FEBRUARY MADNESS ON STERIODS!.......GREAT LAKES WINTER STEELHEADING AT ITS FINEST CONTINUES!

(Mark from PA. with his 'TOAD" buck- he came to Michigan to get a pig like this!-Mark is a big boy and could barely hold this well-fed beast!)

So sorry for the long delay in posting a blog. I have been tied up with 14 hour days and sleepless nights with my book  editing deadline for "Selectivity", at my office at the "Stream'....it is a real cool place in Newaygo most people wouldn't know exists.....check it out and join -up if you want to work in a high-tech environment right next to the Muskegon....http://www.newaygostream.com/

(Mike above and Jamie below with nice hen steelhead)

  ANYWAYS,............. finally got to guide for the whole past week and the steelheading,- bar none!- has been the best Great Lakes stuff I have witnessed in as long as I can remember!. Our Lake Michigan steelhead rivers are producing some of the finest fly fishing in the western hemisphere and I'm proud to be a part of it- so are my clients!, who have come from all over to become believers!Our lake is chuck-full of pelagic baitfish- alewives, sculpins, stickle-backs, gobies, emerald shiners etc., and the steelhead still have a hungry predatious appetite when they come into the rivers. It is amazing how some days you would catch all chroem hens- the other days all bright crimson red bucks!- two different personalities ata this time of year!.
 Monday started out with Jamie Suderman and his dad Doug who hit a half dozen large chrome hen steelhead on naturals- sculpin/hex/leech imitations. Doug never fly fished for steelhead and got a gorgeous chrome hen...he was blown away! Jamie smoked'em hard, with some great aerial battles despite the 35 F WATER TEMPS.

 Tuesday thru Friday, I had Mark Sturdevant from Pennsylvannia and Dr. Mike Saylor from Maryland, two hard core Lake Erie/Ontario seasoned fly guys and they came to catch our trophy steels- which they did!...they couldn't believe the size and girths of our Michigan Winter strain steelhead.....they were believers to say the least!. All of their fish came on sexy hex's-sculpin imitations, and Mark's 40 inch 'pig male' came on my new and improved Chinook sac fry Ice man minnow.Monday in the tropical weather, saw some black stone fly nymphs wiggling to shore and good green/gray scud activity in the shallows which the trout must be relishing.
 Friday, while shoveling the boat off with snow, I saw several tiny newly hatched chinook salmon fry in the shallows which just hatched.....they are pissing off those big alpha hierarchical dominant males and hens in the guts of the pools in a big way!....arm jolting strikes on the swing/chuck presentations with two-handed switch rods and clear intermediate Rio Aqualux lines.

TACTICS/CONDITIONS: With 35 F water temps, fish still are holding in Primary winter lies, but ever so slowly creeping near fast gravel areas and starting to active very aaggressive/active to natural imitations. The last 20 steelhead have been on all natural motifs- not one on an egg pattern! Water level 2,000 CFS-perefct. But the bite comes when you should expect it - mid afternoon and may come after a hundred casts thru the pools/runs.

(And the "one and only -Gator Man- from Florida who says'Puckersey' to make them gators pucker-up and show there smile!!- one crazy gator wrastlin' dude!- his first fly rod caught steelhead!)

( Josh the Cancun steelie stud!)

Had a great time with the Sherwin Mystery gang in February. Josh Schultz, the big real estate tycoon from Cancun, Mexico and his co-hort in crime - the "Gator Man" from Florida hit some nice steelhead in the warmer weather before winter showed up Friday.....we badly needed this foot of snow!
 Still have a few prime dates left for spring and hope to see ya'll!
 Cheers!

Posted in: black stones , gray drake lodge , Great Lakes steelhead , hexagenia limbata nymps , newaygo stream chinook salmon sac fry , scuds , sculpins , trout and eagle