later though he hooked another hot fish and it ran us all over the river. After giving chase in the boat and a few close calls with a logjam I was able to net a MASSIVE chrome king for Jeff. What a thrill to have a fish well over 20lbs in the boat! The strain on Jeff's face says it all.

And a mugshot before the release.

Strangely enough that was the last fish Jeff would hook all day. I managed to hook the final 4 fish of the day....and I lost all of them. The first two fish got away because of a reel malfunction...the drag was screwed up and as fish took line it would tighten the drag, ultimately locking up the drag and its no surprise that the fish busted my 20lb fireline with no trouble at all. I was furious that my brand new equipment wasn't working properly and had cost me 2 fish. Luckily we met some friendly guys on the river who were able to jury-rig a quick fix that was enough to get me through the day. The final 2 fish I hooked were red hot and out of control, both finding the wood after a good tussle and breaking me off. Needless to say I had my eyes opened at how aggressive RIVER kings can actually be if you find them early enough and pursue them in this manner. We got out the next weekend and things were a little slower. We each hooked a fish or two but once again they were out of control and we never even got close to landing one. Oh well....at least I know for next year and will be a little more knowledgeable on the technique.
After 2 straight weeks of not fishing we were met with the opening of grouse season!! This is something I have grown to love nearly as much as fishing and to say I was excited would be an understatement. I was also excited to be shooting for the first time with my new Canon DSLR camera. Loo was also excited and ready to hit the woods.

Grouse hunting is always a challenge, especially so in the fall. The foliage is extremely thick making it very hard to see birds well enough to get shots off, not to mention how tiring it is to drag yourself through for hour after after. Also, woodcock don't open for another week so you don't have the action they normally provide to keep you at least getting some shots. On this day, however, Jeff got some really quality looks at 3 different birds. The first good look he got resulted in the first grouse of the 2011 season! It was a small juvenile bird but a grouse none the less. Nice shot buddy!

After feeling pretty good about bring that grouse down Jeff proceeded to fan on 2 killer chances......hence why grouse are called the king of game birds. They can make you look silly no matter how long you've been at this game and thats what keeps hunting them from ever getting old. Despite kicking up quite a few birds I never got a good look and never even raised my gun. I did have 4 or 5 woodcock go up right at my feet, but with the season still a week a way I had to let them pass. By late afternoon we were exhausted and we wanted to save a little bit of time for some fishing. Loo was ready for some rest too.

Well deserved....she did her job.

And we toasted to the start of what is hopefully a wonderful upland season. Cheers!

We got to the river about 6pm and as expected it was full blown madness due to salmon season. Even in the chaos of dozens of cars in the parking lot, boats everywhere, and extremely heavy fishing pressure there is a silver lining. 99% of the people there are salmon fishing. We were there looking for egg eating trout so we had our pick of any spots we wanted. For the first hour and a half or so it was kind of slow. I caught 4 or 5 small juvenile steelhead and Jeff did about the same plus he lost a decent looking brown. With only a half hour of light left we walked upstream to one of my favorite spots on the river. Sure enough there was a pile of spawning salmon right above a fast knee deep riffle that always seems to hold some quality browns. It didn't take many casts for me to connect on a good fish. He fought hard against my 5wt rod and 5x tippet and was exactly what you hope for this time of year. I scooped him up gently in my rubber bagged net and Jeff and I enjoyed the colors only a fall brown trout can display. He was about 17 inches long, and judging by the size of his head he has alot more growing to do.

Jeff got this cool shot as he swam back off in pursuit of my eggs to fill up for the upcoming spawn.

That closed out our day and we headed back to the truck with smiles on our faces. We worked our tails off for 1 bird and 1 good trout....but can you really expect anything more than that? Fall has officially begun in west Michigan and for me thats as good as it gets.
Last weekend was the woodcock opener and my Dad joined Jeff and I for a full day of chasing birds. Nothing beats the anticipation of pulling into the north woods and getting geared up.

The amount of fruit around this year is insane! These are thornapples and when we found them we found birds.

The bottom line for the day is we saw a TON of birds. The final count was 18 grouse and 16 woodcock. The downside is due to some bad luck and also some rusty shooting we came away with surprising little. After several misses on both grouse and woodcock for Jeff and Dad Jeff shot the first woodcock of the season. A short time later, while walking in on a hard point by Loo, a grouse kicked up and gave Jeff a solid shot and a left to right crossing grouse. He missed the bird and as he scrambled to re-load his gun a second bird flew right at him. He wasn't able to shoot but the bird flew straight towards Dad and then started cornering away. Dad fired a shot and down went his first Michigan grouse!

I may always joke with Dad that the old Browning square-back isn't a "birdgun" but he proved it is more than capable of taking down the fastest bird in the woods.

The rest of the day was more of the same.....plenty of birds, quite a few good chances, but only a couple more birds brought down. Jeff got his second woodcock of the day after fanning on another grouse or two. I did the same, I missed 2 decent grouse chances and then capitalized on my first woodcock of the year. Dad shot at another grouse or 2 and 4 woodcock but the early grouse proved to be his only bird. Soon it was late in the day and everyone was feeling the many many miles we had put on in thick cover....especially Loo.

We decided it was time to make the hike out.

Back at the truck we relaxed and had a beer.

Our bounty for the day. Given the opportunities we had this is a bit disappointing, but then again everyone got at least 1 bird and we all had shots and chances at others. It certainly wasn't the birds fault we didn't bag more.

The next day Jeff and I went out for an afternoon of egging behind the salmon. The leaves have really started to change up north and the colors were beginning to pop.

Jeff fishing one of those mesmerizing deep green dropoffs where you just know a few big browns are hanging out.

Despite fishing incredible looking water and having dozens or redds to fish behind we just weren't getting a thing. This was a prime example of there literally being too many salmon. They were on the redds, in the holes, and pretty much anywhere else you wanted to cast. Needless to say this resulted in many un-wanted hookups (read snags) and we lost a pile of eggs because of this. Jeff's facial expression says it all after yet another set of flies is lost to a big king.

We stuck with it though and kept fishing our way down river. We came to a perfect dark green drop off behind at least a dozen spawning fish. After a dozen drifts with my eggs I decided to try something different since I was convinced a fish must be setup there waiting for an easy meal. I tied on a small #16 drab olive caddis pupa and my first drift into the chute produced a nice hookup. This was no bruiser, but it was also no dink. This colorful guy was our only fish of the day and he made me work hard for the hookup.

Faceful of spawning colors...

Rumor is a few steelhead are around and I've seen a few pics of fish. Right now though, for steelhead or browns, fishing is a bit tough because there are too many salmon getting in the way. In another couple weeks when the salmon have started to die off things could be really good and I know I plan to test that theory first hand.

More Smallmouthin'

2011-08-18T17:51:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to write much on this post, mostly because nothing out of the ordinary happened. It was a predictably solid day of smallmouth fishing.....not unlike many of the other quality days we have had on many of our other warmwater rivers. This summer has been really hot which has been rough on the trout but perfect for the bass. This is lazy summer fishing at its best. We threw big baitfish streamers and caught some good sized fish........

Around lunchtime we got caught in a wicked thunderstorm

Things cleared up pretty quick and we went right back to catching football sized fish.

That fish closed out the day. Not incredible numbers but enough to keep us happy and the size was above average. Things are starting to change around here...nights are getting cooler, the first few salmon have hit the lower rivers along with some stray summer steelhead, and over all a hint of fall can now be felt in the morning and evening air. More than likely we'll get out for smallmouth another time or two but soon our focus will be lake run fish, pre-spawn browns, and in less than one month....grouse and woodcock!

7/30

2011-08-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

This is a pretty quick update as not much happened this weekend. We finally got some heavy rain in the area and streams are just now coming down after being chocolate milk for a few days. Some of the streams up north were still in good shape however so we decided to fish for a few hours in the evening before walking in for a night of mousing. The first river we fished was up some from previous weeks and had some color to it. We nymphed, threw buggers, and even played around with a hopper or two with little success. I got two rainbows both under 11 inches and turned one decent brown on a streamer and that was it. After grilling some sausages, drinking a couple beers, and driving south a short ways we were at our mouse spot and found the parking lot to be empty. Long story short is we fished our tails off and didn't have much action. We each had a half hearted roll or two before Jeff finally latched into a fish around 2am. After a few head shakes the fish was gone and Jeff was stunned again. 20 minutes or so later I put our only fish of the night in the net. It wasn't a bruiser, but still a solid 16 incher.

And being released...

We fished one more run downstream without any love and decided to call it a night. It had been a lot slower than we expected but at least it wasn't a total bust. Not sure what this next week will have in store....possibly a week night trip or two and more than likely a smallie float this weekend.

Heat Wave

2011-07-28T10:09:00.000-07:00

Last week will go down as one of the hottest stretches of weather western Michigan has ever seen. For 7 or 8 days in a row we had temps in the mid to upper 90's and several nights where the low was still 80 degrees. Needless to say our trout streams took a pounding and many rivers in the area soared into the 70's with a few streams flirting with 80. With water temperatures like that fishing for cold water species during the day is completely irresponsible unless you are planning to keep what you catch. Since we like to catch and release we opted for a day of warm water fishing and it turned out to be a great choice. Myself, Jeff, and my Dad floated the same piece of water that we fished a few weeks back and we had about twice the action of last trip. Dad, who got shut out last float, started off with a chunky fish right out of the gate.

Twitching crayfish patterns along the bottom Dad had pretty consistent action throughout the day and took several thick bass.

Jeff tried a different approach and opted to strip big streamers looking for aggressive fish. He had some action early on a few different baitfish patterns but things really clicked when he put on the always deadly yellow fathead. More than a few bass came to hand along with many others that swirled at the fly or came off during the fight.

As well as Dad and Jeff were doing I was struggling. Despite trying a dozen different patterns and all kinds of retrieves I only had 2 bass to hand coming in to the final 20 minutes of water above the takeout. Just for the hell of it I tied on a 6 inch firetiger deceiver hoping that in the low light conditions some of the better fish might be out hunting for a big meal. Sure enough in a deep back eddy I hooked up and we were all pleasantly surprised to see it was a pike. Not a big pike at all but still a cool bonus catch and only the second one I've ever caught. His mouth got a little bloodied from the hook but he was perfectly fine.

And a hero shot..

Feeling pretty happy about that fish I continued to fish that big fly and proceeded to move a good bass to the boat and then get one more good hookup within site of the takeout. This fatty slammed the fly on the first strip just inches under the surface.

That was a great way to end the float and it capped a day where everyone had some action and brought some solid fish to hand. By the time we shuttled the cars and got the boat loaded it was about 10:30pm. Most sane people would have called it a day and gone home....but not Jeff and I. While my Dad started his ride home Jeff and I headed north about a half hour to do some mousing. By the time we grabbed some dinner, got to the parking lot, rigged rods and walked to our first stretch of water it was almost midnight. Right away Jeff hooked and lost a fish. Not 5 minutes later a few steps down that same run Jeff hooked up with another fish...this one sounding BIG. Like the first, however, the hook popped out after just a few seconds and we both just stood there stunned. I batted cleanup and stuck a fish at the bottom of the run. I could tell he was smallish but at least it got me on the board.

