Gray Drake and Trout and Eagle Lodge

JANUARY MADNESS!- NOT MARCH MADNESS?.............BIG HOGS CONTINUE ON A ROLL!.....PINCH ME!....I'M DREAMING

2012-01-28T13:43:00.000-08:00

( "STEELIE RAY" with an uber hog!)

Don't really know what to say but this is just about as good as it gets!!!!....anywhere in the world right now!. Spent Tues-thru-Thurs. guiding and I've seriously ( for a fly guy) never seen numbers of steels like this in the river this time of year.....and "lots' of big multi- spawn returning fish that are trophy proportions. Just about every year class exists except small skippers. The big lake must be loaded with pelagic bait fish, gobies, sticlebacks....these guys are eating very well! .....so much for a bait fish crash- just can't figure out that Graet Lakes see-saw!

( birthday girl with a gorgeous hen)

( THIS GUY CATCHES WAY TOOO! MANY FISH!)

Water took a nice bump from snow melt Weds. to 3,000 cfs. Ray and John, and Murphy and Lindsey had two phenomenal days. Lindsey was the birthday girl on Weds. and she hit 5 nice steelhead as mother nature's birthday present.

( John hasn't caught a steelhead since he was 12...he is a trout bum convert!)

I have no idea what the hell is going to happen by spring......got some orioles and cardinals already showing up by the deck bird feeder...seeing flocks of geese...no ice on the lakes for winter fest next week.....can anybody say...."GLOBAL WARMING!"......or just an El Nino!!!.....who knows....who cares!!!!........AIN'T "GOT MILK?"....but" gots steelhead"!.....Amen.

TACTICS: deep guts, tailouts winter/spring transition water; Switch rods...Skagit compacts, intermediate , scandi, aqualux sinks.......small streamer/leech/laser minnows, sculpins, eggs, nymphs....don't matter....fish are heated up sexually and aggressive/active

B.C.'s DOUBLE-RED BANDER BUCK STEELHEAD IN YOUR GREAT LAKES WINTER WONDERLAND!......JANUARY'S CRIMSON KINGS!

2012-01-18T10:26:00.000-08:00

(Matt's selective alpha buck!- waited to "0 dark hundred" to slam a sculpin- biggest buck of 2011/2012!)

The January's deep winter steelheading continues to roll on a wild ride! From last week's pre-snow storm mild winter, to my last three days of howling snow and bitter cold temps, the winter of 2012 is shaping up to be one of the finest I've seen in 20 years of Great Lakes winter steelhead....no shit!
Had the extreme pleasure of guiding Dr. Matt Zaccheo for a couple of days this week- this dude is a 'serious steelhead magnet"!....he could pluck out hog bucks out of a gold fish bowl!!... Armed with Helios switch rod, he cracked untold big double red band bucks- his biggest was 39-40 inches as seen at the top. "This pool' ( which will go unnamed) was fished hard all Monday by several guides and boats since it was warm ( 40f) and a holiday. Matt hit a nice big 11-12 pound buck right off the crack of first light there in 33 F water, since air temps were around 18F. The buck came flying 2 feet in the air on first hook-up in 11 feet of water....amazing for that cold water temp. Matt loves red bucks, especially the bright deep red band strain of Michigan steelhead. He lived and went to medical school in Erie, PA, and fished Elk and those creeks hard. He thinks our Michigan fish have the most awesome coloration when compared with steelhead alley's......being a new Michigan transplant, he is totally addicted to our fishery! He spent three days with his Friend Todd from Pittsburgh with me back in middle December and they both hit lots of big chrome hens, Matt wanted the big kyped red banders and boy did he get them this trip!

( Got a chance to get out with Laurie to get some awesome images of those gorgeous snow and ice covered trees and test out some new heads. Bumped a nice fish on the swing- the 600 grain Skagit froze solid, the fish was air born near the bank and 'gone"""- nice to know at 34 F WATER TEMP , a fish wanted Pantano's Hang Time leech!)

( Zaccheo was "out of control" hitting 4 big bucks in a day and a half- the bad nasty weather killed us yesterday! and we only got 6 hours in)

The first day when Matt cracked that nice buck in the a.m, I told him about 'the dusk bite". I knew where a few hog pens were but we are not touching them till 5:30 ish or so- dusk is at 6.

"Those really big selective /reflective alpha fish will lay there all day and watch all kinds of crap thrown at 'em...spawn bags, glo-bugs, you name it, they've seen it all', I said. "At dark, that is when they get on the hunt- they are looking for sculpins, dace, shiners- they ain't gonna hit an egg pattern!" At 6:05, couldn't see crap, Zaccheos rod went off and the water boiled. I took my sunglasses off and was blind!...so was Matt!!!. That big buck went into the backing twice and after a long battle - I had no idea how I got my net under that humongous pig- we landed it!....it crushed a Grim Reaper sculpin with a little sparse flash on the back- a small pattern which differs from the larger fall version. "HOW THE HELL DID THAT BUCK (around 18 on the boga) see that pattern in a deep 12 foot pool in the dark is beyond me", said Matt.That fish waited till all the knuckle heads- including us- were off the river- little did he know we lurked in silence rowing a jet sled! That is the beauty of these selective Steelhead in winter-our favorite time- it's a head game at this time of year- I LOVE IT!

( the grim reaper for selective winter alpha males)

( there has to be easier work - this winter steelhead guiding wasn't what my high school counselor told me to do....BRUTAL!)....NOT GREAT FOR ARTHRITIS!

Last week during the warm spell, I had the infamous Cahn Tran from Chicago who hit some nice chrome hens- he is becoming a steelhead addict needing a fix almost every month. Also had the pleasure of guiding Bob Moreland, a retired jumbo 747 pilot from IL. who flew his plane into Fremont airport and caught some nice steelhead- his first of 4 that day. Bob is an avid Atlantic salmon angler who owns a section of the Sandhill River in Labrador- he was impressed with our winter fish.

( Commodore Bob with his best hen of the day)

(Cahn Tran with a brace of nice hen steels)

Winter Steelhead Tactics: As I said , its a head game of persistence and patience- also timing of day is'huge". Look at winter runs and pools, but fish are moving around now that daylight photoperiod is really kicking their hormonal spawning development into full gear. Lots of alpha territorial behavior going on now. Water temp-34-36 F. Level- 1,780 CFS.....perfect for fussy steelhead! Believe it or not, Cahn hit a large spawned out hen already!....spring is coming fast!..that's way too early for me
WINTER AND SPRING STEELHEADING........ With all the fish in the river winter steelheading will continue to be impressive, seems the worse weather days have the best bites. We still have "A FEW CHOICE DATES", for spring and would love to have you fish with us! If you want "real trophies"- February and early March , before the "gravel rippers ascend", is when you want to target big alpha steelhead. Here is Mr. Gene Kelly from Boston last Valentine's weekend- his first steelhead ever!

Given the fall and winter run we have already experienced, spring will come early and should be amazing....that ain't just Michigan guide talk....the pictures tell it all!
WHAT'S BEEN COOKING AT CHEZ MATEO'S
DOCKSIDE CULINARY EMPORIUM?

