Springtime in the Mitt

Hey there folks,

I have been very busy around here the past couple months. Work, fishing, and watching little Jack grow up have pretty much consumed every waking moment for me lately, though it hasn't been at all bad ; ) In fact, it's been quite good.

Fishing has been VERY good. I can't remember ever having a steelhead run like this year. Maybe I'm just too young to remember the "good old days," but the numbers of fish have been impressive to say the least. Last week, the Pere Marquette looked to be in the peak of the salmon run, which, for those of you in the know, means INSANE numbers of fish. Only this time, they were STEELHEAD!

Though the hookup to landing ratio hasn't been great with hot spring fish, hookups have been plentiful and many have been giving us a full aerial display.

On the West side of the state, the steelhead run is winding down, but the East side is just heating up. I'll bet there will be fish around into June over there. I can only hope that the West side was only a precursor for what the East side has to offer this year.

I CAN'T WAIT for trout season this year! With all of the water in rivers across the state, the Brownies will be fat, sassy, and STRONG this spring. The first good dry fly day is something I look forward to every new year. There is nothing like watching a solid brown sipping a bug off the surface...

Whether it is steelhead, trout, Walleye, smallies, or muskies, our state has a ton to offer in the way of fishing. Pick your poison, and get after em', because there is no better place on earth for a fisherman than Michigan in springtime!


I see a reflection...


Chrome Hen


Ken with a nice Buck


Yours truly with a bruiser


Nice fish Paddy


EB Brown


Mike M. works a slot

Singing in the Rain, Fishing in the Snow

The river had been frozen completely across for the past 2 months. It took two days of higher-than-normal flows to blow the ice out. The ice chunks thrown on shore by the increase in water were a solid 3-4 inches thick, and rather mean-looking when stacked three feet high.

As Dane and I made our way to the river I said that we'd "be heroes or zeroes," not knowing at the time whether there was ice on top of the river. When we made our way around the corner and saw open, flowing stream, we each let out a small gasp of excitement and made our way down.

No footprints on the bank, but fisherman were present at our honey hole. We moved upstream and hit the producer. A bend that starts as a shallow riffle and then dives into a fast run of medium depth, it ends with a deep, froggy-water lie, perfect for drifting a bobber through. Soon, it starts to snow.

Knowing the bucket, I worked out line, imagining what I would do when the fish took the fly. On the second cast a stick snags my fly, oh, wait, THE STICK IS MOVING, fish on! Here we go, keep the line tight. Fight her down through a heavy riffle only to have Dane tail the beautiful girl on the inside of the next downstream bend. Seven pounds of chrome. Nothing better.

Awhile longer, and we move again. The snow is really falling now. Up to an inch of snow covers Dane and I, and golfball sized snowflakes are dropping all around us. Dane catches a nice brown...

We arrive at another popular spot, which Dane always claims is the "best spot on the river." He proves it. Hooking a nice hen, he fights it through the rapids at the bottom of the run. Keep it tight. KEEP IT TIGHT, I'm thinking, watching Dane play the fish expertly into the shallows were I tail her. We get the obligatory hero shots, and send the lil' lady on her way. "I love watching as they swim off," Dane says.

It's snowing even harder now, and seven inches of the white stuff covers what was formerly bare-earth when we had started the day. Good fishing in a snowstorm. What an incredible thing! Ended up landing those two adults and one skip, with a nice little brownie thrown in between the both of us. The weather, however, is what we'll remember about this day...


Frozen river 2/18/11


Open river 2/20/11


My steely


Fighting a fish in the snow 101


Happy guy

Newbies

Had the chance to take good a good friend and fisherman "P," out this past weekend. New to the fly rod/steelhead game, but not new to fishing, we set out to hook (and hopefully land) his first steelhead. We accomplished the goal...twice. I also threw one in the mix and overall we had a very good day.