After that first run things took a nose dive. I rolled one fish 2 or 3 times in the next run downstream but never got a hookup and that was the last action we had all night. Finally around 3am we were dead exhausted from over 12 hours on the water and called it a night. The mouse game is very much a go right now and I'm sure the next several weekends will see me out past my bedtime looking for a 20 incher in the dark.
Since the weekend I've only gotten out one time and it turned out to be very different than what we expected.

We set out to try some local water for smallmouth and we ended up fishing 6x tippet and small dries to pods of rising trout. These were all small stocker rainbows but they were rising feverishly to God knows what and with no bass love to speak of they made a decent alternative. I managed a half dozen of these little guys on a #18 parachute black ant.

In equipment news I got extremely lucky this past week. I was casually cruising various fishing websites like I always do when I came across a rod I knew I had to have.

This is a Wright & McGill Granger Special 7633 7'6ft 4wt 3/2 in near mint restored condition. The shorter lighter line Granger rods are VERY difficult to find and if my memory serves me correctly this is the first one I've ever seen for sale. I pounced on it right away and can't wait to get this rod on the water. It will make a great dry fly rod for our various late spring/early summer hatches as well as a good all around rod for the smaller trout streams I fish on occasion. I also can't wait to get this little beauty on some of my old haunts down in the N. Georgia mountains this Thanksgiving. Now....to find a classic reel and a DT 4 line.......

Pleasant Surprise

2011-07-19T16:27:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my previous post.....summer trout fishing in Michigan can be difficult. Rivers warm into the mid-upper 60's, they get really low and clear, and most of the better fish hide in the wood all day waiting for the cover of darkness. Still, its always worth it to get out and try even if it turns out to be nothing more than a refreshing wet wade session in a river void of other fisherman. My past few outings had been chasing smallmouth and by this weekend I was missing the cool rushing waters holding my favorite fish. Sunday I headed north with Jeff and my dad and got back onto one of my favorite streams in the state...but this time exploring a new section of water none of us had ever fished. I did well on this river last year but high water has kept me away until now...and I forgot how much I had missed it. On a sweltering day with a heat index near 100 this gem was flowing at a crisp 62 degrees. That was all the motivation I needed to hop in and start casting.

The plan was pretty typical for this time of year....seek out the fast broken water and bounce nymphs along the bottom looking for opportunistic fish. Dad started off in a quick chute below me and within the first few casts he found this butter belly brown which clobbered his stonefly.

Letting him go....not a bad way to kick off a summer day!

I am always hesitant to get excited over a fish that early in to the day because many times it seems to be bad omen. Sure enough we all proceeded to fish the next few hours without any action. Thats not a complaint of course...it gave Jeff and I some time to play with our camera's and attempt to capture the beauty of this river.

After a while I switched to a hopper/dropper to see if I could find anything looking up for a big meal. I fished this setup for an hour or so with only one half hearted roll on the hopper. I finally hooked my first fish of the day on the dropper and almost flung him out of the water on the hookset. This baby brown is a good indicator that this stream is quite healthy.

As I released the fish my dad came walking up and said he had hit another solid fish on the stonefly, this time a hard fighting rainbow. He snapped this quick picture with his phone.

Hearing that I switched back to a nymph rig and quickly got a small rainbow and then lost another rainbow that looked to be about 12 inches. All of a sudden, like a switch was flipped, things were starting to pick up. Moving upstream I got this picture of Jeff and dad fishing a gorgeous run.

I walked around them, and after crossing a particularly fast hairy piece of pocket water, came to a perfect looking run that just screamed fish. Sure enough on my third cast I hooked up and this fish felt better than the first two I had landed. A few moments later this gorgeous brown was in the net. This fish has to be one of the prettiest browns I've ever caught with it's lemon yellow belly, big black and orange spots, and the classic dark blue circle behind the eye.

And with that picture my camera battery died for the day. I quickly hooked and lost two more fish at the bottom of the run before moving up to the top which was very fast and choppy. My first dozen drifts went un-touched so I tried high sticking a little more to ensure my flies were getting down to the bottom. The next drift my indicator dove under and I came tight on a heavy fish. At first it felt almost like a belly hooked fish the way the current was pulling my line but then I saw a big brown come up head shaking on the surface. He peeled line downstream in the heavy current and with 5x tippet I gave chase. A few minutes later just as Dad was reaching me I scooped up this beauty! 18 inches of perfection with a small flashback pheasant tail in his lip. Dad took this picture with his phone.

I wish I had had my camera for a few better shots but that will have to do. That's the second brown I've gotten about that size out of this river and I know some much bigger call it home as well. I continued to work that head of the run and took two more fish, a brown and a rainbow. Dad was fishing above me and he lost a decent fish as well. After that we both hiked upstream a ways and tried to find Jeff. We found him in a beautiful fast run and I watched him quickly hook up with three fish, landing two of them. When he was done my Dad and I hopped in too see if some different flies could fool anymore fish.

First cast I lost a small fish, and next drift it got eaten by something heavier. After a great fight in the fast water this 15 inch rainbow was in hand...another victim of the stonefly.

That was the perfect way to end the day and we knew we had a lengthy hike back to the truck. The trail back ran along the ridge overlooking the river and the views were stunning.

We intersected another trail and it took us through this cool looking stand of pines before delivering us back to the truck.

Back at the truck we swilled some cold beer, changed into dry clothes, and started talking about the next trip back to what has to be the best water I've seen in the midwest!

River Bronze

2011-07-10T10:05:00.000-07:00

With the hex hatch all but finished we have officially reached the dog days of summer. Summer time trout fishing in Michigan can be a very difficult, sometimes completely fruitless, attempt to put a bend in the rod......BUT......we are blessed with literally a million options for chasing warm water species both in rivers and lakes. My favorite along with many others in the fly fishing community is the smallmouth bass and thats what we went searching for yesterday on some new water.
Myself, my dad, and Jeff got to the put in around 10:30am and got the boat ready to tackle a fairly lengthy float on a new section of river. It was already boiling hot so shorts and sandals were the obvious choice.

Things started out very slow. I was on the sticks and Dad and Jeff tried several different flies and retrieves to wake up the fish.

When it was time to switch positions in the boat we still were fishless and things were looking pretty bleak considering smallies are usually pretty aggressive and one of the easier fish to catch on a fly rod. I decided to go with my tried and true favorite smallmouth fly...a #4 conehead pancora bugger creeped along the bottom to imitate a crayfish. 15 minutes later and I had our first fish of the day in hand.

Jeff followed up with another a short time later fishing an olive circus peanut. The fish were not very aggressive and needed to really be coaxed to eat.

Things continued to be really slow. I switched to an olive slumpbuster and the jigging action of that fly seemed to grab the fishes attention. I landed a 14 incher and not long after I had one of the coolest visual takes I've ever had on a streamer. A big bass peeled off some structure and charged the fly right to the boat. I thought it was over when the fish turned back to the bank only to see him spin back around and inhale the fly literally right under the oar. He had the 6wt doubled in half and after a couple minutes the big fish of the day was in the net.

After releasing that fish I literally casted downstream towards some rocks just to get the line out when I got slammed again.

After that little spell of quick action things slowed down again as we went through some very long stretches of skinny water. By the time we got back into the quality water it was around 6pm and the fishes mood had changed. Instead of smaller crayfish patterns creeped deep and slow they were now fully engaged in chasing larger baitfish patterns stripped a foot or two under the surface. Jeff got this fish and another about the same size stripping an olive fathead.

Dad at the helm as we dropped into the final half mile of water before the takeout. It was the best water of the entire float.

For this final piece of water I opted to try a prototype bug Jeff had tied based loosely off of Nick Granato's "Ghetto Tramp". We called it the Baby Ghetto and after seeing it get absolutely rocked by a couple chunky bass and turning another bruiser I think it's safe to say it will become a staple in the warmwater box. A great way to close out the day...

We reached the takeout at 8pm completing a LONG float and a fairly successful first run on some new water. The numbers were a little lower than we had expected but the size was excellent and we didn't see a single "small" bass. We also saw a spin fisherman land a 26 inch northern pike so that gives me some ideas for next time. The diversity of fishing opportunities is what makes this state a great place for the fly rodder, all we gotta do is be willing to branch away from salmonids from time to time and enjoy the many other gamefish that call these waters home.

Hexin'

2011-07-05T11:25:00.000-07:00

After a very weird start to summer and some really poor hex conditions here on the west side of the state we finally hit it decent on the 3rd. We got left the parking lot around 9pm and were at our spot around 9:30pm. These are what hex boots look like from hiking through the muck.

Normally while fishing we like to drink an assortment of micro brews but hex fishing is different. After a hot and sweaty hike some thirst quenching beer is what's on tap while waiting for the big bugs to show.

Sure enough around 10:15pm we saw our first few spinners in the air and shortly after fish started to rise pretty regularly. I found a pod of fish rising at the head of a pool and made my way into casting position. I could tell there was at least one good fish mixed in with some smaller fish. First cast produced a small 10 inch brown, and the next cast after that produced another fairly small 13 incher. The two fish left rising were both solid and I laid a 30 foot backhand cast into the feeding lane. The fly went down in a boil after a few feet and I knew this one was much better. After a good tussle on the 6wt I had this fatty in the net. I didn't get a tape on him but he was at least 18 inches and really thick.

Unfortunately, by the time we grabbed the photo, revived the fish, and got my fly re-dressed the action was pretty much over... the spinner fall was the shortest I've ever seen. A few spinners got caught in some side eddy's and every 10 minutes or so a fish would slurp one up. I timed one of these sippers and got him to go but all I did was prick him. That was the last cast I made. A half hour later another fish started sipping the left over spinners and after dozens of drifts Jeff got him to go around 11:45pm. He wasn't nearly as big as we thought he was based on his gulping rises but still a nice skunk breaker for Jeff.

That officially closed out the night and we hiked back to the truck around midnight. Nothing epic but at least we had bugs and some decent rising fish to cast at. Not sure how much longer the hatch will last or if I'll get out again...........

Summer Update

2011-07-02T11:28:00.000-07:00

Once again I've fallen behind on my updates so this will be a collection of pics from many trips over the past several weeks. This summer continues to be a very weird one....cool and rainy with brutally hot days in between. Overall we've had very little "normal" early summer weather and the fishing has been up and down because of it.
Mid-June was mostly dry fly fishing with a little streamer action thrown in. Gray Drakes, Sulphurs, Iso's, Cahill's, and a smattering of Caddis made up the buffet most evenings. No big fish were taken per se, but most nights we got a few quality fish to go at least. Here are a few of the fish taken, mostly on drake and sulphur spinners......

A bug I have not seen before....appears to be in the Cahill family but wasn't yellow at all, pretty much pure white. Heavy spinners falls a few evenings produced some nice fish.

We also caught some fish on streamers after a few of the heavy rains we had. I didn't get pics because we really didn't catch anything of any quality. A handful of smaller trout and a few more smaller bass. The smallmouth fishing should improve quickly with the currently hot and humid temps.
So what about the world famous Hex hatch? Well, at least here on the west side it has more or less been a bust. Heavy T-storms and torrential rains have kept the lower rivers high and off-color for many days at a time and there have only been small windows of opportunity in between for those anglers who rolled the dice and took a chance. I got out for the first time last week on a local flow and it was really slow. The weather was nice and calm and fairly warm but there were very very few bugs out.