( IT HAS BEEN A MONTH FOR STEWS/RAGUS....HOT EUROPEAN BOILING POTS ON THE GRILL WARM UP THE DAY- HERE IS CAHN WITH AN ALPINO ITALIAN CHICKEN RAGU OVER EGG NOODLES AND VEGETABLES IN A THICK TOMATO DILL STOCK WITH VEGGIES)

( Matt Zaccheo had a "delish " lunch of classic Perigord French Beef Burgundy- a bottle of red wine stock simmered the beef for 4 hours in the slow cooker and warmed up pot side on the river.....carrots, mushrooms, and an asparagus risotto......."a killer dish for winter" on a cold day!)

WINTER TO SPRING!......RED CRIMSON BUCKS AND CHROME HENS....AND BIG SPRING,,PA. BROOKIES AND BOWS!

2012-01-07T15:10:00.000-08:00

( Big Spring wild brookie)

Hope you all had a great Holiday Season!. Our fam was away on the east coast visiting our mothers where I slaved away hours on completing my new book...no holiday for me! We enjoyed great mild weather till we came back to Michigan!....snow...wind,,,snow. But it was 55F AND THE SNOW IS GONE....SPRING HAS SPRUNG?...duh!
Seriously, this is another global climate change snafu and we shall see what winter will bring.
The Muskegon continues to fish 'excellent"- lots of fresh chrome hens and red crimson cheeked bucks. Some nice lake-run browns are starting to show. Trout are on tiny scuds, midge and caddis larvae and micro brassies...#18-22's.....water at 36F.....perfect for winter steelheading.

( the new and improved Big Spring.....looks like the days of Marinaro in the 40's...at least that is how it was described)

(various scuds for the day)

( Big Spring Hog Rainbow)

Had a chance to fish my favorite spring creek in the hallowed limestone country of Pennsylvania's Cumberland Valley- the beloved Big Spring Run. The new stream improvement work done by T.U/PB&FC/WATERSHED COUNCIL there has created wonders...lots of wild big rainbows and brookies...BUT!!!...lots of crowds like the old "ditch days back in the 80's". The PA rainbows are late fall, winter sapwners and were digging gravel along the newly installed deflector dams. It was nice to see fish in areas that were void for decades.
If you can get out, come and get a winter steelhead/trout fix..! in the coming weeks....and days are filling upo quick for spring!
Cheers!

THE MAGNIFICANT STEELHEAD/SALMON RUN OF 2011.......THE "STEELHEAD QUEEN IS BACK"......PREDICTIONS FOR 2012....HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

2011-12-24T08:56:00.000-08:00

( "the steelhead queen"...one and only original Shawn Murphy....she's back!)

( the Pantano" Hang time" continues to produce!)

Well it has been a truly remarkable fall steelhead run!.........a remarkable Pacific salmon run.......and some very, very large Atlantic salmon...........to a salmonid fly guy, Santa and Mother nature could not have been more giving!
As I write this on Christmas Eve, I can't believe all the great images we shot this fall of big healthy steelhead, salmon and browns. Lake Michigan is doing very well with an amazing forage base of alewives, sculpins, smelt, gobies, bloater chubs, stickle-backs, perch.....just about any forage a salmonid could predate upon. With mild fall and early winter temperatures, the "window of opportunity" for migration just kept coming. Perfect water temps and levels and cloudy wet and overcast weather everyday....along with full moons made the steelhead runs just keep coming.

( like mother, like daughter!!!!....a legacy in the making. We always say that'momma she- wolf has eaten', when Shawn catches a steelhead! .........I literally have over 1,000 images of her with differnt steelhead.............eat your heart out April! )

The real big news was the return to her mastery!.............a.k.a "The original steelhead queen", Shawn Murphy put on a real show and clinic last weekend as she, daughter Lindsey and Dr. Johnny tore the Muskegon steelhead up and thru the roof! Shawn, I must say, she has been in a 4 year drought and slump with the chrome warriors. As director of University Of Michigan's Cardiology surgery center, she has been working her tail off and the steelhead karma was not flowing. But two weeks prior in early December- when John stold the show hitting double digit steels on the fly, Shawn watched, cheered, but deep down inside, her competitive spirit wanted revenge.....last weekend she got !.......and she kept racking up the numbers toll....batting 100% hook-up to land ratios. She hit big hens, big bucks....and on any fly imaginable!.... I was just getting the net and camera and was blown away by her supremacy.....you go girl!!!! Lindsey, her daughter also hit chrome hens and Johnny, at the end of the day in the driving snow , hit his second 18 lb + hen steelhead of the year at dusk in a pool looking right at the Gray Drake Lodge.

(John on a "roll" in 2011!)

So, Santa came early to Murphy having two 17/18 LB steels to his fall collection and an Atlantic salmon in the 25 lb range....that just don't happen my fellow brethren....just don't happen!
As for lake run browns, they are just arriving and I think Jan/Feb will be the months like two years ago. Our Muskegon browns are late spawners( into February) and when I landed a big male in the teens back around Valentine's day, it squirted milt all over me....I also see redds around then.

( Late February spawned out Lake-run from two years ago)

SO..............................................where do we go from here in 2012. I can say that I've never been more optimistic. The steelhead are in , and continue to come into the system....so Jan/Feb will provide excellent winter steelheading. Pictured here is what we thought was a nice colored-up buck steelhead- 7 lber or so taken last week that Murphy hit. But on closer inspection, it had very bright orange "cutt-bow" gill slits....and Eagle Lake rainbow!.....the spotting gives it away also.

( Big Eagle Lake Muskegon rainbow from last week....check out orange gills!)

( the Isonychia and Gray Drake populations continue to explode-2009 saw one of the most amazing emergence!! )

As for the trout fishery, the bubble at Croton has worked. After what was one -if not the worst- hottest summers on record, the Muskegon cooked like all the rivers with low flows. When it cooled down, we found big, "fat and healthy" browns.....they where eating caddis all summer and didn't have that "slinked out" summer survival look. There are more big resident browns around now because of that system....next spring when the black stone flies hatch should be amazing surface activity in April. The river has exploded with caddis like in years past, and our mayfly populations and biodiversity continues to climb..........we had thick trico hatches for the first time this summer! Our midge populations are on the decline as the caddis fill that competitive eco-niche they both share....that is good for the trout. Midges usually are a sign of eutrophic issues that are not always favorable to mayflies and caddis.

( "the meat locker"

This past fall and winter, we had a blast swinging flies and it was one of the best of swinging times our clients and guides had.

Torch Lake was stocked with 22,000 Atlantics and there are plans for continued stockings each year to come up to 30,000......THANK YOU MI DNR!!!!!

SO.........once again I couldn't be more thankful and appreciative for our world class trout, salmon and steelhead wonderland that makes Pure Michigan a salmonid paradise!

Hope everyone has a great Holiday season and we can't wait to make your fly fishing dreams come true in 2012!!!!!!!

Cheers and "Na Zdrowie"!

( THE HOLIDAY DISH!

