Epicurean Angler-Matthew Supinski's Selectivity/Nexus Blog- Everything Trout/Steelhead/Salmon

Epicurean Angler-Matthew Supinski's Selectivity/Nexus Blog- Everything Trout/Steelhead/Salmon

Monday, April 27, 2009

HAVE YOU SEEN STEELHEADING EAGLE STYLE!




(photography by Todd Jensen)




You've heard of steelhead fly fishing Indy style, Spey style, chuck-and duck style(aka.Great Lakes Nymphing excuse me!).So here is Muskegon River Eagle style!


With the warm rains and thunderstorms of Saturday and Sunday, the increased flows was a great time for a steelhead that already spawned , now to "drop-back" to Lake Michigan.Taking advantage of the slightly stained water, steelhead will face upstream near the surface and take advantage of the top swift currents to push downstream. They are very frequent jumpers, trying to shake of the Ichthy bacterial fungus scars, hooks in the a....sss and other body parts by our Great Lakes ethics,or just plane happy to "get the f.........in out of here" and go back to the secure home of mamma big lake ,were now its time to no longer dodge the lead weights,split shot and slinkies,only to now avoid down-riggers and Planner boards.


My client for Monday was Todd Jensen.He and his wife Jenn were our very first clients back in 1995.That's a testimonial to repeat business(had to stick that in for marketing purposes).He is a self made Wunderkind commodities Chicago trader by profession whose passion is outdoor photographer and fly fisher .Todd has been infatuated by the Bald Eagles of the Muskegon for years, photographing and admiring them as he fished the river.Today was exceptional!


After Todd caught a beautiful large chrome female steelhead-rock hard- and fresh from the big lake, followed by another chrome male that leaped 6 times and was also very fresh, we went trout fishing to test out the new 10 ft. 5 weight Orvis Helios which casted like a magic wand on big waters.( note: if you buy this rod, it loads up best when you have a good amount of line out-that's what it was built for).


At the end of the day, which we thought in the A.M. to be a total wash -out because of the rising flood waters, Todd asked me if he could be dropped off on the state land property to shot the eagles with his new Nikon D 700 and Nikon Zoom 80-400mm VR lens as I waited in the boat on shore for him.Having some free down time I proceeded to organize my fly boxes which were in shambles from guiding from January till today.As I was heads down , I heard a "splash" in the pool I was next to and saw a 2-4lb jack red banded steelhead "dropping back"- had a few fungal marks on his back. Several minutes later, I heard another very large "splash" in the same area, but figured it was the same fish and didn't look up.


Next thing I know, Todd is running back to the boat screaming" DID YOU SEE THAT!".I was like "what?"."That Eagle............just crashed in the water next to your boat and picked up a small male steelhead!", Todd shouted."Holy Pelosi"............I said,"I thought that spash was louder ,but didn't look up"


SO.....................here you have it-STEELEADING ON THE MUSKEGON-EAGLE STYLE!(caught on digital by Todd as Matt was "asleep at the wheel"


RIVER CONDITIONS-so far so good -water has some stain- but is very fishable and all three of our boats today got into some nice steelhead and trout.


CHEERS!- and to our friend/ client from Austria today- MAREK................Prosit!