We heard exactly 2 fish rise all night. Jeff hit the first fish which turned out to be a small footlong brown. I casted at the second fish and hooked him briefly but the hook pulled right away. Other than that it was dead and we were back to the trucks by 11:15. I went out again a couple nights ago, this time up north, and had a pretty wild experience. The forecast started out looking ok but as evening grew closer things started to look a little dicey. By the time we got to the parking lot it was drizzly, black as night, and lightning and thunder were off to the west coming off the lake. Jeff an I met up with Joe and one of his friends, threw on the rain gear, and trekked back into the swamp.

The runs we had in mind are about a 25 minute hike through some fairly slow moving terrain. By the time we reached a couple of our favorite bends the rain had picked up and things were taking a turn for the worse. By 10pm bugs started to pop but the rain started to come down in sheets and even if the river was alive with rising fish you wouldn't be able to see or hear them. We quickly got out of the river and took cover under some brush as cloud to ground lightning moved in close and the thunder sounded like it was ripping the roof off over our heads. We wound up waiting about a half hour before making a mad rush back to the trucks through a blinding rain. Unfortunately this is the hex game....the same hot humid weather that makes the bugs pop also causes alot of bad storms and its always a gamble.....this time we lost!
The last 2 outings were a bit different. Jeff and I decided to hit some local lake's stripping huge streamers looking for the always elusive musky. It will come as no surprise that we never even saw a musky in one evening and one AM session but that's the game for these fish. Here are a few random pics....

That about wraps things up. With June behind us most of my fishing from this point forward will be either night time trout fishing or chasing smallmouth in some of the local rivers. I might try to hit the hex hatch another night or two before it closes out but we'll see what shakes out. Happy 4th of July..............

Memorial Weekend on the Flats

2011-06-09T18:39:00.000-07:00

As the title says I spent 2 of the 3 days of the long Memorial Day weekend up north stalking the flats looking for carp. The flats in some of the bays of Lake Michigan provide a really cool fishery for up to a month each year for spawning smallmouth bass and giant carp. Big rods, long casts, spooky fish, the whole nine.....as close as you can come to flats fishing for bones and permit without a long plane ride and dropping a bunch of coin.
We arrived Sunday morning around 10am and conditions seemed ok. The sun was out, but clouds were on the way, and it was noticeable cool with a fairly stiff breeze. We rigged for smallmouth to start out.

And the water...

The good news is that we saw a bunch of carp. The bad news is the conditions for getting them to eat were terrible. By the time we saw our first carp of the day the sun was gone and the sky was a flat gray, making it impossible to see more than 20ft or so. We also noticed that the water was freezing, and a water temp of 51 confirmed that the SE winds had dropped the water temp in the bays by 10 degrees or more. The carp we did see were in cruise mode, not feeding mode, and this resulted in lots of flailing and pointless casting without the slightest degree of interest from the fish. By 4pm the fish had disappeared back to the depths and it was time for plan B.
We decided to head south a ways and fish a popular river mouth that we had gotten some good intel on. The walk in reminded me of R.E.M's "Man on the Moon".

We were looking for any large predatory fish that would be in close to shore chasing baitfish. I rigged with a gray/white ditch pig.

Once again we flailed away for hours. We fished the mouth, we fished down the shoreline, and we waded out as far as we could trying to find a drop off where fish might be hanging.....all without any love. After 7+ hours of casting 8wts as far as we could we were spent and decided to call it a day and get some dinner. After mexican at The Roadhouse we headed to Jeff's sisters house and it didnt take long before we were passed out.
In the morning we awoke to everything pointing in the right direction. The winds were down, the sun was shining bright, and it was HOT. All perfect conditions for carp. Heading back out onto the same section of flats as the day before I felt alot more confident.

The sun lit the water up and you could see forever in the knee deep water.

Unfortunately, despite things looking good on the surface, the water was still very cold. We saw an amazing amount of fish, more carp than i could ever have imagined, but once again they were cruising and not stopping to feed. We fished hard until about 3pm and then it seemed that literally every fish on the flats disappeared. It wasn't a total skunk though, the second bay we fished that day did give up this bruiser.

Needless to say we were both disappointed to have spent 2 full days fishing the flats and not hooking a single fish. We saw a ton but never really had a chance of catching them as they just werent feeding and its pretty well known that fish cruising in schools rarely eat. What i really need is a trout fix again. This past weekend I was in NJ for a friends wedding so its been almost 3 weeks since I last got to the river. This weekend that will change and hopefully I can find something worth posting about!

Strippin and Rippin

2011-05-24T17:48:00.000-07:00

Once again I find myself falling far behind in my posts. This time of year the fishing is usually solid and I try and get out as much as possible, which usually amounts to 2-3 times per week. This spring has been very strange...started very cool, then got hot for a week or two, and then back to cool and wet. I heard today that this is the 6th wettest spring on record. This isnt the greatest for dry fly fishing, but the streamer fishing has been pretty solid. Anyways, I've fished 5 different outings since the last post so I will try to wrap them up quickly and get back on track.
After the handful of quality fish Jeff and I found on hennie spinners last post I wanted to get my Dad in on the action. We headed out to the same stretch a few Friday's back in the evening and waited patiently for the bugs to show.

Unfortunately as dusk grew closer some nasty weather rolled in and although we never actually got poured on the wind and thunder/lightning got pretty worked up. Still a few bugs showed and we found a precious few rising fish, all of which were very sporadic. Dad and I each casted at a fish in the lower run with no luck and it looked like that was pretty much it. I walked back up to the top run and after squinting in the fading light saw one very small dimple in a back eddy. One cast and the fish sipped my spinner down with confidence. Great fight on a 4wt...this fish was measured just under 16 inches and im pretty sure it was the same fish I got a few nights before. I guess catch and release really does work.....

That fish ended the night as it started to rain a little heavier and the remaining bugs headed for the trees. Not much of a spinner fall but 1 good fish to net was good enough for me!
The next day Jeff and I floated some big streamer water and had a great time. The water was up a bit and holding a very light stain, which mixed with a day of clouds and rain made for a solid streamer bite. I got us started right off the bat fishing a murdich minnow.

Jeff was up next and started with this scrappy brown looking for a big meal to help him grow.

From the on Jeff went on quite a tear. He hooked and lost an 18-20 inch brown and then proceeded to catch several mid to upper teener browns.

Needless to say I was in awe! Jeff is an excellent fisherman but especially with streamers..combine that with the deadly tan fathead he was throwing and you get many fish in the 16-19 inch range to the net. When I finally did hook up again it was this spunky smallmouth jumping all over a tan and yellow ditch pig.

After that I landed a couple small fish but never could get a solid fish hooked up. 2 different fish about 10 minutes apart blew the water up as soon as my fly touched the surface yet somehow never got the hook....both of which looked to be mid to upper teener browns. All in all it was a killer day even though we rowed out in a driving rain. We landed 10 trout and a bass and moved 25-30 fish for the day. These are the days you hope for when you throw streamers and the ones you remember when things get tough.
With the streamer fishing being so good on the weekend Jeff and I decided to run a shorter float one night after work. Mid-week evenings on the river are so peaceful and quiet.

First order of business? Crack open a good beer....

The action was actually pretty good right out of the gate despite the bright sun and clear water. Jeff stuck this bass within the first few casts...

He quickly followed up with this respectable brown...

When it was my turn to throw I moved 3 quality fish very quickly and then the bite slowed waaayy down. From there on out it was only smallies to net...one of which that was a real bruiser!

Not exactly what we were expecting for the evening but no complaints. A few trout to hand and 4 bass in a couple hours after work is hard to beat.
This past Saturday my Dad and I got out on his pontoon boat for the first time this year. It's a pretty sweet 2 man toon he bought last summer and is actually really comfortable for 2 guys and the necessary gear. Here is Dad at the put in.

The day was a real scorcher with bright sun so needless to say the streamer bite was pretty tough. It was the first day of the year that I wet waded and some thirst quenching beer was essential.

All day we threw to the banks looking to pull a fish out of the structure with streamers but it was really tough going. Finally, late in the day some clouds started to roll in and we started to move some fish. I moved quite a few fish, including a few better fish, but only got 3 fish to actually commit. Only one is worth mentioning....this guy hammered a tan fathead from some fast pocket water and fought as hard as any brown I can remember. This is my best fish of the year so far...

Dad was able move one small fish and then hooked up on a heavy fish that spit the hook after a few seconds but couldnt get anything to the boat. The rain started as we neared the takeout and I couldnt help but think how different things could have been had we had rain and clouds all day!
Sunday was yet more streamer fishing as Jeff and I headed a little farther north to some smaller water we haven't been on all spring. We were told the lower water was up a bit with a nice stain.....but we found it to be very low and gin clear. That and full sun all day made things brutal and we spent most of the float drinking beer and watching Lucy enjoy her surroundings.

Finally some clouds rolled in during the late afternoon and the fish responded. After moving a few decent fish I hooked our only good fish of the day dredging a deep pool with a #2 black bugger. 17 or 18 inches and one of my better fish from this water.

I few bends down I hooked another brown that looked to be a little smaller that I lost and then landed a smaller brown. Jeff stepped up and moved probably 6-8 fish over the next half hour but couldn't get any to commit. The final hour or so the bite turned off and some badluck came our way. Jeff broke the tip off his 7wt and I somehow ripped the sink tip portion right off my 250 grain streamer line. The gray drakes were going absolutely nuts right at dusk in some of the thickest spinner clouds ive ever seen but a storm came in and sent them back to the trees before they could hit the water. Probably for the best, it was best to get out of there before something else broke or somebody got hurt!

Dry Fly Fishing is Here

2011-05-15T15:21:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was the official start of the dry fly season for me as I took several fish on top from a few different rivers in the area. I always love this time of year through the end of the hex hatch because it means evenings on the stream with friends waiting for bugs and rising trout.
On Saturday Jeff and I headed out to a stream close to home that I don't fish nearly enough. We went to a section he had fished a little but last year and I had never been to. We arrived midday and it was sunny and warm. The water looked really good but there wasn't much bug activity aside from a few caddis bouncing around so we decided to nymph some of the faster chutes. Right off the bat Jeff hooked and lost a decent brown and followed it up with a another one to hand. Moving upstream we each hooked a handful more all of which were 10-12 inchers.

As we got to the junction with a tributary we saw a beautiful confluence run and proceeded to hook some nicer browns fishing nymphs deep on the bottom.

I got this one on the first drift.

Jeff followed up with another about the same size that jumped out of his hand before we could get a pic. I also hit a couple smaller browns in the same run. The water above the confluence didn't look very exciting so we decided to explore the tributary and it turned out to be a great idea. Jeff hooked and lost one out of the first pool we came to but then it was a bit of a hike before we got to anymore good water.

When we did we noticed a few rising fish so we decided to switch to dries since we already had caught several on nymphs on the day. Jeff working a fish splashing at caddis.

And the culprit. Great colors on these fish!

A few hundred yards upstream we came to a slow very deep pool and several fish were rising. They were spooky in the glassy current but we got a few fish to eat.

Jeff caught a small brown and got refused by another and I had a nicer fish on for a second before the hook pulled free. With not too much time left we moved upstream some more and came to some gorgeous deep nymphing water that we promised to come back to soon.

Above the pocket water was another great dry fly corner and even from a distance we could see several fish rising.
A few more chunky browns were taken along with a small rainbow before the feeding stopped and it was time to make the couple mile hike back to the truck.