MEDITERRANEAN GRILLED ATLANTIC SALMON- MAKE A FRESH BASIL PESTO, SOAK THE SALMON FILLETS IN WHITE WINE AND LEMON SQUEEZED, LINGUINE WITH ROASTED RED PEPPER AND ARTICHOKE HEARTS, GRILL SALMON MED RARE, POUR BASIL PESTO OVER FILLET WITH MINCED ROASTED RED ONION AND CALAMATA SLICED OLIVES- FRESH FRENCH BAGUETTE AND BUTTER!!!!..........DELISH!!!1

AMAZING GRACE!......"STEELHEAD ALLEY" DOCTORS......AND TOAD FISH PORN.......HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

2011-12-15T12:27:00.000-08:00

( DR. GRACE WITH HER STUNNING SKEENA LOOKING BUCK!)

As December keeps rolling thru, it has truly been a steelhead super highway, ride!........ahhh!.....December on the Muskegon....gone are the crowds and madness of November, and fresh steelhead like decades ago...like now....keep coming in. Rain and mild temps. have given this steelhead run a second life!...........A full moon that speeds up upstream migration( pineal photo gland, neuro/endocrine melatonin thingy) really helps too!

( TODD HAD THE HOT EARLY MORING ROD!)

It has been the week of doctors......steelhead alley doctors to be more specific. Dr. Grace Lee Smith, a pediatric cardiologist from the Akron/PA. area guided with me Sunday and what a catch!. Grace frequents the Lake Erie steelhead tribs and Colorado, Alaska and the bonefish flats . She is an excellent streelheader with extreme concentration and tolerates the cold better then anyone I know. She hit several fish. But the absolutely stunning male she caught sent us to shore to try and get some cover shots of this magnificent Christmas colored beast!....(I'm saving the verticals- only took one horizontal).......go Gracie!!!!

( MATT WAS THE EVENING CLOSER!)

Then rolls in the "big guns". Dr. Matt Zaccheo, an intensivist care physician and Dr. Todd Luckasevic, a forensic examiner (Bones) from Pittsburgh Pa. Thes guys met in Medical school in Erie, PA. Todd got Matt into steelheading on Elk, and the dozen Mile rivers, Chautauqua Creek , Catt and other Erie tribs. Todd warned Matt that if he gets too addicted to steelhead , he might flunk-out of school since the streams are minutes away from the university. Matt fished salmon wtih me in early October , swinging boss and comet flies and hitting "huge' fresh salmon in the big and deep Muskegon holes( see October blogs!)..........he was addicted to Michigan.

This was Todd's first Michigan steelhead trip and he is now an addict for life! He couldn't believe how hard and hot our fish are and that they get into backing quick when caught in the deep winter pools and runs.
These guys are good...really good! Swing nymphing with switch rods we put allot of big , chrome fish in the net with great overcast and rain for their three days of guiding.

( WHAT WAS COOKING AT CHEZ MATEO'S LUNCH TABLE- FIRST DAY GERMAN PORK CHOPS SAUERBRATEN STYLE- SECOND DAY- GOOD AUSTRIAN /POLISH SAUSAGES WITH TWO TYPES OF SAURKRAUT- BAVARIAN WHITE AND RED CABBAGE WITH BACON AND ONIONS- GARLIC DILL KARTOFEL-THIRD DAY- SZECHUAN HOT CHICKEN WITH THAI SPICY PEANUT NOODLES........YUMMY!)

TACTICS/CONDITIONS........the Muskegon is now at 2840, came up a good pace since the 1440 cfs of Monday. We had good rain and the rain/moon combo put the fish on a big bite! We have switched to winter runs and pools and it is paying off when the water hits 40 F...down around 36/37 am. Fish are hammering streamers/leeches/minnow patterns on the swing or sucking egg patterns. Fish long, patient and thouroughly.....nervous fishing doesn't pay at this time of year....slow it down and the fish gods will reward. The nastier the weather....the better. Water quality is very,very clear

NOW THE REALLY "BIG" STEELS ARE ON A ROLL PART II..!........TORCH LAKE ATLANTICS.....NEW STEELHEAD DREAMS.........AND DECEMBER HAS BEEN OUT OF CONTROL!

2011-12-06T15:12:00.000-08:00

( BRYAN AND MURPHY'S BACK-TO-BACK HOG HENS!....)

Sorry for the delay in posting but we have been up to our asses in alligator- sized steelhead and happy camper clients!
Honestly.........and no trick fish eye photography!!!...........I haven't seen this many 36-40 inch fall steelhead chrome hens since the fall of 2001!...IT'S BEEN UNBELIEVABLE!
It started around December 3rd when John Murphy......the quintessential steelhead master, hit an 18 lber in a favorite pool (Boga)......the fish was 7 times in the air and looked, with its massive girth, like a Gaspe Quebec fresh-run Atlantic out of the sea. This girl must have been chowing heavily on alewives since John could not even hold the big girl up for a photo...Shawn, a.ka. "steelhead queen" took the shot of me holding it up.

( JEFF FROM NASHVILLE WITH HIS TWO AWESOME CHROME HENS YESTERDAY AND TODAY!)

The craziness continued the next day when Bryan JurawicC, a former Defensive end with the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears..now a company software exec. from Chicago, hit a massive 40 inch fish from the same pool. We thought it was the same fish!......but on further notice with close marking and zoom analysis, it was a totally different fish......one had a pinker tone....the other chrome silver!. Brian never fished for steelhead and never fly fished..........so to hit a nice buck and this massive chromer of a lifetime in one morning was bizarre!
And yesterday and today, I have had Jeff and Dave from Nashville, TN.............once again Jeff hit his first of several steelheads on the fly rod with one pushing 17 lbs!

NEW MEDIA RELEASES

( 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY REVISED" STEELHEAD DREAMS" COVER.......COMING SOON!!!!................FINISHING THE NEW BOOK-"SELECTIVITY-THEORY AND METHOD FOR FLY FISHING FUSSY TROUT,STEELHEAD AND SALMON"-( STACKPOLE BOOKS- 2012)

So really in all candid retrospect.....its been a wild and unexpected ride......all big hens!
It was the late fall of 2001. I had just gotten my first case of the new" Steelhead Dreams" hard copy. The river was crazy with big steelhead in early December at that time. Double hook-ups on double digit fish. 1999- thru-2001 saw tremendous explosion of year classes of alewives and the steelhead were chowing down heavily. It appears to be the same now. Usually the big hens come ....then the cautious and lazier males. If this is December!........., January, February are going to be on fire given the load of fish we have in the system now. I might finally get a day -off so I can play with one myself!........but my camera has been happy and so is this guide!

(DREW.....STEELHEAD/BROWN ZEN MASTER AND CLIENTS NICE HOG MUSKEGON BROWN ON THE SWING)

( JOHN FRASER FROM NEW YORK WITH HIS FIRST STEELHEAD WITH ME (ABOVE)- AND DAD ROD FRASER FROM MINNEAPOLIS, WITH NICE BUCK MALE WITH GUIDE JEFF BACON)

TORCH LAKE UPDATE

http://www.mlive.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2011/12/michigan_resumes_stocking_atla.html

HERE IS A NICE ARTICLE RAN LAST SUNDAY IN THE GRAND RAPIDS/BOOTH MICHIGAN NEWSPAPERS ON THE LATEST MANAGEMENT OF TORCH LAKE ATLANTICS THAT HOWARD MEYERSON DID.......NICE JOB HOWARD!......... WENT TO TORCH OVER THE THANKSGIVING HOLIDAYS WITH LAURIE AND PETER...........HERE IS A NICE 18 LB KYPED MALE I CAUGHT ON A ICEMAN SMELT PATTERN WHILE WALKING THE BEACH SHORELINE "BONEFISH" STYLE.........LAURIE TOOK THE IMAGE

(HERE IS A PAIR OF SPAWNING ATLANTICS AT TORCH LAKE. I TOOK THEM FROM UP IN A TREE WITH A 300MM ZOOM NIKON LENS ON A GRAVEL SHORELINE ALONG A CREEK MOUTH. THE FEMALE IS IN THE TOP CENTER- THE MALE AT THE BOTTOM RIGHT POSITION. IF YOU WAIT ABOUT 30 SECONDS YOU WILL SEE THE FEMALE FAN AND DIG HER REDD....COOL STUFF!)

