Michigan Steel!!

Last weekend, Dad and I made our annual fall trip to northwestern Michigan tribs.  Western Michigan received significant rain fall at the beginning of last week and we didn't know whether the rain would be beneficial or a problem - the rain was beneficial.  The river we fished looked beautiful.

We went into the weekend set on swinging up some fresh steelhead that came in with the higher flows. Saturday morning the water looked great but seemed cold.  Saturday morning marked the end of a brief cold front.  And like the temperatures, the fishing needed some time to heat up.  Nevertheless, we persevered and picked up a great buck and a hooked another.  Also, we got a couple of nice brown trout,one which was caught on the swing.  However, despite the favorable looking water conditions, we had to deal with lots of people and, in the afternoon, high, warm, blue-bird skies - not your best steelhead conditions.

To our benefit, Saturday night stayed warm.  On Sunday, we got to the water well before sunrise (still weren't the first boat at the launch) and started to hit the swinging runs.  The air and water temperatures were warm (the water ticked up a couple degrees over night).  Thankfully, the skies were overcast - conditions seemed promising.  Then, as my juicy leech pattern started swinging through a sweet little run I felt a bump, followed by another, then a weighty pull.  I waited to set the hook (unlike usual) and when I lifted the rod and a big dime bright-hen freaked out.  My personal best on the swing (see below).

Dad followed suit with another beautiful hen and decided why stop there? A hole or two later - wham! A hot buck crushed him on the swing and took off down stream causing all of us to give chase.

That Sunday we went 3 for 3 on the swing.  On that river you can't expect much more and with steelies the hook/land ratio is more than can be expected.

As always, Jeff Hubbard of Outfitters North worked hard for us, put us on fish (in less than favorable conditions at times) and taught us a few things that made us better fishermen.  I, being relatively new to the spey game, am totally captivated by the casting (and the flies).  Jeff reminded me that spey casting is just a piece of spey fishing.  While a perfect circle-c with a sweet loop is something to strive for, this fishing is all about the swing - if a simple roll cast will set you up for a perfect swing then a simple roll cast is the cast to make.  Better yet, he clued us in on how to read a run and and set up a proper swing, which is all about positioning.  And, as always, he was right.  See the results below.

Feds OK Christo's canopy over river in Colorado

This is the most ridiculous thing I have heard in a long time.  The artist Christo got the go-ahead to  temporarily hang a canopy of silvery, translucent fabric above a stretch of the Arkansas River in Colorado.

All the narcissism aside, you don't need add art to that part of the world.  Hey Christo, just head on out there and take a look around, mother nature did the work already. 

This "art" is equivalent to someone walking into the MET and painting over a Monet or editing "to be or not to be" out of William Shakespeare's Hamlet.  

The article quotes Christo as saying "[a]ny artist who paints, makes sculptures, the only thing he or she likes is that the artwork makes people think."  If the goal is to make people think, then I'll tell you what - mission accomplished.  People have thought long and hard.  Job well done.  Now, abandon the idea before true beauty is defaced and everybody wins, including the environment for once.

Cool video and reminder

Lets start by way of a hypothetical:  You are standing on the bow of a skiff, floating on 5 or 6 feet of gin clear water, staring down a mangrove shoreline.  Then, in the distance you see them - three, maybe four, large shapes are gliding toward you down the edge of the trees – tarpon!  You’ve got time, you settle your nerves, try to gauge when you should let it fly.  They’re still coming, steady, not slow, but definitely happy.  Now, they’re almost in range, your heart quickens, adrenaline starts coursing through your veins, you are as focused as you’ve ever been.  You cast, you slide the fly, strip, strip, strip, WHAM! You strip strike, you feel something but the hook doesn’t catch.  What do you do?

At this point, in spite of my better judgment, I tend to swear, maybe throw my hat, or the classic, put the hands on the hips with the head down pose.  In any case, when I allow those reactions to occur I have stopped fishing.  As you might expect, that is the wrong move!  With tarpon and other predatory fish that eat other fish or crustaceans (from sharks to carp), the predator is used to the prey putting up a fight.  So, even if you have pricked the fish with the hook, the game may be far from over (see the foregoing video at 5:25 forward).

 

Don’t do what I usually do and freak out about your momentary misfortune.  Stay calm, keep your eye on the fish and what it is doing.  If it is still within casting range I would be willing to bet it will still eat (likely wondering how its food magically disappeared from view without ending up in its belly).  Although I missed all those tarpon in the hypothetical by doing a premature freak-out, on many other occasions (with brown trout, bass, carp, bonefish and a host of other species) I have been able to  hook up with a fish that failed to connect on the first go.

By way of example, I had a large bonefish in deep grass follow my all the way up to  about 5 ft from my rod tip, after 3 or 4 casts, finally eat and hook up.  Granted, the deep grass helped, and that bonefish seemed particularly hungry, but had I not hung in there of course I wouldn’t have caught that fish.

A simple little common sense reminder - it ain’t over until the fish is out of view.

2011 Poon Season: The Eats from Ganesh Chatani on Vimeo.

SW WI Fishing Report

I had to get one last trip to SW Wisconsin before the season closed.  The last weekend of the season is not ideal  because everyone has the same idea, but crowded water is better than no water.  Frankly, it wasn't that crowded and there is a lot of water to share.  I had a beginner-buddy of mine with me and we hit the timber coulee system.  

Saturday was tough. We ended up getting only a half-dozen or so after a full day of fishing.  All came within a 50 yard stretch and mostly on foam with rubber legs.  It was fun to get some top water action and we ended the day with a nice, fat 13 incher wearing his fall colors.  I thought they were going to be on fire but I ended the day humbled - that's fishing.

Sunday was short but much better.  A low pressure system moved in overnight and turned the fish on.  My buddy got a few on small nymphs (18s) and I, still feeling yesterdays desperation, put on a wooly bugger.  Man do fall brownies like wooly buggers.  I hadn't fished a bugger up there in a while, opting for dries and nymphs, but it was fun to watch those little brownies go head-over-heels for that wooly.  Per the norm, I lost a VERY nice fish, which I let take me under an under-cut bank.  I could feel him thrashing as I tried to guide him out then he was gone (probably upper teens).  

Good way to end the trip.  If you can get up there before closing time, they were taking small thin-bodied nymphs and we got a few on scuds, I used a black foam fly with rubber legs with success, and of course streamers.

Tight lines.

Quick Fishing Report

Unfortunately my report is based solely on observation. I've had to work going on 16 days straight, so I haven't had a chance to do much else. However, I decided to on a walk down by Chicago's lake front this morning with my better half before heading into work once again. I observed the following:

1. A man holding a spinning rod in one hand and a clear plastic bag containing a steelhead in the other (probably a stocker but I don't love it);

2. a gentlemen who claims (I believe him) to have a caught a large king last week; and

3. a young boy with his dad holding a 5-6 pound Coho (or small king I didn't get the best look at it).

Seems to me like the fish are close.

Tight Lines.

Not For the Faint of Heart - Duckling vs. Pike Guess Who Wins.....

And I Thought Brownies Were Mean

Bull Trout Eats Cutthroat Trout Underwater: Fly Nation TV from Fly Max Films on Vimeo.