Jeff was able to get this killer action shot of me setting the hook on a fish. You can see the splash next to the rock and me setting the hook in the background.

Nothing wrong with these trout on a 4wt!

Pretty cool day with a mixture of nymphs and dries and got to fish a bunch of new water. Definitely will be back a few more times this summer. On the walk out we saw this.....

Sunday night Jeff and I got out again on another local river to look for some hennie spinners. Arriving around 6pm there wasn't much going on. A few fish were splashing around at caddis but nothing consistent. I managed a lone 11 inch brown and rolled another decent fish on an elk hair caddis. We then proceeded to sit and wait on a deep slick hoping for spinners and a few bigger snouts poking up. It was looking like a no go, but then about 830 we started to see spinners collecting in numbers above the riffle upstream. We never got a full blown feeding frenzy but we did get enough bugs on the water to get us about 15 minutes of rising fish. I hit this 13er at the head of the deep pool.

This river has alot of fish, but most are quite small and are under 10 inches. That fish marked my best from this water....only for a few minutes though as I took this fattie just under 16 inches about 5 minutes later as it quitely sipped spinners in a slow backwater. This is a BIG fish for this river, especially on a dry fly.

Needless to say I was ecstatic! Jeff got refused by a fish that may have been even bigger, and then stuck this 14 to close out our night.

Not many numbers of fish but great quality. Just goes to show that what you catch most of the time doesn't really give an accurate sample of the larger fish that are present and only show themselves at select times.

Road Trip to the Driftless Region 4/29 + 4/30

2011-05-09T16:52:00.000-07:00

4:30pm Friday afternoon we had solid plans to head north and streamer fish for 4 days while staying at Jeff's cabin on the river. By 4:45pm after getting an updated river report we learned the river was blown and the fishing would be wrecked for at least a few day. By 5:15pm everything had changed...Jeff was out front to pick me up and it was off to Chicago to spend the night with Justin en route to SW Wisconsin and the famed driftless region. In less than an hour our 4 day long weekend had done a complete flip.....out with the 8wts and giant flies and in with 4wts, caddis, BWO's and tiny nymphs. Road Trip!
We arrived in Chicago around 8:30pm and met up with Justin who was just wrapping up a week long business conference. His company was throwing a party to unwind after a long week and somehow we were invited in with open arms to hop on the bar tab and enjoy the festivities. A couple scroungy looking trout bums with scraggly beards and trucker hats looked like we were crashing a wedding.

The cocktails continued to flow until the wee hours of the morning.

We finally shut it down around 3am and tried to grab a couple hours sleep before a 5am wake up and departure to the small Wisconsin town of Viroqua....the hub of the best fishing in the driftless region. Needless to say we were all hungover and feeling a little beat down when the alarm went off 2 hours later. We got some caffeine in us and hit the road...reaching Viroqua about 10am and heading right for the Driftless Angler. This was a killer little shop custom tailored to the area with loads of small flies, light line rods, etc. We spoke with Geri, grabbed some local bugs, and got pointed in the right direction in terms of streams and access points.

After checking in to a little motel we headed out to find our first piece of water. We all got geared up quickly and hopped in. Right off the bat I saw a decent rising fish. I didn't see anything on the water so I put on a small black caddis emerger and after about a dozen drifts I was connected to my first Wisco trout.

I never had to take that fly off for the rest of the day. I took another 7 fish from this stream, all on the emerger, all of which I saw selectively feeding and was able to pick off.

Jeff didn't have much luck on dries but was able to hook a handful on some small nymphs fished in the deeper runs.

The most fun part was simply being on some new water with good friends and getting to explore. Justin and Jeff eyeing up a beautiful run.

By late afternoon the few rising fish had stopped and the action had slowed considerably. We decided to hop back in the truck and look for some new water on a different river. We didn't really know where we were going or what we were looking for so it took a little while. On our exploratory mission we crossed over several other streams including this famous tributary.

We poked around for a few minutes on a couple different out of the way creeks with less than optimal results. The first was extremely small, only about 5 to 6 feet wide in some spots. I saw a few decent fish but all I managed was one small brook trout...my only of the trip.

Next we moved on to a little larger but still small meadow stream. A storm was rolling in so we didn't hang around too long, but there was some good looking water and I'm sure if we would have put in a longer effort we would have found some fish.

With not much light left we made our final stop on another very tiny creek pretty near town. The stream was loaded with small browns and what they lacked in size they made up for in numbers and their willingness to eat.

By the time we finally reeled it in and got back to the car it was just about dark and we were all totally exhausted. A late night of drinking, 2 hours of sleep, 4 1/2 hrs in the car, and then fishing all day took its toll on us. After a quick pizza dinner we were back at the hotel and in bed a little after 10pm.
The next morning we awoke to temps in the low 30's and a stinging wind....not exactly good trout fishing conditions. After a hearty breakfast we made the short drive north to one of the better know streams in the area. We found some good looking water and started to get ready.....when Justin realized he had left his wading boots back at the motel! Justin drove back to get them while Jeff and I bundled up to fight the wind and try and find a few trout on nymphs. The fishing started off very tough despite fishing the best water we had seen all trip.

Jeff managed 1 small brown and that was it for our first stop. By the time Justin got back and we headed downstream to a different section the wind had died down a little and the temps had crept up a few degrees. Jeff and Justin headed downstream while I headed up. Right off the bat I found a few small browns on nymphs and things started looking up.

The water was beautiful as well....true spring creek conditions with gin clear water and spooky trout.

As the sun peeked out for the first time all trip I played around with a few different nymphs and even a wooly bugger and found a few better fish. The colors were outrageous and even these pictures don't do them justice.

Very pleased with the way the afternoon had gone I walked back to the truck to meet up with Jeff and Justin. I wasn't surprised to hear that they had done well also taking fish on a variety of nymphs with a few reaching up to 12 or 13 inches. We unanimously decided to stay on this same stream and just fish the next section down for the rest of the day. By this time the wind was much more moderate and the sun had come out. It was then that the lushness and eye popping beauty of the valley and the river really stood out.

I managed another 4 fish and I think Jeff and Justin found a few each as well but it was pretty obvious that the sun had slowed the bite way down. None of us really cared though, it had been a great day and we all caught plenty of fish and enjoyed some of the prettiest scenery in the midwest. Here are a few more shots as we worked our way downstream to the bridge.

Right above the bridge was a really cool old barn that made for some nice pictures to end our driftless trip.

Reaching the bridge officially ended our trip and we all wished the early season didn't close May 1 so we could have a few more days of this paradise. All that was left was a long walk through the valley back to the truck.

On the way back we passed by a sign for a town that seemed straight out of Norway...Norskadalen.

All in all it was a great trip, albeit a little short. After reading about this area for many years it was alot of fun to fish it and explore a small portion of its hundreds of miles of blue ribbon trout water. I speak for all of us when I say we'll be back, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Streamer Time

2011-04-26T14:16:00.000-07:00

In the interest of time and the fact that I am falling farther and farther behind on my reports I am going to make this short and sweet. Streamer season has been upon us for over a month and its time to swing for the fences with 8wts, 300 grains, and big streamers. I've managed to float some big fish water three times so far. The first was at the beginning of the month...and it was brutal. I got the only fish we saw all day, and for the river we were on, that 17-18 incher was a dink.

The second trip was back to the same river and the same stretch. Very cold weather made it feel more like steelhead season than streamer time. 2 teener trout were brought to net which avoided the skunk but still isn't what you come for. Jeff did move 2 giant fish but neither committed to the fly and sunk back into the depths. You could feel we were getting closer.

Our most recent streamer run was this past Tuesday. It was on the same river again, but this time further downstream in a lower section. This time, finally, we got what we came for. We each moved a fish or two but Jeff found the only eater and made it count with 25.5 inches of solid gold! Needless to say the whole boat erupted when this giant was at the bottom of the net. All photos courtesy of Jake Carey.

Cheers!

Weekend 4/2 + 4/3 and a quick weekday session

2011-04-15T23:13:00.000-07:00

Alright, I am starting to fall behind here on my reports and to be honest the blow by blow details of each day is getting pretty fuzzy so I am going to just wrap this weekend end briefly. Saturday I fished my dad and Jeff and it was pretty typical of how things have been. The bite was slow early on aside from a couple walleye and it wasn't until our third stop that I got the first hookup with a steelie. It was a big clean hen that just wrecked an ice man minnow and then proceeded to leave the water no fewer than 8 times. Finally dad tailed her....only to have her cartwheel out of his hands, back into the water, and then bust my off on some roots against the bank! I was pissed that I didn't get a picture but the fight was my best of the year so I guess thats all that really matters. We then fished for a long time with no love. Finally after lunch we hit some water farther downstream and the bite turned on for the final two hours or so. I started with this chrome buck from a tight little spot 95% of the people walk right by.

We struck out on the next couple spots but reached the same deep run that held so many fish the week before and once again it produced. Jeff connected on this solid chrome hen on a small fry pattern. I had a smudge on the lens so the picture stinks but it was a gorgeous fish to say the least.

With light running out dad and I moved down to a fast chute while Jeff keep working the same run. No sooner had we got down to our spot and I heard Jeff yell and saw him chasing a fish downstream through the pocket water. I ran up to help him and quickly tailed his second fish of the day, again on the fry pattern.

Not a bad way for Mr. Cole to close out the day! When I got back to the water I was fishing I switched to a fl. peach glo bug and my first drift through was clobbered by a big buck. He ran me waaaay downstream through the broken water and several times we got him to the glove and he managed to dart back out in to the current. I finally stopped him at a slow cove and was able to beach him. A massive buck but again some water on the lens made for a pretty crummy photo.

Pumped to have finished my night with such a quality fish we ran back up for dad to make a few more drifts before dark. Just as we were calling it quits he tied into another buck on a spring wiggler pattern and the fight was on. After several minutes the fish tired and I went to make a move with the landing glove. Unfortunately the fish spooked, blasted off back into the current, and sawed the tippet off against a sharp rock, ending our night.
Sunday was one of the wildest days I've spent on the river weather wise. Around noon I picked up my buddy Alex from the airport and we set off to find him his first ever steelhead. By the time we got to the parking lot it was 31 degrees, windy as hell, and there was a combination of rain, ice, and snow falling to create a really weird mix. To top it off it was thundering like crazy! The river was pretty deserted and the water looked fantastic. The bite was totally non-existant early and the first several stops provided only a couple suckers. Finally we got to a piece of broken water and I was able to connect on the first of the day. One jump and then it was a quick dash downstream.

After a couple minutes the fish began to tire but before we could tail her the hook pulled. Alex stepped in and missed a fish but that was it for a while. We moved upstream to a spot that I never do anything in personally but others seem to love. That continued as Alex tied into a fresh piece of chrome at the tailout.

After a long fight and yet another run downstream the hook pulled on that fish too. I'll be damned if Alex didnt go right back to the same spot and hook up with his second fish! This one fought hard but stayed buttoned and I was able to tail this small buck. Not bad for a Georgia boy!

Needless to say Alex was pumped and I was pumped for him. Sometimes living here and fishing for these fish day after you forget how special and incredible they are. When you see the excitement and enthusiasm from someone seeing this for the first time you are reminded of how lucky you are. Alex was clearly on a roll as about 10 minutes later he was hooked up again. This fish was a little chrome skip and it never ceases to amazes me how these 2lb fish can double an 8wt over.