TACTICS; We have been either Skagit swinging( 600 Grain compact Airflo heads with various T-14 set ups) , or'SWING-CHUCKING".........Helios 11/8 switch rods two-hand casts, clear intermediate Rio lines and egg/iceman minnow/leech patterns with a down-and across swing type drift......very effective!
Fish are in all types of lies.........shallow fall water, winter pools and guts....all depends how fresh the fish are and water temps and barometer for the day.......water at 2260cfs.....40F

Can't wait for winter........its gonna be wild if this early December is any indicator
Many thanks to the great bunch of folks we had the pleasure of guiding recently.....The Rod Fraser party from Minneapolis, The Murphy's, Cahn Trans executives from Chicago and now Jeff and Dave from Nashville..........

( IF THAT AIN'T AN ALASKAN RAINBOW IN MICHIGAN............!!!....this guy is a huge country music producer and avid world class fly angler!)

Cheers! .......Happy Holidays!..........and Ciao for now!

BIG STEELS KEEP ON A ROLL.............SWINGING KEEPS RACKING UP A TOLL!.............AND THE "HANG TIME' CONTINUES TO IMPRESS!!!

2011-11-20T12:15:00.000-08:00

( Joe with the perfect doe and buck chrommies that assassinated the Pantano "hang time' leech)

After two nasty days of cold, snow, ice and 60 mile winds , yesterday was a "bite is on" day! I really didn't think it was gonna happen given that the last day of their 7 day swinging trip, Phil and George, despite having some "hot fish" days, desperately tried to hook-up- but the winds spooned the jet boat in circles and the barometer dropped like hell..not good!
So enter Joe Hovious from Connecticut and Jim Gilzow from West Virginia. They are avid steelheaders and just came from fishing the Catt and Niagara in New York. They were part of the Casters group from North Carolina that came a day early to fish with me.
As we walked to my jet, I apologized for the crazy Saturday morning river traffic- sounded like the starting flag at the Indy 500 with all sounds of 2 and 4 stroke screamers heading up and down from Thorny Apple landing- it was a mess and a cluster duck to say the least. I told the clients that Saturdays in deer season can be ugly and we will have to fish "tertiary water", which makes it a challenge for me -which I like - but a total uncertainty. I hate to fish next to other people and decided since I'm a 'steelhead hommie', I'll do just that, stay at home in the two pools of my backyard till river traffic dies down in the afternoon then venture towards farther destinations.............BOY WAS THAT A SMART MOVE AS THE PICTURES SURE TELL THE STORY!............there is an old saying about "diamonds in your backyard" and that is what we found!!!!
Joe was swinging with his 13'6 TFO spey with 570 Rio Skagit and 10-16 feet of T-14..........Jim used the Helios switch nymhing and swinging iceman minnows. We never left more than 200 yards from the lodge and had the place to our selves, with the lovely sound of screaming 2 strokes jockeying for position fro Henning to Pine st. in the background morning air.
Phil...........your "hang time" blew off the charts today and you and George left a day too early- I didn't expect what maddness happened today to say the least! Those big hog's were sleeping under our beds, not down by Bigalow! ........that's the way she rolls brother!

Conditions; as the water drops, the steelhead will be shifting daily from the shallower 3-7 feet lies, to winter pool/gut holding water. Cold nights has them moving and shifting daily. Since there are very few eggs in the system, the bigger and aggressive fish are looking for "road-kill" animals with flash to play with. Joe's big buck struck his'hang time " three times before he ripped the string leech a new asshole!

This morning as the guys chatted around the breakfast table, they were all part of the North Carolina Casters group organized by Dave Hise. Funny!.........nobody there was from North Carolina! That's a testimonial to Dave's international following and fan club! Head count was from Atlanta ,GA, Colorado, Connecticut, West Virginia and Florida............and who says steelhead aren't the international diplomats of tourism.....they are our N0#1 resource and need better care and management...........IMHO!.............which I have been logged and documented to say so in the past my brethren!

Saw a huge lake -run brown moving upstream yesterday- more will come after Thanksgiving..........enjoy the fish porn!

OMG!.......NOT ANOTHER WORLD RECORD!......SWING-A-DONG-DING-DONG!........AND THE BIG STEELS COMMIN!

2011-11-17T06:45:00.000-08:00

( What could have been???......I had to help Murphy hold this!)

( Pantano the Skagit master and best steelhead fly tyer I've seen!......Senyo?........this guy ties some remarkable sh.....it!)

Sorry for the long delay in posting!....its been a long two weeks on the river with great clients!
First let's start with John Murphy..............boy is that man always in the right place at the right time!. On a snow filled nasty day we drove north to our fall Landlocked Atlantic salmon destination........saw some of the biggest Atlantics I've ever seen there!........even bigger than last years world record! After spotting a pair of huge cruising atlantics, Johnny. under my careful fly selection hooked a pig that took him out intro the lake and his backing with Gaspe -like 4 foot high aerial leaps! This fish was in the low to mid 20 lb range and dammit I didn't have a Boga or tape with me ..........it was really close to last years record!

Also, on the following trip with Scott Faley, long time freind and Washington D.C. attorney, and friend Mark Follett from Green Bay, Wisconsin, we casted to some 25-30lbers cruising in a very skittish fashion in a snow whiteout!
Scott hit a nice steelhead on the Muskegon and Mark had some great opportunities.

Finally , enter Phil Pantano and George- the two handed Skagit Masters from Greenwich, Connecticut who I am guiding for 7 days........these dudes are very serious with their full arsenal of Burkheimer custom rods, their amazing fly tying abilities and their nose for swinging flies. Using 22 foot compact Airflo Skagits, T-14 heads between 10 and 20 feet and Phils new'Hang-time" string leeches, we have crushed some really hot steelhead on the swing for the past 5 days- two to go.

Having a late start cause of the cold and snow, I'm sure their will be more to come.
The GOOD NEWS IS!!!!!!!! SEVERAL THINGS1.................bigger steelhead are just starting to come in on the last full moon.............the DNR stocked Torch Lake with Atlantics a few weeks back............YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!........and with all the fish in the system, December should be a great month!

( Murphy's pig atlantic!)

Got to get dressed and get on the river!....Cheers
And this week's featured shore lunch!

( Grilled Mongolian T-bone Angus steak, with carmelized Vidalia onion, new potatoes with rosemary and red pepper and grilled red bell pepper in olive oil, Portabella mushrooms!........yummm!)

CALIFORNIA CHERRY MAN MEETS CALIFORNIA STEELHEAD TRANSPLANT!

