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

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