To close out the day we each hooked and lost a good sized fish but that didn't matter....the mission was accomplished! At dusk we hiked back to the Jeep to thaw out and head home on some nasty roads.
Thursday I was able to duck out of work a little early and pick Alex up at the hotel for a few hour session in the evening. Our plan was to fish closer to home and meet Jeff on the river. There were cars everywhere but as usual, with a long walk upstream we had plenty of runs to ourselves. As we came around the bend we saw Jeff fighting a fish....perfect timing. He said he was just praying that we would be there soon as he couldnt do much with the large buck on his line. I tailed the fish and boy what a dandy! One of the best pics of the year.

Goodbye buddy...

Unfortunately that early luck was a curse! Alex had a fish on just long enough to get a quick headshake but that was it. Despite fishing two or three of the better runs in that section we couldn't by another hookup. We called it quits at dusk and headed into town for mexican and a pitcher of marghertita's. Alex was able to fish Friday and Saturday by himself and he did well, especially for being new to the steelhead game. He landed a few more and lost a few others plus bagged a couple decent browns. Needless to say he's hooked and I look forward to him coming back up again when we can get out together a bit more.

Few Hours After Work

2011-04-10T09:10:00.000-07:00

After a great weekend of fishing Jeff and I decided to get out locally on Monday for a few hours after work. The river was crowded but after a long walk to some more remote runs we found solitude....and fish. I hooked up right off the bat on a skip at the tailout of the run.

At the top of the run a few minutes later Jeff hooked a much better fish. She gave a him a great fight and I was able to tail her after several minutes. Needless to say the higher water of the previous week brought in some bright new fish.

With not alot of time left we moved into the next run downstream to finish out our night and it didn't let us down. At the top of the run I switched to a prince nymph dropper and quickly hooked up with a pair of skips which we were able to land pretty quickly. A few casts later and I tied into a better fish. After a couple summersaults and a long run down around the corner Jeff was able to tail this pretty hen.

That wrapped up our night.....not bad for a couple hours after work. Two nice fat hens and a three scrappy skips!

Weekend 3/26 + 3/27

2011-04-05T18:46:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated in almost a month simply because I've been busy fishing on the weekends. Nothing surprising for this time of year, its not red hot by any means but the rivers have plenty of fish to play with and most days you can count on hooking a few per person, sometimes more. The traffic has increased as well which is also on par for this time of year, but as usual if you aren't afraid to do some walking you can find solitude and your fair share of fish.
Two weekends ago I fished both days on a river a short ways north of here. Saturday was spent with Jeff on a beautiful sunny day. The sun certainly didnt help the bite and it turned out to be a rough day. Jeff indy fished and I spent the entire day swinging streamers looking for some aggressive fish....which I never found. One pull in the last run of the day was all I could muster, but least I got to swing some cool looking bugs.

Jeff wound up going 0 for 2 on steelhead but found the first few walleye of the season to put a bend in the rod.

The next day we went back up with my Dad and found very similar conditions...yet the fishing was quite a bit better. We started off poking around in some transitional water, but with the colder temps it didn't appear anybody was home. The first deeper run we came to, however, gave up this chrome hen to Jeff.

A few casts later and it was another walleye

I took a turn through the run after playing around in some water farther upstream and promptly hooked and lost what looked to be a very large very chrome fish. As we moved downstream Dad stopped in to one of his favorite little slots that I have never seen anyone else fish and promplty hooked and landed this chrome little skip.

At the same time in the next chute downstream I got a pair of trout, a small brown on a copper john and this chunky rainbow on an estaz egg.

The next stop didn't produce anything and we made our way downstream to a popular pool that nearly always has a bunch of guys in it...yet was totally deserted. We setup shop and it didnt take long for me to hook a heavy fish in the gut of the run. After a long tug of war I was finally able to beach this giant winter buck. He didn't have alot of energy but he had alot of bulk...definitely one of the bigger fish I've ever landed.

Feeling pumped to have gotten the skunk off I got out to warm up my hands and it didnt take long Jeff to get the next hookup. This fish was almost an exact replica of the buck I just landed.

Feeling like this pool must be full of fish we tried to get hookup number three....and it didnt take dad long to find it. These chrome skip was a little bigger than his first and was full of piss and vinegar. He ate a 50/50 glo bug in orange and chartruese.

A closeup of his meal choice...

Sometimes you hit the motherload and after alot of hardwork throughout the weekend we had found it. Jeff hooked and lost a fish at the head of the run and then told me to give the top a try. It didnt take many casts for my bobber to drop and I was into a hot player.

This fish had all kinds of energy and speed and left the water a few times giving us an awesome visual show. Finally dad tailed her and the fourth fish of the run was in hand. Jeff got this shot of dad and I with this gorgeous hen..

Jeff also got this killer closeup as I was releasing her...love these different angle shots and this might be my fav of the year!

That fish put an end to our action but it had been a good day. Everyone was able to fight and land some fish and for the most part we were had the river to ourselves. Jeff got this shot of Dad and I along the river on the way out.

3/12 Dreary Days

2011-03-15T18:59:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday probably was the perfect example of what guys mean when they say its "steelheading" weather. Flat gray skies, temps in the low to mid thirties, windy as hell, rain, sleet, snow, and just an overall miserable feel in the air. Most people stay inside when the weather gets that nasty....we put in a 10 hr day on the river. I wish I could say the steelhead followed suit and lived up to their reputation of being a foul weather loving fish, but that just wasn't the case.
We started off in some water a little higher up in the system than we've been fishing. I decided to swing some streamers and Bob and Jeff planned to clean up the mess with bobbers. It actually didn't take me more than a half hour to get a good pull and a hookup. I could tell pretty quickly that it wasn't a steelhead which was a little disappointing...but I'll never complain about a nice fat brown on a streamer.

Mouthful...

Thinking that was a pretty decent start we continued on downriver in hopes of finding some chrome to go with the gold. The next few runs didn't produce anything, and as I rounded the corner Jeff got this cool shot of me working down through some good looking water. Cast, step, swing...

A little further downstream and Jeff got on the board with another chunky brown. This guy ate a nuke egg out of some fast water behind gravel.

Not too bad so far. After fishing one of the prime runs in the whole river without any love we moved down into a nice little pinch that has given up its fair share of fish over the years. Sure enough, about halfway down on the far bank Bob had a run away bobber and was hooked up with a serious piece of steel.

After a lengthy battle and some alligator rolls in shallow water Jeff was able to tail this handsome winter buck. This is about as pretty a specimen as you'll find anywhere....

And getting released....

Good thing that was an impressive fish....because it was the one and only steelhead we saw for the day. After fishing another few hours we decided to head back to the truck and grill up some lunch. Jeff made chicken tacos with all the fixings which were delicious.

After lunch I switched to my indy rod and we headed off to a handful of normally productive spots. Despite 3 guys beating the water to a froth all we could muster up between us was a 9 inch brown I caught on a small black stone. Finally around dusk we called it a day. It had been alot of work for just 1 steelhead but thats what makes steelheading so fun.....they are mysterious and difficult to predict! Numbers will only improve from here on out....

Signs of Spring

2011-03-06T13:27:00.000-08:00

It might sound funny to say its starting to feel like spring when there is still alot of snow on the ground and its currently 26 degrees outside, but to the steelheader the signs are more obvious. Starting in February I start watching river levels like a hawk, hoping for a few days of snow melt or rain to bump the water up and get the first few fish of "spring" moving into the rivers. A couple weeks ago we had a few days with highs getting in to the 40's and it caused some significant snow melt. Rivers never really blew out, but they came up a foot or two and had alot of color. We happened to be floating a river a few weeks ago when the river was still too high and dirty to fish effectively. It stunk for that day but we hoped it would mean some good fishing for the next few weeks.
Last weekend was the first of our exploratory missions to see what the high water brought in to the rivers. It was cold with heavy snow all day, and as is usually the case with winter fishing we had the river to ourselves. We started off fishing a few pieces of staging water that we figured were probably a little too fast and choppy to hold fish this time of year but are always worth a try and sometimes can produce hookups. We fished without any takers and decided to make our way down to some more classic winter holding water. Right about this time the snow started to pick up....

We worked our way down the run without any luck until we came to the very bottom. Jeff drifted his flies tight along a submerged stump and when the indy dropped he thought he was stuck. To both of our surprises his hookset was met with a few big pulls and then the fish tore off downstream into the pocket water. We chased the fish as quickly as we could through some tough to wade water and finally got her stopped just before entering the next deep pool. I was able to tail the fish and Jeff's first steelhead of 2011 was in the bag.

Releasing her to continue her spawning mission...

Needless to say we were both excited to see such a fresh fish. We fished a few more pieces of staging water and again found nothing. However, the next piece of winter water we hit produced another hookup for Jeff. This fish was a little smaller than the first and didn't really do a whole lot besides trying his hardest not to leave his deep lair. I was able to tail him fairly quick and just like that fish number two was in hand. Beautiful colors on this buck...

And a mugshot before release...

Two fish in the first few hours was really encouraging. However, we the action came to a quick halt as we fished several choice runs over the next few hours without anymore action. Meanwhile the snow continued to come down hard.

With only a little bit of light left we decided to hoof it downstream to a deep run that has given up winter fish in the past. Since Jeff already had two fish he told me to go first and I was really hoping I could pull out a fish in the last run of the day. I fished it hard top to bottom and couldn't find any love. Just when I was ready to reel it in and call it a day my bobber dropped hard at the tailout and I was into a heavy fish. Several times she threatened to take me into the wood pile but I was able to steer her into open water each time. Finally she was spent and Jeff tailed her as I got her into some shallow water. This dime hen ate a hex nymph and is why I love that final half hour of light we call the twilight bite.

And back to the drink...

Needless to say I was on cloud nine and we both started the trek back to the truck with big grins on our faces. It was a beautiful snowy day, we had complete solitude, and three steelhead were brought to hand....pretty much the perfect winters day! Back at the truck we cracked a couple micro brews to celebrate!

Sunday was much warmer and sunny so I decided to fish a couple hours in the evening on a piece of water a little closer to home. Despite having the stretch of river to myself and perfect water conditions I couldn't find any players, one small rainbow on a black stonefly was all I could muster. This river had a miserable fall run which translated in to a waste of time this winter. So far I think it's safe to say its steelhead numbers are still virtually non-existant but that could change very quickly.
Yesterday I fished with my dad and Jeff and we hoped to find some of the success we had the week before. As much as we all want it to be spring the 36 degree water and more falling snow proved we are still very much in the grips of winter. The first spot we fished, a spot that we use as an indicator to see if fish are in spring staging water, gave us the goose egg, so we all assumed it would be mostly fishing winter water for the rest of the day. As we walked down to our first winter hole we came up to my favorite piece of staging water in the river. Its 3 to 5 feet deep with a fast broken chute down the middle and a slower seam on either side. Most people walk by it, but if you fish it hard and nail the drift it can pay some serious dividends. Working my way down towards the bottom I wasn't surprised not to have hooked any fish because I thought the water was still too cold for this type of spot. Just then I had a run away bobber and I set into a hot chrome fish. We played tug of war for a few minutes and I followed the fish downstream. Jeff was below me and once I got it into softer water he was able to tail her. A half hour into the day and the skunk is off with this dime hen.

Going back into the water to continue her upstream journey...

