Your search returned 5 items (most recent reports for all waters in ) Now showing items: 1 - 5.
Manistee River - October 6th, 2009
supplied by: Tight Loops Flyfishing RECORDED:48 °FISHING: Excellent
OCTOBER 6, 2009
WOW! What a rollercoaster we’ve been on this past month! Between trout fishing, salmon fishing and upland bird hunting it’s been an absolute whirlwind.
So, lessee. Start with trout. Both the Au Sable River and upper Manistee River have been producing good rises of brown trout and brookies. Size 14 mahoganies seem to be the best, followed by size 18 olive and tan elk-hair caddis.
I’d have to say the most disappointing aspect to this summer was the absence of grasshoppers. August was cool and damp. I guess it simply shut them off, and that’s a shame because the Hopper Hatch is my favorite of the year.
Dennis Pace, who owns the advertising agency in Lansing for which Kate freelances, brought John Willy of Ferris University north a couple of weeks ago and we floated the Manistee.
There weren’t a lot of fish rising, but the guys “pounded-em-up” and caught a couple of very nice brookies and some respectable browns.
Last week, the Association of Great Lakes Outdoors Writers (AGLOW) held it’s annual meeting at Treetops Resort in Gaylord. I volunteered to take some of the fellows fishing and hunting, and Paul Beachnau, Executive Director of the Gaylord Convention and Tourism Burea readily accepted.
So, P.J. Perea, managing editor of the National Wild Turkey Federation magazine and Paul Smith, outdoors editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, went to the Boyne River in search of Chinook salmon.
Guess what? We found them! The run is still very fresh—which is understandable since the Boyne is only seven or eight miles long!—and both of them hooked up several times.
Since the Boyne is so small (Kate wades it in hip boots during the summer) actually landing these 15-to-30-pound salmon is a challenge. But the guys had a great time tangling with them in such a beautiful environment.
I was back on the Boyne last Friday with Dan Laczynski and his old high school pal Stan Matoska. Dan’s fished with before in Florida, and decided that both of them needed to get out of Chicago for a couple of days.
Dan’s a muckety-muck with Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, and Stan’s a SWAT Team cop. Talk about PRESSURE!
We had floated the Au Sable from Thendara to Wakely the previous day—absolutely gorgeous with blue sky, sunshine, and fall colors on most of the trees. The fish even co-operated. Sort of. They raised a respectable number, if not spectacular.
But they certainly got all they wanted on the Boyne. The grin on Stan’s face in the Featured Photo tells you all you need to know! Now they just have to work out the logistics for a trip to Florida. Winter Getaway? Summer tarpon migration?
Ah, so much to do, so many fish to catch, and such little “free time.” But, as I’ve mentioned before, Sparse Gray Hackle once wrote “The trout do not rise in Greenlawn Cemetery.”
The lower Manistee below Tippy Dam and the Pere Marquette River near Baldwin also are loaded with Chinook, and steelhead. It’s a great time to be fishing and hunting in Michigan.
Speaking of hunting…
ENGLISH SETTER UPDATE
I took Phil Larson, of Boone, Iowa, and Brian Smith upland gunning during the AGLOW week and Ghost and Heart showed off pretty well. They put up seven grouse and eight woodcock. All of them are still flying!
John Hamilton, Peter Burchfield, and Mark Bolish—all from Ligonier, PA-- fared even better last week. Sort of. Ghost and Heart “flew” 18 grouse and 9 woodcock during the day we spent together at several of my favorite coverts.
Alas, the only bird that fell was a woodcock by Peter.
Heart, who’s two years old, still needs some “training wheels,” so Bill Ross and I put him on the ground yesterday after Ghost had a bump on her leg looked at by Grayling vet Paul Mesak.
Little Guy was doing great. Then a grouse must have flushed out ahead of him. FOUR AND A HALF HOURS later, as we were finally leaving the cover after leaving my hunting coat on the ground, Ross stopped his Jeep and walked back to me cradling a very wet boy in his arms!
