( grimacing and grunting to hold up Dr. Matt's fish- absolute beasts this year and "taking " flies in the pools- haven't had to resort to the gravel gig yet )
( copper killer bosses have been destroyed in pools by aggressive/active wild kings this year due to the special hierarchical turf dominance wars)
This could well be the largest salmon run I have witnessed as a guide for 18 years...as well as the largest size of the average fish I have ever seen!...no bull and anyone out there will attest to it. 20 to 30 pound wild kings are the norm rather than the exception. I have been swinging pools chocked full of fish and the gravel is staked up too...there simply is just no room in the river for more fish...insane! After dismal years of poor runs in numbers and size, the beast has been unleashed.
With dismal predictions by the DNR of :lack of fish, lack of alewives bait fish I cant wait to hear the conclusion by the experts. Cutting stocked fish was a good idea, but the natural reproduction has exploded!...especially on gravel ladend rivers like the Muskegon.
( a pinook king taken yesterday- big hump and red/purple blotches on lower belly
( client Dr Matt Zaccheo hit two kings swinging the pools with bosses and comets this weekend with me that were the 30 mark!..Matt is a big boy and we grimace because we could not hold these fish up!))
( loaded for bear!...don't forget that resident trout/steelhead behind salmon are also keying in on what the hens are digging up....caddis larvae and immature mayfly nymphs- not just eggs!)
SO!!!...with these numbers this fall the amount of eggs in the system will be extraordinary, giving the resident trout and migratory lake-run browns and steelhead plenty to munch on with the caviar explosion.Saw a chrome steelhead chasing a huge female in the pool and looking like it was poking her anal area like Pavlov's dog ready for the orange a..ss candy feast- bizarre! Water levels are finally rising with all the rain- the river was dried up until yesterday...now 1620 cfs...was as low as 900cfs
( otter egg buffet)
( time for the hopper/dropper- chicken or the egg rig for swinging)
We have already hit a few fall steelhead and hit lake run browns three weeks ago. With the numbers of salmon in the system, the last time we saw a run like this was Y2K-2000/2001 and the fall steelhead run was massive along with lake run browns- get ready for an exciting fall/winter to come! December is going to be insane this year like always and given the warm water temps that will be the peak of our steelhead and lake-runs in my prediction, which it has always been the case in the past.
( lake runs will peak in December)
We still have a few good dates this fall and early winter and look forward to seeing you!