Way cool to have a fish in hand so early into the day and also happy to see fish are holding in some more diverse water. I walked right back to where I hooked the hen and within about 10 drifts I had another run away bobber. This fish went totally nuts when hooked and ran upstream all the way to my backing knot before jumping out of the water and crashing down about 10 feet from my dad. He quickly turned and faced back downstream and I frantically stripped line to try and get on tight on him again. This battle took me downstream into the next pool before I stopped him and got his head turned. I was able to get the fish on a shallow sand bar and Jeff tailed him. A big winter buck that looks as though he has been cruising the gravel for chicks already.

And another successful release...

Both fish ate a small parr pattern on the seam of fast and slow water. Needless to say we all thought the river had blown up with fish and that we were going to be in for a treat for the rest of the day. WRONG! Minutes after I released my fish my dad hooked a fish in the same slot the other two came from but it came unbuttoned after about 30 seconds. It was hooked in the dorsal fin though, so who knows what happened? Other than that, Jeff had one very brief hookup that he wasn't even 100% sure was a steelhead, and my dad hit a small brown right at the end of the day. We all believe the bite turned off when around noon the temps dropped by a few degrees and a stiff wind picked up. It was like a switch...three hookups in the first hour and then as soon as that little front hit the river went dead. Oh well, I certainly am not going to complain about a hen/buck combo....especially on a day when the action was extremely limited. Already dreaming about next weekend.....

Super Bowl Steelheading

2011-02-08T11:44:00.000-08:00

After a month or more of frigid weather this past weekend finally warmed a bit and temps tickled the 30 degree mark. This was all we needed to see to plan an afternoon on some prime steelhead water a short ways north of here. The word was that Saturday was a bit of a mess with slushy water and terrible shelf ice covering many of the pools so we kept our fingers crossed that things would be cleared up by Sunday afternoon. We arrived around 2:30pm to about 30 inches of snow on the ground but the water was looking perfect. Something about the inky black water of winter against a snowy backdrop is intoxicating....

We hiked up to some ideal winter water and were happy to see that nobody was around. Jeff got in at the tailout with his indy rod and I strung up the switch with a skagit and some big streamers. Not five casts into the day, before I had even stepped in the water, I heard Jeff yell from around the bend. For the winter steelhead junkie there is no finer sight than a rod doubled over by the weight of a big burly steelhead after weeks of cold fishless trips.

This fish acted as is expected for a big steelhead in frigid water. No violent runs or cartwheeling leaps, just a down and dirty tug of war. Unfortunately, after several minutes the fish made a surge for some wood and the tippet snapped as Jeff tried to put on the brakes. Jeff has been on the schneid all fall and winter so this was especially crushing. As is usually the case in the winter you may only get one shot if any at all, and the same was true for this day. We tag teamed a handful of prime runs until dark but never found another player. Me swinging for the fences in a deep pool...

The steady, patient gaze of a winter steelheader. The next fish could be on the next cast, in the next pool downriver, or next month....

Probing the depths...

Despite another shutout it was nice to get out again. Winter fishing is always a tough game but this winter the weather and water conditions have really limited my time on the water. I've only been out twice since the new year and this frustrates me to no end. It looks like next weekend warms a little bit again and if thats the case hopefully we can get out and try to put a steelhead in the net.

Arkansas 2011

2011-01-31T17:15:00.001-08:00

Well...the very fact that I am writing this report today instead of Wednesday or Thursday when I was suppose to return from Arkansas is a hint as to how things went. Jeff and I left town early Friday morning for what was suppose to be 4 or 5 days of streamer fishing on the White and Norfork Rivers. This area is heaven for streamer fisherman as both rivers hold world class fish and throwing big flies on sink tips is a perfect way to get up close and personal with some of the largest trout in the country. All of our high hopes and expectations came crashing down, however, when we arrived in Bull Shoals to find the rivers running at 0 units and all but unfishable due to low water.

This was my first time to Arkansas, but both Jeff Cole and Jeff Boks that I was fishing with have been multiple times before and had never seen anything like this. January/February are usually prime months due to energy demand meaning the rivers usually are full of water and perfect for floating and pulling streamers. Extremely low lake levels and warmer than average temps, however, had the rivers looking pathetic and for the most part not even floatable with a drift boat. 12 hours from home meant we didn't have many options so we just sucked it up and decided to make the best of what we had available. We spent Friday night drinking good bourbon and beer and getting streamer boxes ready in the hope of some water releases in the morning.

We awoke Saturday morning to the grim reality, both the White and Norfork were totally bottomed out and streamer fishing was totally out of the picture. With virtually no options we did the only thing we could....rigged up the 5wts and headed to some shoals to nymph fish.

This turned out to be a good idea. It wasn't the way we had wanted to fish but at least it put bends in our rods and got us on the board. 6x fluro tippets with small sow bugs and zebra midges brought 15 rainbows to my hand with this guy being the best of the afternoon.

Cole working some slow deep water than held a ton of fish.

Beautiful scenery and 70 degree weather is pretty hard to complain about.

As the light started to fade I just sat on the banks and enjoyed the warm breeze and company.

Jeff picking out an egg pattern to try at the last run of the day.

And one more bow he brought to hand before we called it a day.

Our group finished we about 35 fish to hand so we felt pretty good about making something of nothing.
Sunday we were up by 5:45 am to head up to the Norfork. They were suppose to be running 1 unit all day which isn't alot but is enough to float and pull streamers. We met up with Larry who owns one of the local fly shops and put 2 boats in the water. Boks and Larry shoved off first and Cole and I followed a few hundred yards behind. Right off the bat I put a pair of small trout in the net on a big black rabbit leech.

In the next half hour I moved several more fish including a few in the 18+ inch range but didn't get a hook into any of them. Soon it was time to switch spots in the boat and I hopped on the sticks while Jeff got ready to strip some bugs.

Right away Jeff moved a 20+ in some deeper slower water. Not far downstream he moved another big brown that this time ate the fly and the battle was on. Some reel issues led to some scrambling in the boat and a minute later the hook pulled from a brown that would have more than likely gone 20-22 inches. Those are always heartbreaking to loose, but considering how little chances for decent water we had it was even worse. When it was my turn to throw again I switched to a cotton candy conrad and right away hooked a solid fish in a quick choppy chute. After a quick battle my first quality trout of the trip was in the net and I was thrilled to see it was a gorgeous cutthroat! 17 inches long and flaming colors, my largest cutt so far.

Another look...

Jeff with a rocky cliff in the background.

Unfortunately it was about this time we noticed that the water seemed to be dropping and it was now a struggle to get the boat through the shoal areas without banging rocks. We later found out that the unexpectedly cut the water off at 10am and we were literally running out of water for the second half of the float. Still we got a couple more decent fish before we reached the takeout.

Cole's meat box...

When we finally reached the takeout at the confluence with the White you could see that river had come down several feet from when we started.

We originally had plans to float this section twice as it was fairly short but with the generation shut down that was no longer an option. Larry told us our best bet would be to just continue on down the White. It was super low as well, but since it had a little added water from the Norfork it was at least floatable and was really our only option if we wanted to continue streamer fishing. The majority of the water was wide, flat, and featureless and we didn't do a lot of casting through areas that looked like this.

Luckily along the way there was some pretty scenery and this cliff was beautiful.

Every once and a while there would be some shoals and some deeper chutes and when we found those we found a fish or two. I managed 3 more smaller fish on a smaller zuddler pattern, the biggest of which was this 14 inch rainbow. I also rolled a bigger brown but never got a solid hookset.

In the last shoal we came to Jeff hit the fish of the trip on a yellow fathead. A viscious attack from shallow water and a spirited fight made this guy a trophy. He was just shy of the 20 inch mark and made the hard work all day worth it.

And the hero shot..

We didn't know it at the time, but that was the last fish of the trip. With more low to no water conditions predicted for the next 2 days and a severe blizzard warning for the entire midwest starting Monday morning we decided to get out of dodge early. After a pizza dinner in Mountain Home Jeff and I packed up shop and took of for an all night ride. We finally got back into GR around noon today and were completely tweaked out from about 30 hrs with no sleep.
Needless to say we were all extremely disappointed about having to cut the trip short and the miserable conditions we had when we were there but at least we made the best of it and still managed to have a good time. A new friend was made, new water was fished, and a few nice fish were brought to hand. All this means is I will need to go again next year when conditions are better.......

Trip Buildup

2011-01-18T22:00:00.000-08:00

Hooray! Today was the first day in over two weeks that we hit the 30 degree mark! I'm not getting excited though, as temps are falling straight down and by Thursday and Friday highs will be in the low teens. Knowing this, and being completely bored from a couple weeks without fishing, Jake and I headed north yesterday to do a little steelheading. The reports lately have been that there are actually a fair amount of fish in the river but conditions have been really bad and good days are few and far between. It was 15 with a stiff breeze when we got there and over a foot of snow on the ground. We bundled up, grabbed the spey rods, and hiked upstream to a few favorite pools.

Right off the bat in the first run we fished I had a pull on a flashy leech pattern and came tight on a fish. Right away I could tell it wasn't a steelhead and after seeing the fish roll I was happy to see it was a nice sized brown. I couldn't believe my eyes when I got the fish to me and saw that he was snagged in the stomach! I've never seen a snagged fish while swinging flies and Jake and I both agreed the fish must have swiped at the fly and gotten snagged on the hookset or when he turned. Still, I couldn't get myself to take a pic....the fish was a 17-18 incher with alot of color though. Unfortunately that was the only action of the day despite fishing some prime water. Here is Jake swinging another popular pool.

Soon the wind had picked up even more and it had started to snow pretty hard. We figured we had toughed it out long enough and headed back to the truck. Even when you get shutout on this river its a good day, its so pretty and peaceful in the winter and you just never know when you'll connect on the steelhead you know is there.

The bright light at the end of the tunnel is that we leave Friday morning for Arkansas and the White River! I have never been down to this fabled river but several of my friends have and they all rave about the huge browns that live there. This will primarily be a streamer trip looking for post spawn browns who are wanting to put some meat on their bones. 7wt and 8wt rods, 250-400 grain sink tips, and big articulated streamers is the name of the game, so naturally I have been busy tying up concoctions of marabou, rabbit, schlappen, etc. I think I should be fairly well covered...

When the generators aren't running there is also some very good nymph fishing in the shoal areas. One of the favorites is the white river y2k bug. I fished this alot in Georgia/NC and apparently the fish love it in Arkansas too. Stupid looking but easy to tie and a fish killer.

One thing that excites me about the nymph fishing is that it will give me the opportunity to fish my new Winston b3x 9ft 5wt for the first time. Anybody that fishes with me knows I am a complete gear junkie and love new rods, reels, lines, etc. This little cartoon was posted by a friend on facebook and pretty much sums up how gullable and easily persuaded I am.

At least I know its mostly marketing and dont fool myself into thinking I'm actually going to catch anymore fish with it. With that being said....this is one hell of a rod! Just look at this spiffy Winston green graphite rod tube.

I have been looking for a real "do it all" 9ft 5wt and I feel that this rod is it. Super light in hand with a crisper feel than the B2x and a slightly stiffer tip. I really like the B2x rods, and have the 8ft 4wt and 9ft 4wts, but I think the B3x's are a nice improvement and thats especially true for 5wts and up where a stiffer tip helps with wind and turning over heavier rigs. I haven't gotten to fish it yet but plan to slime up that grip in a few days. In the meantime I keep wiggling the rod in the house and oogling over how shiny it is!

