Freezing Guides, Singing Reels

Today I went fishing with two friends, Dane and Kyle. We fished a west Michigan river and we did all right. Between us, we hooked 3 steelies and several trout. Here's the one I landed.


Check that. This is the one Kyle landed, with only bare hands and a Michigan mitt in 35 degree water in below freezing weather. The guy is a trooper. Isn't it funny that nothing on your body is cold when your holding a chrome steelhead?

There are definitely fish in the rivers. I have a hunch that all the west Michigan rivers received a decent amount of chrome with the last high water event. In the next week, I'll be fishing the east side as well, to do some "research."

On a sidenote, I used a switch rod today and thoroughly enjoyed it. Hooked and landed my first steelhead on it as well today. You can get mile-long bobber drifts with that thing...


This blood is probably from a steelhead that was not as lucky as the one we released.


Here's Dane fishing a good lie.