2011-11-07T14:04:00.000-08:00

( The cherry guru with his California Steelhead-Jeff Manning)

In 1876 the U.S. Fish and & Wildlife Commission brought the " great California trout" experiment to the Great Lakes.........A.K.A..........STEELHEAD! These rainbows were brought to the Northville Federal fish hatchery from the McCloud/Klamath river systems were they were a mix of steelhead/resident rainbow stock and put in the Au Sable River of Michigan, with a doorway to Lake Huron and the Great Lakes...............our inland seas have never been the same1

( Charley Polsky and Cahn with some nice swung steelhead)

((And a brownie!0

Last week I had the pleasure of guiding Jeff Manning from the San Fransisco Bay area, Cheif Marketing Specialist For the Cherry Institute and Phil Korson from Lansing- two of the world's top cherry guys!
Jeff caught his first steelhead in Michigan that came from his backyard!....way to go Jeff!.........that is cross marketing ...eh!

( The lovely and talented Sue Nyquist)

Also had a great week with Sue and Helmut, Charlie Polsky and Cahn and the Murphys.
We need rain bad and its coming since the water is so low.......lots of steelhead and browns coming since they are still out in the big lake and ready for the spate!

STEELHEAD SEDUCES WASHINGTON ATTORNEY!............AND WINDOW OF RUN PERFECTION

2011-10-31T14:37:00.000-07:00

( Steve with his first Steelhead!- on a two-hander)

Had the pleasure of guiding Washinghton D.C. power attorney Steve Cannon and his lovely daughter Katie this past weekend. Steve used to represent the lobbying firm my wife Laurie worked for when she was in D.C. Steve and daughter"kiki' were totally amazed by the power of these magnificent fish.

( click on bottom right to"full screen" to see leaping steelhead!)

( check out the center-upper left screen for the three hot jumps of the buck that tore Steve up!- I love Washington and all the politicians- my sarcasm was just that!- CHEERS BOYS AND GIRLS ON CAPITOL HILL!)

Steve has mainly fished for trout in Colorado and Virginia where small streams yield 12 inch brook trout on a good day- not 12-14 lb rainbows! Throwing a an Orvis Helios switch rod and clear sink/Skagit/Scandi systems which I thought him, he and Kiki hit some gorgeous steelhead- he became an addict for life!

( Stev's aerial steel finally captured)

The river continues to get great runs of steelhead due to the perfect '51F" water temps which give the perfect 'window of run "opportunity I talked about in Steelhead Dreams.
Water level 1770 cfs and clear.........still tons of salmon spawning and lake-run browns coming in!

STEELHEAD SUPER HIGHWAYS OF CHROME SILVER!!!!!!.............BEST RUN WE'VE SEEN IN A DECADE!

2011-10-28T15:41:00.000-07:00

(Steelhead Paul with a nice chromer!)

( SCHWING-A-DING-DING!)

OK...........sorry for the delay, but this year will go down as one of the most massive fall steelhead runs I've seen since 1999/2001.............ITS OUT OF CONTROL FOLKS!........NO SHIT!
After witnessing one of the hugest salmon runs "still going on!"......we are inundated with chrome steelhead in big numbers. Swinging and "matching the hatch".........even fly guys like me are racking up big numbers of gorgeous chrome fish!

( Big Roy hits chrome)

Last week I had the pleasure of guiding Roy Parks, 78 years young financial person and commercial oyster and clam farmer from Rehobath, Maryland for 5 days. Roy has fished for Atlantic salmon and steelhead all over the world- mostly in Quebec/Matapedia/Gaspe and the Dean and Bulkley Rivers in B.C. I met Roy when I was the featured speaker at the National Trout Unlimited Show in Washington D.C. this spring. Roy took one of my master advanced casting classes and wanted to come to fish with me for a week to catch the Michigan "QUAD-FECTA'.........that is Pacific Salmon, Atlantic salmon, Steelhead and a Lake -run Brown. Roy hooked many steelhead and kings, had a nice Atlantic take his fly at a northern destination and just missed a nice brownie..So congrats!......ROY!.3 OUT OF 4 AIN'T BAD!

( Polish Mafia brother Krys from CHI-CAGO with a nice lake run taken swinging with Drew!)

( Northern Lake Atlantic Roy was chasing!)

Just finished up with the "IRISH PRINCESS"- Sheela and husband Paul who cracked some good steelhead this morning and afternoon.

( Sheela- Irish princess chrome goddess!)

It can't get any better folks.........November and December will be "ON FIRE" with all the fish we have in the river system already and still huge numbers coming!

( Todays client lunch at Chez Mateo's dock- Greek Lemon Chicken with Tarragon, roasted red and green peppers, mushrooms and vidalia onions in olive oil- Perfecto Senore!- Gordon Ramsey go "F" yourself...LOL!- I just love the guy and watch Kitchen Nightmares every day!)

SALMON AND STEELHEAD JUST KEEP PLOWING UP THE MUSKEGON...........AND "MATCHING THE HATCH", PER SAY!

2011-10-16T15:03:00.000-07:00

( Nice steelie on the swing!)

( Dishin out the hatch matching- ain't purist, but works when the egg hatch is on in a stupid way!)

( Salmon Slamm'in Joe Vogel!)

It is actually crazy the amount and"SIZE' of the salmon and steelhead that are coming up so far this fall........probably the best run I've seen since 1999/2000- spectacular is the only way to describe it!
Thanks to Joe and Bonnie from North Carolina and Tip from the Grand Cayman Islands for a whole week of fun!. To the two Beck parties and the "Doctors', Chris, Sean and 'Bruno", and to Richard and Dakota for a great week of slamm'in salmon, steels and fat trout!
Still need lots of water!

Enjoy the pictures!

( That pretty lassie, Bonnie!)

( Here is the "dope" for matching teh 'egg hatch'. In ultra clear waters, steelhead, trout - heck even salmon!, are very "selective" to egg translucency/texture/opaqueness- ask any Alaskan Rainbow guide. With the reality of Otter eggs, "YOU DON'T HAVE TO WACK FEMALE SALMON AND STEELHEAD TO GET YOUR DOPE!)

DR.MATT ZACCHEO PERFECTS POOL FISHING FOR KINGS....'CALIFORNIA STYLE"

2011-10-09T13:36:00.000-07:00

After 3 days of heavy deep water pool swinging, Dr. Matt Zaccheo, a critical care specialist from Kalamazoo perfected the art of swinging clear intermediate Rio aqua-lux lines and boss/comet flies from the old California king days!

I have just been perfecting this technique for the past 7 years and finally learning more nuances about the suspension, drift, timing of day and strikes etc. A
Also, the salmon's behavior (porpoising, etc.) greatly reveals if they are players or chasers!.

Matt hit 10 salmon in our Gray Drake pool swinging all day Saturday and had a magnificent experience with these fish that are not given their full due title of being the 'KING" OF SALMON!"

CONGRATS DR. MATT !!!
River still low, BUT...............NEVER have we seen as many salmon since 1999/2000- they are everywhere!!!!!!!!

Caddis are all but done, but blue-winged-olives are everywhere and some brownies are targeting them if they haven't been persuaded to the "salmon egg crack"!

IT JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER!...........KINGS AND TROUT AND AUTUMN COLORS!