After we got home I took Ghost out front and she nailed four woodcock. Unfortunately, I performed miserably on the two at which I had shots.
So, with heavy rain in today’s forecast I took Heart out front. He worked very hard, stayed with me, and had one point on a grouse that got skittish and flew out of the alders before I could get into position.
We had one other woodcock go up—right in front of the house—but neither Heart nor I had anything to do with that. I think he’s just a wily bird who’s heard the beeper collar before!
We’ll see. I’ve got a lot of trips booked during the next two weeks. Let’s hope the weather—and Heart—co-operate!
AuSable River - July 25th, 2009
supplied by: Tight Loops Flyfishing RECORDED:75 °FISHING: Excellent
JULY 25, 2009
If you are really into catching large brown trout on tiny dry flies, you’d better start making plans to fly, drive or crawl to the pristine waters of Michigan’s lower peninsula.
Soon!
Baetis (Blue Wing Olives) in sizes 16 and 18, and Tricorythodes (White Wing Blacks) in sizes 20-24, are all OVER the place. The Au Sable River, with it’s long stretches of gravel, has been especially generous with those hatches in the past week.
The Big Bang hasn’t happened yet with grasshoppers—the weather’s still been cool and damp. BUT, the short-term forecast is calling for dry, hot weather beginning next week.
Make sure you have an ample supply of Hoppers ranging in size from 10 to 6, with the full color spectrum of yellow, tan, cream, chocolate brown, and olive. You might want to put a dab of red marabou under the wing on some of them.
And there’s no shortage of controversy over whether or not the Hoppers should have legs. Stop in any fly shop in northern Michigan and you’ll get a stern lecture from each proponent of “No legs”; “Knotted-hackle legs”; “Rubber hackle legs and the list goes on.
One thing is certain: ‘Hoppers will bring very large brown trout to the surface in the middle of the day!
Work the log jams (in Michigan the locals call them “sweepers”) and put the fly rightnext to the logs. Three inches out might bring out a Big Boy. Six inches is doubtful. A foot from the log? You might as well be eating a sandwich.
Sure, you’ll hang up the fly every now and then. But, that’s the challenge of going after The Big Boys. Rick Pope, president of Temple Fork Outfitters and a good friend for many years has a favorite phrase: “It ain’t easy being a sportsman!”
Fish during the hottest part of the day, because that’s when the Hoppers will be most active. Remember, that moist dew that feels so good on your bare feet keeps Hoppers buried under the grass and leaves.
Remember to give your pattern a very slight (and I DO mean slight) twitch as it gets to the Prime Lie—where The Biggest of The Big is holding. That spot, of course, is where the current first hits the sweeper.
The reason is obvious. Mr. Biggest wants first shot at the smorgasbord of bugs being washed downstream with the current. Lesser-sized trout will arrange themselves in the appropriate pecking order further down the log.
Ants, ant, ants. Big black ants. Small black ants. Half-black/half-red ants. Small cinnamon ants. Don’t set foot astream without them from now through the end of trout season (Sept. 30). Some black crickets in size 16 should be right alongside those ants.
And for all that’s Holy make sure you have some winged ants! The trout go absolutely CRAZY over flying ants. Sizes should mostly be 16 and 18, but some big black ants in size 14 can be mighty useful.
You also should make plans to be here in mid-to-late August. That’s when we see clouds of Ephron Lukon—better known as the White Fly.
Most of the serious action with the White Fly happens below the Mio Dam on what’s generally called the As Sable “big water.” I was there one night (yes, Virginia, another night-time hatch) and when it started, the water was as white as milk and the sky had a block of bugs six feet high.
I turned on a light for a moment and instantly was covered with Lukon. And when I got home I was scooping handfuls of them out of my vest pockets.
Interestingly enough, the most effective pattern for actually catching trout when the Lukon hatch is on is with—TA DAH!!!!—emergers. Go figure.
The hatch has a narrow window of opportunity, however. So, if you’re interested in some really exciting fishing for big browns in skinny water, stay in touch with me. Better yet, book NOW!