I just may get more satisfaction out of watching a person hook/land their first steelhead. The king of freshwater. The standout part of the day was when P hooked into a dime bright steelhead. It took him for a nice ride and soon parted ways, but it left an indelible impression on both of us. Very cool moment.

For those of you more experienced steelheaders, try and take someone out who is newer to the game. Challenge yourself. The results can be even more rewarding than hooking the fish yourself.

Long Winter

As I write this, I am looking out the window at one and a half feet plus of snow. There certainly is no lacking in the white stuff this year. No lacking in the cold department either. It has made things tough on the open water fisherman. Many of my favorite stretches of stream are frozen this time of year.

Icefishing "scratches the itch," but it certainly does not do the justice to cabin fever that a dancing steelhead will. This year has been slow on the hardwater front as well, with chub fattened Walleye that are reluctant to eat. We are catching dinks, but keepers are few and far between. Underwater camera pics show their presence but an overabundance of shad in Saginaw Bay this year has them fat and sassy.

Every "warm up," in the weather has harkened me back to the stream. On the west side of the state, we have been managing about 3 tangles with chrome a day. The east side rivers are frozen (some of the west side rivers are too).

Went fishing with new friends Matt and Paul this past Sunday. New to the PM, but not new to steelhead fishing, these guys are good fisherman. They approach a day of fishing like a puzzle to solve. Each drift can give you another piece to the puzzle.

Matt wraps some sweet rods. You can check em' out here. These really are some of the nicest looking rods I have ever seen. The guy wraps a great looking bug too...

Paul is a west coast fisherman. Not Michigan's west coast, the real west coast, Western Washington to be exact. Paul has the confidence and steelhead sense to be successful anywhere he fishes.

All three of us landed fish yesterday, going 3 for 4 total on chrome with about a half dozen trout thrown in. Not too shabby for a 32 degree day. We didn't even get to fish some of the more consistant producing spots as there were quite a number of folks out there as well.

This time of year can hold surprises. Pockets around heavily fished holes start holding fish as they disperse because of the commotion fishermen bring. Finding these spots can make or break your day.


Close Up


Headshot, Matt's fish


Matt with chromer 2/6/11


Cold fishing 1/9/11


Hooked up in the slush 1/9/11


Doing the "Steelhead stab"


Paul's fish


2/6/11



Yours truly with a double stripe buck


Beat up buckeroo from December


Streamers designed to piss off a steelhead! (hopefully)


23 inch Wally




A rod that Matt wrapped, check em' out here

Nice Day

"When long faces are seen around gravel, always look to the pockets." This quote is from good friend Dane Ward, and it could not have been more true than yesterday. While the locals could be seen hawking gravel looking for fish trying to do the spawning thing, the real biters came from the dark water in and around that same gravel.

I think that the run is really winding down over there. While I hooked a really good number of fish, other folks I talked to were not doing so hot. So goes it I guess. As for the run winding down, the rivers up and down the west side need water bad, and if they don't get it soon the steelhead congregating around the mouths of rivers will reabsorb their eggs or milt and head back out to the big lake. To anyone reading this, get your headdress out and DO YOUR RAIN DANCE! After the big push of fish a few weeks ago, rivers over there have not seen any good numbers of fresh steelhead. Friends fishing the Pere Marquette in the past week have lamented to me about the lack of new fish showing up.

Simply put, a lack of snow has equaled a lack of runoff. Our easy winter has ambushed our steelhead run this spring. Prayer for rain and be courteous out there...


A steelie on "Phil's beach"


Catch and Release


Purdy buck


Phat hen

Chrome Dome

Got out for some fishing/guiding with a friend from Wyoming yesterday. It was some of the best steelheading I ever had. The fishing was plain out of sight. Unfortunately, I spent the whole day with a lingering sickness that started Wednesday night. However, hooking fish after fish after fish will keep your spirits up pretty well I'd say.

Matt had never flyfished for steelhead before, and he still managed to bag 3 steelhead, 1 huge walleye, a few trout, and some "bugle trout" (a.k.a. suckers). After some instruction, Matt got the hang of it and we finished the day strong with each of us hooking a lot of fish.