2011-10-07T16:34:00.000-07:00

( Pool caught Chinook with orange comet-I added jungle cock wings)

Sorry for the long delay in posting!..........been doing trout trips, salmon trips and finishing my "Selectivity" book!

We are finally getting some rain., Got great cool autumn days and fresh king salmon are coming in every day..........and some "real brutes" this year mind you!

( The "BIG SWEDE".....Johnny Bloomgren with a huge female king)

We are predominantly pool fishing swinging flies: boss and comet styles. As I am writing a chapter on Salmon for my book, I have been intrigued with the Pacific salmon early developing fly fishery of California's gold coast back in the 40's and 50's. The legendary Bill Schaadt and others held a very intense school of salmon fishing that borders on a fanatical men's club atmosphere..........that's all these guys did would line up their skiff boats at the mouth and estuaries of California's Russian, Eel, and Smith rivers to catch cruising king and coho salmon. Johnny Ferenz, Grant King and a few others were credited with the development of the comet/boss style flies which I have found very effective for salmon in slow , deep pools on the swing!

( my orange comet)

I am trying to tie traditional style flies with my own twist and have found them to be very effective! It is great when you could join -up a little history with our current"line-em and drag'em" Great Lakes mentality to Pacific's...( mind you not all "try" do this and I don't mean to insult anyone- including myself, an at times gravel fishing guide!)

( the new "salmon queen"- Eileen Ferguson with her first fish fly rod salmon on the Muskegon- up till that she had only caught a bluegill!)

Many thanks to Lee Miller and Amelia from Pittsburgh for some great caddis action for trout, Ron and his wife from Da "U.P.", Neil and Gary, the Bubbs, the Bloomgren party and Brian and the new "salmon queen", Eileen!

The caddis action for trout has been "remarkable", with lots of fat, pupae engorged browns and rainbows hitting the surface all day from the dam down to Carmichael flats- the water has never been richer with caddis since the demise of the zebra mussels. Don't forget to fish 'quad winged caddis' now that the numbers of egg laying adults are so enormous!

( the nice "cookie cutter' fat browns on the Muskegon that are packing on the weight from the caddis explosion- also Emilia's cool Deyonge's Abel !)

( quad spent caddis- John Miller image@)

( Lee Miller of Pittsburgh, master of the "new Letort', and his better half, Emilia)

( my latest Asian concoction stream side- Szechuan sweet and sour Chicken with cilantro and Hoison and spicy hot Thai peanut noodles with chives......delish!)

River is still very low- 1223 cfs, and we need all the rain we can get-lots coming tonight!
For a great DVD story on the California Pacific salmon fishery , check out "RIVERS OF A LOST COAST"- remarkable story that will make you restore your interest in fly fishing for Pacific king salmon!
http://www.riversofalostcoast.com/index.php/trailer/viewing_options/
We still have a few dates left and would love to see you this fall!
Cheers!

POOLED UP SALMON............AUTUMN BWOS AND CADDIS AND FAT BROWNS AND RAINBOWS..............YAOZZA!!!

2011-10-07T16:23:00.000-07:00

( James Kuras from Glen Arbor with a HOG!!!)

( Dr. Grace Smith from Pittsburgh with her first fly rod pooled up king!)

( Baconator with my fraternity brother-Andy Stover- first fly rod king!)

( Dr. Matt with today's pooled-up king!)

Pacific Salmon in the Great Lakes have gotten a bad rap from fly fisherman from all the "snag-and drag", gravel raping............doesn't have to be so! The pool fishing- California style, with Bill Schaadt/Grant King comets and bosses is a pure and simple approach to fresh , aggressive kings! You have to have patience, and there will be long periods without hook-ups , but all these happy campers are a testimonial to its success!- plus the fish come in with the fly in their" inner mouth"- that's something most people won't believe!..... No" glass house here", just try it and enjoy!

The autumn blue -winged -olives are taking fat brownies on the surface and caddis are still in "super hatch" stage with hog browns and rainbows taking them every afternoon and evening in this 80 degree weather!...........its awesome stuff!!!

( The dry fly Murphy machine hit 6 browns between 15 and 18 inches on a cold wet Friday last week!)

( Murph's caddis brownie)

( a BWO brownie- fat little piglettes!)

( Phi Delt Bro from 32 years ago I haven't seen since then- Andrew Stover from Cleveland Heights- his first fly rod fish!)

( A real treat for shore lunch- Andy and his brothers shot a bunch of Pheasant at Shooting the Breeze hunt club- so I did a Thai sweet and sour hot and spicy chilli glaze, with sweet and sour red cabbage and taters......DELISH!...THOSE BREASTS WERE SUCCULANT!)

WHAT A WONDERFUL TIME OF YEAR!....SALMON MADNESS........,SUMMER SKAMANIA STEELHEAD, TROUT ON THE DRY FLY!!!.........WE'VE GOT IT ALL!

2011-08-31T14:01:00.000-07:00

IF YOU ARE A "TROUTBUM', and want to catch a sneak preview of my "SELECTIVITY-TROUT DVD', click here and enjoy!!!. It has been getting impressive reviews in AMERICAN ANGLER and FLY FISHERMAN''S next issue!

Trout Activity Stages, by Matt Supinski from Thomas Harman on Vimeo.

Sorry for the delay in posting. Between guiding for summer runs on the St. Joe, doing trips for trout and caddis on the Muskegon and putting the finishing touches on my new 'Selectivity' book, I have been running with alligators nipping!
Cool nights, cool days!!!!! and BHAM!...............Chinook-King- salmon are all over the Pere Marquette, Manistee and YES!!!, in the Muskegon!... Last night watching trout slash caddis pupae at dusk , we saw several king salmon swim up very shallow gravel by the dam- they have jumped in our Gray Drake pool also.

There are a ton more fresh summer steelhead in the St.Joe and Indiana's Trail creek.

(caddis images by Jon Miller- cinnamon pupa and green caddis larvae in pupal case)

The heavy Hydropsyche cinnamon and green caddis hatches are starting on the Muskegon and we have hit some nice browns and rainbows.

ANOTHER WTF!!! MOMENT LAST FRIDAY ON THE MUSKEGON!!!!!!!!!!- Guiding and instructing the Markus's from Cleveland on the Muskegon, we had polar fleece on by 7 P.M.. Caddis (cinns.) were going crazy and we hit 6 browns between 13 and 17 inches that were fat footballs ( they looked like post steelhead/sucker/mayfly fish!) So, where the hell did these fish go all brutally hot summer and get so fat! They were not heat stressed and "slinkie and skinny" that you would think from the super heated up waters. Th caddis population, with the demise of the zebra mussels, have put so many caddis larvae in the water, the fish are just chowing down on them like pigs- regardless of the less then desirable water temps from the crazy heat...GO FIGURE!
If you haven't made plans for fall salmon, steelhead and yes- Atlantic salmon-( remember that big fish we caught last year?).........we have been booking at a feverish pace and we only have a few more dates left.

My DVD- 'SELECTIVITY-TROUT', is having very nice reviews in AMERICAN ANGLER and the new FLY FISHERMAN, and will soon be available at our new "shopping cart' online! IF you are a "TROUTBUM', and want to see a sneak preview videographer Dr. Tom Harman did On VIMEO, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,TAKE A LOOK AND ENJOY- HOPE YOU LIKE IT!!!