ENGLISH SETTER UPDATE
Grouse season is fast-approaching, and I’ve already booked several days in October, so do not delay in scheduling some time to hunt over Ghost and Heart.
The season is Sept. 15 through Nov. 14 for grouse, and Sept. 20 through Nov. 4 for woodcock. Resident small-game license is $15. Non-resident three-day tag is $31, or $70 for the full season. You don’t need an extra license for woodcock, but you must advise the agent that you will be hunting them.
Your small-game license also will allow you to shoot squirrels and rabbits (but NOT while hunting over my setters!).
Ghost is doing great. Her hearing is off a bit, but then again so is mine! It’s really funny to watch her keep the puppy in line. He’s two years old now, but still a “puppy.”
So, when he’s into some mischief--like taking cloth napkins off the dining room table—all I do is tell her “Ghost, get him!” Like a streak of white lightning she runs up and glowers at him. Even though he’s a head taller and 10 pounds heavier than Ghost, he drops the contraband and flops down onto his back.
He’s full of fire and races the length of our 36-foot porch for hours, looking for mourning doves. Heart showed a lot of promise last fall. This is his year to shine!
He’s gonna be a good one. Maybe even a great one.
FLORIDA
Tarpon have split up into singles and pairs. The ones that I think are spawned-out old-timers who simply don’t want to make that loooong swim back to Africa.
So, look for them around some of the pilings and deeper grass flats throughout Charlotte Harbor and Pine Island Sound. Get out real early, though, and fish until about 9am. Maybe as late as 10.
After that, it’s just too dad-limbed HOT to stay on the water. Hit some snook lights early on your way out, and maybe look for some snook and reds around the mangroves on your way back to the ramp.
My season this winter was very, very good. We hooked some cobia, Ron Boehm nailed an enormous jack crevalle, and all of the usual cast of suspects were very co-operative.
Tarpon? It was the best fishing for me and my clients in 14 years of fishing in and around the Venice area.
We saw hundreds of poons, jumped a bunch and boated our share—including two that were more than 100 pounds. Will Bouck, from Grand Rapids, and Mike Vallis, from England, both boated their first tarpon ever.
And Mike landed his with a busted rod that I had to lash together with Surflon wire and 80-pound fluoro while the fish was still thrashing around at the other end of the line!
If that gets your blood boiling, call or e-me immediately to book YOUR “Dream of A Lifetime” for next summer!
Upper Manistee M72-CCC - October 11th, 2006
supplied by: Tight Loops Flyfishing RECORDED:43 °FISHING: Excellent
October 11, 2006
MICHIGAN
This is absolutely the ULTIMATE time for a Cast & Blast getaway in northern Michigan. King salmon have filled the rivers, and the upland gunning for grouse and woodcock has been superb.
In fact, Steve Shihanian is driving north from Lexington, KY, even as I type, exactly for that purpose. He’s packing fly rods, shotguns and a couple of English setters for five days of blissful fishing and hunting.
The fact that the “S”-word is in our forecast daunts him not at all. “I need to get away from the horse country for a while,” he said earlier this morning. “I don’t mind a little snow on the ground.”
Great attitude!
Great conditions, too. We’re averaging more than seven birds per hour (grouse and woodcock combined), which has given my clients a lot of excitement.
Jo-Jo Dorian was with me last Saturday, and he experienced the best we have to offer. The sunshine turned the aspen leaves a brilliant gold, the maples were flaming red, and the oaks were a deep burgundy.
Ghost and Ben found plenty of birds for him, and he managed to take home one woodcock. “I am fulfilled,” he said, as we shook hands goodbye. “What a great day to be in the woods.”
Don Schulz echoed that comment Sunday evening and Monday morning after I squired him through several different coverts. He was especially happy that he could contribute a bird to the woodcock pate that he will help consume at my wild game dinner November 4.
Yesterday, Bob Benz (who’s heading back home to Houston next Tuesday) got a thorough walkabout and took a grouse home for his dinner. We saw eight grouse and nine woodcock throughout the day, but Bob had trouble picking them up in flight so his Beretta didn’t go “bang” very often.