Sorry about the short report, I am still feeling rather sick and I think some sleep is in order...


Chrome hen from a hole


Matt with another big hen


Myself with a good hen


A salmon head. Dead salmon provide a lot of extra nutrients for the river and the organisms that thrive in and around it.


Matt's handsome buck


Matt's 8 lb + walleye


Nice brownie


One of Matt's "bugle trout." Look how happy he was to catch it haha


Catch and Release

These fish are only a sampling of what was caught during the day. Above all, I got to spend time with a friend that I hadn't seen in a long, long time. Thank goodness for good friends and great times!

Great Morning

Had a chance today to explore a small great lakes trib that I had not visited in a while. When I arrived the water was very stained, but the particular river I was fishing has a reputation for this. When I decided to fish despite the conditions, I had no idea what to expect. I soon found out however, that the steelhead and trout had absolutely no problems with the stained water. They bit well all morning, mostly on egg patterns. While the two steelhead I landed were skippers, I hooked 2 others that were each around 4 pounds or slightly larger. A lot of small, wild steelhead smolts around today, a very good sign for the future.

Small stream steelheading has a special allure to me. Hooking and fighting a raging steelhead in close quarters requires stealth, precise drifts, and good fish-fighting ability. I learned to salmon and steelhead fish north of the 45th parallel, where the rivers run cold and clean. For example, one of the rivers up north is so clear that a person can literally stand on the riverbank and count the stones on the river bottom in a 6 foot deep hole.

I took my early lessons learned from those northern steelhead rivers, and applied them to other small rivers in our state. Tight little roll casts, the kind you may not learn from a casting instructor, become normal on the stream. A 6-inch difference in a drift can make a world of difference. Holding water is different. In fact, fishing a small stream is just that, different.


20" hen skip


lil' smolt


19" male skip


bobber fishing a good run

40 Degree Weather

A 40 degree day is like gold to a winter Steelhead fisherman. On these days, fish are summoned from their sulked winter mode and begin moving towards pockets and pools around gravel. While people fishing deep holes can get blanked, fisherman hitting "secondary" spots will often hook fish.

Today was just such a day. Starting off at my favorite pool, I fished for nearly an hour without hooking a fish. I moved upstream to the next pool, only to leave again with the same results. In between spots, I noticed a small pool at the top of a fast run. I stripped out line, and on the second drift through, I hooked and landed a beautiful 6-pound buck (who turned out to be a little camera shy ;). The pattern of hooking up in pocket water continued throughout the next 4 hours of fishing. All of the trout and Steelhead hooked today were holding in less than 5 feet of water.

The day before was much more uneventful, with a couple Steelhead hooked and lost. I did, however, land a very nice Brown Trout which is pictured below. The fish that were lost were hooked on 4 lb test floro, and let me tell you, trying to land a chromer on 4 lb is challenging. Sometimes it seems like the difference between 6 lb test and 4 lb test is like night and day.

In fishing this weekend, I realized that all the rivers on the West side really need more water. Either a big snowmelt or a rain is needed to "shuffle the deck," and bring newer fish into the river systems...


29" hen caught on an egg. Great battle...


19" Brown Trout

Some Days

Some days are better than others, or so goes the phrase, which seems to describe fishing to a tee sometimes. On Saturday, Jim and myself walked in on a fairly pressured piece of water and managed to hook 5 Steelhead between us. Jim went 2 for 3, I went 0 for 2. Got the big donut. It's only the second time its happened since December. Jim and I fished hard all day, and saw more people in boats then on foot. Friends I talked to faired well also. It has been a great winter over there, with good numbers of fish in most West Michigan rivers.


Jim with a nice hen


This fish was sweet. Notice the scar on its jaw. It provides good roof of catch and release regs working. It enables a single fish to be caught a number of times. In winter, the catch and release sections of any given steelhead river will almost always hold more fish.