Don't forget to book your fall steelhead dates- they are going fast!

Hope to see you!

THIS AIN'T BRITISH COLUMBIA OR WASHINGTON'S WASHOUGAL............JUST GOOD OLD GREAT LAKES CHROME SUMMER SKAMANIA STEELHEAD AT ITS FINEST!

2011-08-13T13:04:00.000-07:00

( JAKE WITH HIS FIRST SUMMER STEEL!)

I ain't no Hugh Hefner judging chrome .sweet, center-fold voluptuous steelhead, but what happened yesterday was a once in a lifetime day! It was LOONG in coming, brothas and sistas................looong I tell you, after a heat wave from hell!
The stats and the beauty images are all I got to say..................and it didn't come with a Dean River price tag!

( PURPLE HAZE............IS IN MY JAW!)

DATE: AUGUST 12TH

PLACE: A COLD, SMALL TRIBUTARY TO LAKE MICHIGAN.....( and it ain't where you are thinking!)

ANGLERS:..........TONY DOMBROWSKI, ACCOUNTANT- GAYLORD, MI,........ SONS JAKE DOMBROWSKI -21, KICKER /PUNTER FOR TOP IVY LEAGUE COLLEGE ON EAST COAST HEADED TO THE NFL- OTHER SON, ALEX, 16, TOP MIDWEST GOLFER HEADED FOR THE PGA- MICHIGAN STEELHEAD FANATICS THAT NEVER CAUGHT A SUMMER RUN SKAMANIA STEELHEAD

PURVEYOR OF STEELHEAD ECSTASY: MOI!

CONDITIONS: PERFECT- COLD 58 F NIGHT, POLAR FLEECE MORNING.........FINALLY!..........WATER CLEAR AND COOLER......THE PERFECT " WINDOW OF RUN" OPPORTUNITY

SPECIES; SUMMER SKAMANIA STEELHEAD THAT JUST CAME IN THAT NIGHT ON THE COOLER TEMPS AND FULL MOON FROM THE BIG LAKE

DEMEANOR OF FISH: ABSOLUTELY CRAZY!!!!-SUICIDAL AGGRESSIVE/ACTIVE "BULLS IN A CHINA SHOP", AERIAL DISPLAYS UNPARALLELED!.............THESE FISH GAVE THE WARY AND" FISH OF A THOUSAND CAST!" REPUTATION A REAL BAD NAME!!!.......-THEY SMASHED OUR FLIES WITH A RECKLESS ABANDONMENT LIKE STRIPERS ON THE HUNT FOR BAITFISH!.........ABSOLUTELY INSANELY DUMB AND AGGRESSIVE FREAKS!

( JAKE WITH HIS SECOND- A KICK ASS FISH THAT WAS IN THE AIR MORE THAN IN THE WATER)

TACKLE: ORVIS HELIOS AND T-3, 8 AND 9 WEIGHTS, ......LOOP AND MIRAGE LA REELS,.......... FLOATING WONDER LINES ,1X TIPPETS , TINY FOAM INDICATOR AND MY "Purple Haze Skamania Crack" FLY

HOOK-UPS/LANDINGS: WON'T SAY!!!!! AND BE GROSS ABOUT IT!- DAYS LIKE THIS HAPPEN ONCE EVERY 10 YEARS AND I BASICALLY CUT THE GUYS OFF TO PROTECT THE FISH, EVEN THOUGH WATER TEMPS. WHERE UPPER 50'S AND FISH COULD BARELY BE HELD FOR IMAGES SINCE YOU COULDN'T HOLD THEM BEING SO HOT WITH PISS AND VINEGAR!.........(ONE BROKE A WHOLE IN MY NET AT LANDING!)

( ALEX WITH HIS FIRST SKAM!)

( ENTREE DE RESITANCE: LE PURPLE HAZE!)

SUMMARY: FULL MOON, A FEW COLD NIGHTS, PENT-UP LOVE SICK SKAMS FOR UPSTREAM MIGRATION?...................AND WHAT YOU END UP WITH IS..... WELL................... PRICELESS MY FRIENDS...........PRICELESS!............ THAT IS WHY THESE CAN VERY WELL BE THE FINEST GAME FISH ON A FLY ROD WHEN THEY SHOW THE TRUE SKAMANIA SPIRIT!................JUST THINK IF MICHIGAN STOCKED THEM IN COLD WATER TRIBS HOW FANTASTIC OUR FISHERIES WOULD BE!!!......AND THEY WON'T HURT OUR WELL-ESTABLISHED MICHIGAN WILD WINTER STRAIN. SUMMER AND WINTER RUNS ON THE WEST COAST HAVE CO-EXISTED FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS! HISTORY ........NOT FISHERIES POLITICS, IS THE JUDGE!

RECORD HEAT!!!................BUT THE FLY OPTIONS ARE STILL MANY!

2011-08-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

( Chunky brown full of caddis pupae)

Sorry for the long delay in posts. It has been a heat inferno and we have been managing the best possible. A big cooling trend is starting tonight with temps around 80 F as opposed to the mid-90's..................yahooo!

( another fatso at dark on caddis!)

( caddis images by John Miller @)---the importance of a tiny dark tungstun bead when fishing a dead drifting caddis pupa- just look at the head shape!)

Despite all the bad weather, the Muskegon has been holding up just fine. The cool water bubbler has been giving us dissolved oxygen and the trout are fat and healthy. Sure they would like it colder, but several reasons are helping them and they are in a growth spurt which was totally different than last year.
Here is a re-cap of what is going on :

the cold water bubbler at Croton has been going full steam with two aerators every night ,cooling the water the best it could and giving lots of dissolved oxygen
the zebra mussels are all but"FINISHED"............you just have to go above the dam and look at the rocks. Once they were totally encrusted in zebras- now you are lucky to find a live healthy one. Great Lakes EducatioanlResearch biologists and Grand Valley students have been surveying the river for steelhead fry, insects etc. and have confirmed the lack of zebras
the caddis population has 'exploded' their are nets and cases of cinnamon and green caddis in astronomical numbers along the rocks- the"canary in the coal mine" sign that zebras are done- in the past we lost the caddis hatch to the mussels due to the zebras heavy filtering of plankton from the reservoirs
Dave Cole at Consumers says they are rarely finding mussels in Croton and Hardy
the deep ,tannin tea stain of the river is a sign that water filtering( as mush as several quarts per day) by one mussel is not occurring- thus the old tannic stain

the stain also prevents light penetration in the reserviors and river holding down the temps as much as physically possible

SO...............the trout are eating their butts off with the caddis. Jeff, Bob and I were fortunate to guide the Simms Group of 6 guys fro 4 days last week , and we had somne excellent caddis activity at night with several browns in the 14-19 inch range on pupae at dark. All the activity- except Sunday- which started around 7:00 pm , has been mainly at dusk. But that will change as the air temp/water temps cool. The browns-they have been mainly browns getting fat and tolerating the heat, are very healthy and fat!

( big skams on the Joe are yet to come!)