He and Jo-Jo are planning on hitting the Hexagenia hatch with me next June. I just hope the weather NEXT year is better than last June.
Overall, I’d have to rate the fishing season as very good. Not excellent, since cold temps (down to 35 degrees at night in late June) mostly wiped out the Hex hatch and spinner fall.
But our Isonychia hatch was long and productive. Same for Dorotheas and Baetis. Caddis, of course, are always prevalent.
The other strange thing about this past fishing season was that the big browns took a looooong time to key in on grasshoppers. Normally, we’re sticking nice fish during the daytime beginning in late July. This year it was nearly September before the big guys started gulping hoppers.
John Jepkema certainly had a blast the day he fished the Manistee with me and nailed an extremely fat, hook-jawed brown just before our takeout at Yellowtrees Landing. It measured 18 inches, but was hefty enough for a 21-incher!
Best of all, Kate was pretty much back to normal after her bout with cancer! She didn’t fish quite as many days as she’d like, but much of that was due to her itch to plant a bunch of trees, flowers, and bushes this summer.
“NEXT year,” she vowed, “I’ll get out at least four evenings each week!”
FLORIDA
Thank goodness we were spared hurricanes this season! Conditions are excellent throughout southwest Florida, and most all of the species are eating flies very readily!
Look at your schedule and get with me to reserve some Winter Getaway days. I’m taking delivery of a brand new Hewes Redfisher 18 November 22, and it’s a real snazzy fishing platform!
I’ve also found a couple more spots that hold baby tarpon, so we’ll have even MORE fun this winter!
Pere Marquette River - February 27th, 2006
supplied by: Silverside Outfitters & Guide Service RECORDED:30 °FISHING: Fair
Steelhead fishing has slowed the last few days on the lower Pere Marquette. Went on a picture trip today with good friend Andy B. and floated a lower section of the P.M. Managed to land a couple steelhead on small Oregon cheese nuke eggs and hooked a few resident browns. Water levels are normal and clear with afternoon water temps. near 36. Stoneflies have been active and the first few salmon fry have been spotted close to shore. Look for fishing to pick up again with the next warm-up.
Patterns to try include:
Stoneflies- small black Tiny Dancer's, Pheasant Tails, Fuzzbusters, and sparrow nymphs. Salmon fry-B.T.S.(Better than spawn) Hex.-rabbit strip Hex., wiggle-Hex. Eggs-nuke eggs in grapefruit, Oregon cheese, and cream delight. Estaz eggs in peach, and orange.
Check out our site (www.silversideguide.com) for recent pictures, and the most updated, honest, fly- fishing reports on the Muskegon, Pere Marquette, and Manistee river systems. Tight Lines! Capt. Fred
Muskegon River - February 20th, 2006
supplied by: Silverside Outfitters & Guide Service RECORDED:20 °FISHING: Good
Rain, snow, hail, lightning & thunder along with single digit air temps. started this past weekend's weather and kept all but the hardcore(i.e. crazy) off the water. The lack of fishing pressure with decent numbers of fish thru-out the system, have made for overall good fishing lately.
The water temps. barely made it above freezing on Sunday but surprisingly the fish didn't seem to notice. The fish we hooked came right away or not at all in each new spot. The chartreuse clown egg hooked most of our fish but the B.T.S. also hooked a couple. The B.T.S.(Better than spawn) is a salmon fry imitation, originally developed by Feenstra, that can be very effective at this time of year. I'll have to admit I was a little skeptical the first time I saw this pattern in a friend's fly box, but have since become a believer in it's effectiveness. Fished dead-drift or on the swing, steelhead, trout and the occasional walleye all find the B.T.S. to there liking once the salmon fry start to hatch out.
Check out our site(www.silversideguide.com) for recent pictures, and the most updated, honest, fly-fishing reports on the Muskegon, Pere Marquette, and Manistee river systems. Tight Lines!
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