Needless to say I am a dream come true for these companies marketing departments, especially Winston which is my real soft spot. Oh well you live once! I'll get a report up when I get back next week, hopefully with some huge pissed off browns!

Georgia and the New Year

2011-01-10T12:03:00.000-08:00

A brutal winter continues on in Michigan. We have not gotten very much snow but our temperatures have been freezing cold for about a month with little to no relief in sight. Combine that with a very poor fall run and this marks the worst winter steelheading that I personally have seen. Lucky for me I got in two days of trout fishing while visiting the inlaws in Georgia for Christmas. On the 23rd I met up with my buddy Alex for an afternoon on a favorite mountain creek. It was sunny but pretty chilly and a stiff breeze was blowing. After hiking downstream for a 1/2 mile we got in and started working our way back. The water was super low and clear and made light tippets, small flies, and stealthy approaches necessary.

Right off the bat it was obvious I was a little rusty with the technical game as I botched my first few takes from a quick little chute. Finally I played my cards right and brought this pretty little rainbow to hand.

This same scenario played out for the remainder of the day....I had no trouble finding and hooking fish, but I lost way more than I landed. The takes were very subtle and the small hooks had trouble staying buttoned. Luckily some fish ate the point fly as well...a #16 hetero-genius.

Some skinny water that always seems to hold a few nice fish.

Alex working a deep run that he hooked a handful of fish in.

And one final fish before we left which turned out to be this fat 13 incher. He ate a #20 gun metal zebra midge from the tailout of a deep bucket.

The day after Christmas I had plans to fish with Joe on his property up in the mountains but those quickly got whiped out. Christmas day brought snow...the first snowy Xmas in GA in 130 years, and not just a dusting. The city and suburbs got 2-4 inches, but the higher elevation areas got up to 8 inches. Needless to say steep mountain roads, freezing temps, and inadequate snow removal equipment made the trek to Joe's place a bad idea. Still I wanted to get in one more day of fishing before heading back to Michigan so I went out solo and headed back to the same creek I fished a few days before. Temps in the upper teens and several inches of snow on the ground made me feel like I never left Michigan.

As expected the parking lot was empty and I had the whole creek to myself. This combo of snow and solitude made for a peaceful day on the water.

The temps and snow may have scared off other anglers but the fish didn't seem to mind at all. Small bugs drifted along the bottom of the deepest pockets brought several fish to hand.

I managed to bring 15 fish to hand in about 3 hours, all coming on zebra midges and small nymphs. With my trout fix satisfied I took one more photo of the creek to keep it fresh in my mind until next year.

I haven't strung up a rod since I've been back in Michigan and to be honest, until things improve a little I dont think I will anytime soon. With cabin fever setting in we spent the day yesterday busting brush looking for rabbits. We only saw one which I missed but it was still nice to get out. Jeff and I have plans for a late January/early February trip to either Arkansas or North Carolina in the works depending partly on how my interview goes tomorrow. Either way it looks like I still have a few more fishless weeks ahead of me....looks like more time at the vise for now!

This and That

2010-12-19T11:52:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-13T10:03:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-06T12:31:00.000-08:00

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........

Dirty A$$ Nympher

2010-11-30T11:23:00.000-08:00

Let's start this off with a hilarious clip that was posted on a local fishing message board. Pretty much sums up the swinging vs nymphing debate for steelhead.....

As much as I enjoy swinging flies for steelhead I'll never give up on my roots as a nymph-a-holic. A light switch rod, steelie taper fly line, indicator/bobber, and a egg/nymph combo is what pays the bills when the temps drop and things get tough. With water temps now holding in the upper 30's we are officially into winter mode. Although fish can still be taken on the swing straight through the winter it becomes much less likely and many times an indicator setup is the preferred method. To quote Doc Holliday in Tombstone, "apparently my hypocrisy knows no bounds.".....meaning I'll play hero with the spey rod only as long as I'm still getting into a fish here or there, then its time to get down and dirty.
Luckily the rain that I wrote about last post brought some fish into the local river. The first wave appears to be mostly skips around the 2lb range but they have been aggressive and we've hooked a half dozen or so in the last two trips. Saturday afternoon Jeff and I got out locally to see what the rain brought in and had an incredible few hours on the water. Jeff started off with a small skip from our first stop....

Moving downriver we got in to another nice run and thats when things went completely nuts. In a span of about 45 minutes we hooked 1 nice skip and over a dozen trout. Most of the trout I caught were 9-10 inch rainbows but this nice skip went about 18 inches and fought really well.

At the tail of the run in some deeper water Jeff found a few nicer browns that were about a foot long.

When the action finally stopped in that run we continued on downriver to another beautiful corner that gave up a few fish last year. My first good drift through the sweet spot produced another cartwheeling skip.

We fished another run or two downstream with no luck before hiking back upriver. With light running out we made one more stop at probably my favorite piece of water in this section. Literally my first cast on the inside seam had a bobber down and I felt some solid weight. At first I thought I had found an adult steelie, but it turned out to be a large skip about 20 inches long. No complaints here, he fought well and put a good bend in the rod.....

That was a great way to end the day and we set off back to the trucks.
The next day I went back with my Dad and we fished some water farther downstream. It was really sunny out which made things much more difficult than the day before. We spent a long time probing the first deep pool and neither of us could buy a hookup. I wanted to move upstream but Dad wanted to make one more quick pass through with some new flies. Sure enough, right near the tailout, he got a solid hookup. After a lengthy fight I was able to tail his first steelhead of the year, and also the first adult steelie of the year from this river.

This guy looked like he had been through a war on his journey up river....

Unfortunately that was pretty much the end of the excitement for the day. The fish were turned off and when we met up with Jeff later in the day at some of the runs we fished yesterday the fish wanted nothing to do with our flies. Dad landed one small rainbow and I lost my only hookup of the day which was a nice sized skip. After we left Jeff got some excitement bringing to hand a 17/18in brown, which out of this river is quite a trophy. It rained quite a bit over night and into this morning so hopefully the water levels will rise again and bring in another batch of fish.
Yesterday I floated a river up north with Jeff that we really haven't fished in a few months. Normally this is full blown steelhead time up there, but with low flows and clear water the reports have been minimal and the fishing pressure non-existant. We dropped in around 10am and it didn't take us long to realize how bad things were. We floated over several of the best runs after fishing them that normally hold several fish each and didn't see a single one.

Early on I did hook and loose a upper teener brown that would have been a day maker for me, but that was the end of my action. Jeff hit 2 small bows and then this gorgeous 15 incher on a nuke egg.

Closeup shot...look at the pink hues throughout this fish, truly beautiful!

With the clear water we saw more trout than ever and it truly is an eye opener to see how many there are. The disturbing thing was that same clear water allowed us to see just how barren the river is of steelhead. We saw 3 all day....which in a normal year would be the number you'd expect to see in any one good hole. Im sure the lower river has a few more, but until some substantial rain falls up there to bring new fish in I won't be going back.
Tomorrow the late grouse season opens back up, so more than likely this weekend will be spent in the woods. Temps are suppose to drop big time tonight and stay that way for a couple weeks so the fishing scene could be limited for a while.........

Winter Nears

2010-11-22T13:33:00.000-08:00

Things have gotten tougher in the past week or so. Temps have been cooler and water temperatures are dropping, meaning fish are starting to drop into their winter lies. The big water is still the place to be so I've been hitting it a few times a week. Tuesday Jake and I went up for a few hours of wading. This was Jake's first time out for steelhead this season and it didn't take him long to shake the dust off and start throwing some long casts.

Early on Jake had a few pulls but we struggled to get a hookup. Finally, as dusk approached, I was able to connect on a hot fish from a big tailout on a black/blue intruder. The fight was short lived...a screaming run and two cartwheels later and the line was limp. That proved to be the only action we had for the rest of the day. After a few beers in the parking lot we called it a day and headed home.
Thursday I got out again and fished solo. The weather was perfectly nasty....high in the upper 30's, rain/snow showers, and very few people on the water. I started off with a hard pull in the first run I fished but things were difficult most of the day. After another dunk into the drink I broke for lunch and to warm up. I drove to another access I had never really fished and set out to explore. I fished a few great pieces of water with no luck and then came upon one of the most beautiful pieces of water you could ever hope for.

A few hundred yards of boulder strewn pocket water emptied into a long swift tailout and I immediately regained my confidence. I switched to a black/purple intruder and started casting for the fences. I worked my way down one step at a time and soon was in water within a few inches of the tops of waders. I was about to turn around but something told me to keep going. After sneaking through the deep water I laid out a near perfect cast and as it quartered below me I felt a light tap and then weight. I set the hook and the rod doubled over under the weight of a heavy fish in a ripping current. We played tug of war for 5 minutes or so before I was able to beach an impressive hook jawed buck. I couldnt get any great pictures but the size of this fish was impressive.

And the fly he smacked

After releasing that fish I was gonna leave but decided to fish for another few minutes. Glad I did, because about 10 casts later I hooked a second fish. It turned out to be a skip about 18 inches long and he jumped probably a dozen times before I got him in. As I was fumbling for the camera the hook popped out and he slid back into the water before I could get a picture. Knowing I couldn't do any better I hiked back to the Jeep and called it a day!
Unfortunately it appears my hot streak has run out. I spent 4 or 5 hrs Saturday and all day Sunday on the water and didn't hook a single fish. Saturday I waded with my dad and Jeff. The only hookup went to dad fishing an indy rig in a deep tailout. He fought the fish for several minutes and almost had it beached when the hook pulled. Sunday we did a two boat float, me and Jeff in his boat and Jake and his buddy Mike in the other. 8 miles of river, 4 guys swinging bugs and not one hookup. These are the slumps you gotta get through if you like swinging flies...
Today is much warmer and rainy so I headed to the local water to fish for a few hours. I only fished for about 20 minutes because the water was extremely dirty and lots of debris floating downstream. Hopefully this will bring in some fish and get us setup for the winter. Speaking of winter, it looks like it will start on Wednesday. Temps drop into the low 30's and we are suppose to get 3 straight days of snow. Things could be tough for a while but it won't stop me from trying.......

The Swing is the Thing

2010-11-15T20:21:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe thats its been almost a month since my last post. We moved at the beginning of the month (only about 6 miles from our other place) and have been battling to get our internet setup and working properly. Despite the chore of packing and unpacking I have still found plenty of time to play outside. The fishing has been difficult so far this fall and fish numbers have remained fairly low. Water is super low and gin clear making the bigger rivers the places to look as many of the smaller rivers don't have fishable numbers yet.
I spent a few days earlier in the month poking around on the local waters and didn't touch a single fish. Needing a change of pace this past weekend myself, Jeff, and his buddy Justin decided to do a float on some bigger water where reports were a little better. Not knowing what to expect we brought enough gear along to sink the boat...

Right off the bat, fishing a chuck and duck rig and some egg/nymph combo's, Justin popped two decent rainbows.

Thinking that was a great start we continued on with high hopes....only to hit a wall and struggle for the next several hours. I was commited to swinging all day and despite trying every fly in my box I couldnt buy a single pull. Needing a re-charge we stopped for lunch.

Fat Tire's and brats on the grill were delicious and got us refueled for the last few hours of floating. For reasons unknown, I had a great feeling after lunch that even though we hadn't seen a single steelie all day we would put one in the net before day's end. Sure enough, near dusk and a half hour from the takeout, I laid out a long cast and let it swing across the current. When the line was straight below me and dangling I went to sit down when I felt a jolt and then heard the drag screaming. A cartwheeling fish woke everyone up and things got very serious in the boat. After a few blistering runs and no fewer than a half dozen jumps the fish was in the net and my first steelhead of year was in the books. This fat hen took a sculpin in about 3ft of water...

Hero Shot...

And the release...

Needless to say I was beyond satisfied and took over on the oars for the remainder of the float. That was the one and only steelhead of the day, but Justin did tag a beautiful rainbow on the cnd rig right before the take out.

It had been a long cold day but persistence paid off and we left the water feeling pretty good.
A few days later we met up again, this time with plans for a morning hunt and then some wade fishing in the afternoon. I didnt take many pics of the hunt so the long story short is that we hunted hard in some warm weather and found quite a few birds. They were pretty concentrated around areas with standing water and we pushed 10 or 11 around in about 3 hrs. I didnt have any shots but Jeff did and he made it count. After firing twice on a left to right crosser we weren't sure if he had hit it or not. we looked and looked to no avail...that is until 10 minutes later when Justin's dog Hailey came back with a dead grouse in her mouth.

Mid day we cooled down and pounded some lunch before heading to the river.

The fishing plan was to wade some big water and teach Justin how to fish with the 2 hander. After a while Justin was getting some decent casts out and I headed downriver a ways to fish some broken water with lots of structure. Right in the middle of a perfect V created by two huge rocks my streamer got thumped and stayed down. I swept the rod to the bank and felt a few big headshakes before the fish came exploding from the water. It tail walked like a largemouth and then threw itself straight in the air about eye level. I yelled for the guys upriver and then started to plan how to land this thing. After some tricking wading and dodging a big logjam I got the fish to the shallows and Jeff was able to tail him. Another victim of the sculpin....

Grip n grin...

That turned out to be the only hookup of the day and soon it was about dark. I finished the day with a full baptism in the river thanks to a big slippery boulder in some quick water but I didn't care. I was sopping wet, freezing cold, and happy as hell.
This past weekend one of my old neighbors from NJ, Mr. Mosca, came to visit. Mr. Mosca has always been like a grandpa to me and I spent countless summer days over the years fishing with him. Part of my passion for fishing today stems from those days drowning worms in the swift waters of the Esopus all those years ago. Saturday we all drove up north a ways to show Mr. Mosca some of the beautiful water this state has to offer. Dad brought along his gear and I planned to teach him some spey casts from the bank and hope for a willing fish. After some serious frustration with the casting he started to get a little more line out and things were looking up. After an hour it was getting cold and we were all ready to go grab some lunch in town. Dad neared the spot I hit my steelie a few days before and was getting ready to get out of the water when his rod lurched. Stunned, he set the hook and his first hookup with the 2 hander was underway. It quickly became obvious it wasnt a steelhead and we got real excited when Dad yelled "its a big brown!" After a few minutes Dad was able to tail this stunning brown in full spawning dress.

21 inches long, 4+ lbs and it had a mouth full of teeth complete with a big kyped jaw. A truly impressive looking fish...

And finally the release made with shaking hands....

As the fish swam off I high fived Dad and we left knowing it couldn't end on a better note. Thats Dad's biggest ever brown. When we first saw it we immediately thought it was a lake run, but after a closer look I feel pretty confident it was just a big resident fish in spawning colors. Either way it was a real treat to see and photograph and Dad was beaming for the rest of the day. The tug truly is the drug.........

Upland Goodness

2010-10-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

With our lack of rain so far this fall the rivers continue to be extremely low and gin clear. Not only does this make the trout fishing difficult it also keeps the steelhead from starting their fall pilgrimage. Normally by this time of year there are enough steelhead around to give you a real shot at a fish if you know where to look but this year thats just not the case. Don't get me wrong, there are a few around including a few I've seen myself, but in reality until we get some rain that fishery will remain a long shot.

Less time on the river, however, means more time in the grouse woods. Although I shot my first grouse and woodcock 14 years ago this is the first year that I have been really serious about chasing these great upland birds. Sunday I got out with my dad and Jeff and we headed north to some woods we've had our eyes on. Long story short is that this turned out to be the best day I've ever spent in the woods. We found lots of woodcock early and I had two birds in the bag before I had even broken a sweat. Woodcock continued to me the main entertainment most of the day providing everyone with some chances and plenty of action. Like a switch, however, we started to flush some grouse as we reached some of the farthest cover from the truck. As we followed up a bird that nobody could shoot at Dad was able to take this woodcock.

Not long after that Jeff and I had a bird go up 20 yards in front of us. We proved that finding grouse is just half the battle as we both proceeded to fire and miss on that bird. 10 minutes later, however, while following up a woodcock that my dad had shot at, Jeff flushed and shot a gorgeous red phase grouse. As he ran to where the bird went down he kicked up the woodcock and shot it as well. Not a traditional double but an amazing feat none the less!

A short while later as we worked through some young popple with thick under growth a grouse went up off to my left. A quick shot and the bird went down with Lucy quick to pounce on it! As Jeff ran over to get the bird he kicked up yet another woodcock and dropped it easily. Talk about excitement!

This is what a great day in the north woods should look like!

By the time we got back to the truck we were exhausted. A couple cold beers and some lunch to celebrate an excellent hunt was in order.

And the finally tally for the day, 2 grouse and 6 woodcock.

With a few hours of daylight left we headed to the river to fish for a little bit. The highlight was this big male salmon that Dad hit on an egg sucking leech. They dont bite frequently, but sometimes out of anger they will snap at larger streamers.

I fished small eggs behind the redds and found a couple trout to play. This 14 inch brown gobbled up a small peach glo bug.

I lost another fish about the same size but soon it was dark and time to head home.....quite a day!

Tuesday it was more of the same and Jeff and I got into the woods about 11am. Unlike Sunday it took us quite a while to find our first bird. The woodcock were sitting in some really non-traditional scrub pine with some light undergrowth. Once we found them, however, the action was hot and heavy and soon our game bags were full of feathers as we both got our limit of 3 birds. We only saw 1 grouse all day which I had a decent shot at but missed. Another great day in the woods with a good friend.....

We stopped to fish for a couple hours again and it was more of the same. Jeff hit this nice brown while searching for steelhead in a deep run.

I hooked a handful of trout but they all managed to get off before I got them in. Nothing very big even though there were tons of spawning fish around dusk. I did hook a very fresh small King in some deep water behind gravel that had me fooled for a second thinking I may have hit the first steelhead of the season...talk about disappointing when I finally got a look at what it was! Once again darkness came quickly and it was time to head home.

Yesterday was Jeff's last day of vacation and despite plans for a great streamer trip it was a total bust. We found out on the way up that the river we wanted to float was in the middle of a large electroshocking study. Unfortunately we only had streamer gear with us which made it hard to decide on a backup plan. We finally settled on some lower water in the same system we had fished the last two days. The super low clear water made for tough conditions and we didnt move a good fish all day. We did move plenty of smaller fish but none of them actually committed except for this little brown Jeff got early on.

For the final hour I tied on an egg and basically swung and stripped it around the gravel since I only had a sink tip line. Surprisingly I hooked three or four trout including a foot long brown with this non-conventional method but they all got off before i got them to the boat. Overall it was disappointing but given the water conditions I dont think any of us were surprised by the results. We need rain bad before these rivers will fish well again.....

October So Far

2010-10-10T17:18:00.000-07:00

So far October has been a really tough month. I've bee out in the woods chasing birds and on the rivers chasing trout and have put in an incredible amount of time for very little reward. Last Saturday was quite cold and looked like a great day to throw streamers. We headed north to a piece of water I've never fished before....a place that has a "feast or famine" reputation and is considered one of the prettiest stretches of river in the state. Around 9:30 we dropped the boat in down a difficult launch....

The water in this stretch looks extremely western in style with lots of fast chutes, boulders, and broken water. This mixed with the start of the fall colors made for a very picturesque float.

The fishing was, as expected, difficult. I hit a small brown right off the bat and Jeff hit about a footlong rainbow...that was it! I had two more brief hookups with teen sized fish and we moved quite a few smaller fish, but the big boys never showed. Needless to say we tried a bunch of different streamers, from standard wooly bugger styles all the way up to 9 inch long rabbit strip concoctions.

On a day with alot of casting and battling wind we needed to make sure we kept well fed and hydrated.

Though we never found the fish that makes this section famous it was nice float and one I hope to make at least once more before its steelhead season. A couple more shots of the river in the lower sections...

Mid week I went out with Jake looking for the elusive musky on the fly. Jake has been going for a month or two now and has had several fish follow his fly but not commit. We stayed pretty local and got out on the water for the afternoon fish. Jake motoring us to some submerged weed beds....

Chasing musky on the fly is extremely demanding! Throwing huge air resistant flies on 9-12wts with heavy sink tips takes some getting use to.

Despite fishing for about 3 hrs we never saw a musky. Jake moved one good sized bass right off the bat but that was the end of the action. There is a reason they call these fish the fish of a thousand casts...and the next morning my casting shoulder knew all about it!
Yesterday Jeff and I had plans for an all day cast and blast. We've been killing a few woodcock but the grouse have remained extremely elusive...thus we wanted to get some revenge. With drift boat in tow we got to our first spot around 9am.

It didn't take long for Jeff to put a woodcock in the game bag.

We saw one other woodcock that we never shot at, and then not long before leaving for our second spot I missed a decent grouse shot that would have been prime if I was paying more attention. With that miss eating at me we went to our second spot. Not 5 minutes into the second spot I had the best chance at a grouse I've ever had or ever will have. It flushed not 10 feet from me off of a fairly sparse hillside and flew right out into the wide open path I was on. I swung on the bird and was giddy with happiness before I ever even shot thinking in my head that my second grouse of the season was in the bag. You can imagine my expression when I fired a "sure" shot and watched the bird round the corner and disappear behind the aspens. Between my four seasons of hunting in upstate NY and my two + seasons of chasing birds in Michigan I've never had anything close to a look as good as that...so naturally its been eating at me ever since. It didn't help that we only saw 1 other grouse the rest of the day. Luckily at our last spot we found a few more woodcock....I had one quick shot and missed, while Jeff shot at three and tagged one more. By 1:30 the temp was a steamy 74 degrees and we were exhausted. We hiked the 2 track back to the truck and got ready for our float.

When we got to the launch I couldn't believe how long and clear the river was. It looked worse than some of the times we ran it mid-summer and I knew we were in for a hard day. The game plan was to fish eggs behind the spawning Kings and catch some browns. We wound up hitting a few small rainbows but couldnt keep our hooks out of the Kings. I couldn't believe how many there were, and in the low water fouling them was almost impossible to avoid. Just for kicks I landed one of these ugly bastards and Lucy found it quite entertaining.

Each stop we made Lucy would look around on the banks for fish and a couple times we found her gnawing on a dead fish, just like a bear.

We finally took out around dark and were completely exhausted. Once again we failed to get the grouse and browns we were after but it was still alot of fun to be enjoying the outdoors on such a great day. I'm not sure what plans I have during the week, possibly a float on Tuesday, and hopefully a couple day jog over to Steelhead Alley in PA. Pray for rain!