Summer Skamania Steelheading will only improve with the cooler spell coming. The St.Joe will cool off and bring in more fresh fish. Indiana's spring -fed creeks have been holding some enormous sized steelhead and has fared better with its colder water.
Mike has been doing well fishing hooppers/stoneflies on the Pere Marquette and Pine, and there are nice browns at Tippy on the Big Manistee which Jeff and Bob got into on Saturday with the Simms group.
That is the latest for now!
Cooler times are coming and July of 2011 will burn in hell in the history books- good riddens!

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A RIVER IS ACTUALLY "TOO FERTILE!"............SOUP TO NUTS MAN!

2011-07-16T11:44:00.000-07:00

( Todd hit a nice brownie on a caddis pupae the night before before the 'soup to nuts " hatch)

Last night on the Muskegon was a true eye opener- an almost surreal exhibition by the power of nature and its ability to tame even the most astute fly angler that knows the hatches, tout behavior and "what they think!" is going on.
Todd and I decided to catch the dusk hatch of caddis which are second brood style starting up around now and will last thru October.

( the heat is pushing the bug activity to o'dark hundred!)

Yes the little green caddis, (Cheum. Spec.), the next brood of Hydro Cinnamon's, the Macronema Zebra caddis and whatever mayflies are ending/starting etc.
WOW!!!!!!!!!!....................we were practically shell shocked when dusk came and the river and its bugs went absolutely "insane"! Seriously, in all my years (hate to admit it but now 23 years fishing the Muskegon hatches), I've never seen the water turn to "mulligatawny soup to nuts".

( hexes and white flies taken by the dam street lights)

( a perfect wiggle hex/iso/white fly/Poto imitation)

After a nice grilled dinner of Angus T-bones, with balsamic mushrooms and roasted new potatoes and onions in olive oil and fresh rosemary, we were seeing a few big trout working the caddis pupae at dark/dusk. The few rises of good "bulging backs and tails" turned into dozens upon dozens of rising rings. It got too dark to see your 6x, and size 18/20 imitations and the scary part happened when we turned our big spotlights on the water. That was both depressing and and amazing ! It looked like someone sprinkled saw-dust on the water of bugs................it went from nothing to unfishable in ten minutes!!! There literally was a hundred bugs in a one foot square area.........."by george baffling mind you my mates!"

( the bows are fatter than ever- my client got a nice 19 inch fat rainbow on a scud by the dam on his bamboo rod made by Mac- The Vogelmeister")

When I sifted the surface, here is what we found:
Diptera; midges -cream and black by the bajillions-black flies mostly- cranflies
Caddis; geens, cinnamons, spent pupae ,adults, micro caddis by the bajillions, zebra caddis
MayFlies: YES HEX SPINNERS! they were all over- my assumption is they are coming from Croton Pond and spinner falling over the dam or thru the turbines, also tons of white fly spinners( Ephron Leukon- size 12#, blue winged olive, Isonychias, yes even a few late gray drake spinners.

( little greens are just getting ready to pupate-they are coming and in droves!)John Miller insect images@

THIS WAS SIMPLY MAD!
SO...............how do you put any reason to this caotic madness for the hatch matcher.
Here is the dope! Given the fact that there are still soft shell crayfish around, tons of dace and shiners, small steelhead fry- PLUS- this insane amount of insect life, the browns and rainbows got TONS of food and are very selective- almost impossible!
My best success has been early in the evening before the bug onslaught hits at dark and on caddis pupae TWITCHING AND DEAD DRIFTING!. If the water turns to"soup to nuts ' it is over.
The bubbler is on and dropping the water temps at night( if you notice the USGS graph you can see the spikes). The fish are extremely fat and broad shouldered with all the food.
They are not just up by the dam to Pine St. I talked to Rod Geers this morning who lives below Cottonwood flats and he caught a nice 17 inch brown on a spinner at dawn right by his glass house.
So are the fish spread around- YES!- has the heat effected them -NO!- does the fishing get easier as the summer progresses- YES!...............WHY?
soft shell crayfish will be gone, so will hexes, white flies, midges, black flies.
What will remain is caddis and flying ants and the fish will tune into the all day emergence and egg laying like clock work! Even this tough hatch to fish becomes easy if you've read Richards and Pobsts books on caddis and have the right fly, tippet and technique. The Muskegon trout really pack on the pounds during late July and August from the fat pistachio nut caddis pupae.
That is my story and I'm sticking to it!
Besides , it has been that way for 23 years- BUT!.................never in this fertile intensity!
For the trout, that is a good thing. For the 'Joe' fly dude, it makes it very, very interesting!

( Good Client and B.C. speymaster Doc Flaherty from Chicago sent me this picture of the beautifiul rainbows he got last week on the Babine during the salmon fly hatch- GORGEOUS FISH!)

This is the time that separates the casual hatch matcher from the seasoned pro......I love it!

THEY'RE BACK!!!.........AND BIGGER-SUMMER CHROME IS COMING HOME!

2011-07-12T13:08:00.000-07:00

Yes my friends, the summer Skamania run is looking "real good" so far this year! After a dismal run in 2010 with extreme heat, almost non- existent water flows and a boiling hot lake with what was feared to have few bait fish, man how things can change in a year.
Summer runs have been showing up in the St. Joseph for about 3 weeks now, and after this heat spell, temperatures are going to rebound to more cooler, seasonal weather.
And the fish are running really big- on the huge size! My sources have confirmed bruiser steelhead and Brian Breidert of the Indiana DNR is really impressed with the size of fish so far. He told me he has heard and seen reports of fish from 17-22 lbs-( like the old days-99'-2001) when alewife bait fish populations were at a high. Fish have already been taken in South Bend which is very impressive for this time of year! A cool spring with lots of rain and water has accelerated things and brought the run somewhat back to normal like the 90's.
Over the past four years we've seen some smaller Skamania- but not this year.
This link at Michigan Live may be telling the 'good news"- tons of bait fish in the big lake which as we all know is extremely cyclical. But for now, there are a shit load of bait and the steelhead have been chowing down on them. On the Muskegon at Croton Dam, the bait and hardware guys have been picking up stray summer run steelhead also at the 6th street Dam in Grand Rapids. This usually is a good sign of a diversity of strong year classes in the fish and good precipitation and flows.

This is a great sign for the rest of the summer and what fall will bring. Brian has said he is seeing Coho salmon up to 13 lbs!........can't wait for late summer/ fall!

We still have some dates available for summer steelhead and you owe it to yourself to hook into these massive chrome "great lakes tarpon"- they are one of the hardest fighting fish we have in the Great Lakes and absolutely spectacular raw beauty!thttp://www.mlive.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2011/07/alewives_show_up_in_force_alon.html

PATAGONIA ON THE DELAWARE.........MUSKEGON/SUMMER RUN UPDATE

2011-07-05T08:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long delay in posting!!! Had a very busy schedule before I left for vacation and had the pleasure of guiding some well known dignitaries before departure on the Muskegon.
I have had the pleasure to fish the West Branch and main stem of the Delaware(NY/PA) the past few days before coming back to Michigan and what can I say but,,,,,,,,,,,,WOW!

( wild west branch hog brown above taken by Johnny Miller sight fished in shallows taking Iso nymphs-bright sun and water 48 F)

( wild Delaware rinbow on a size 18 sulpher emerger)

Perfect flows, excellent weather and tons of sulphers, bwo's and Isonychias and wild browns and rainbows taking dries and shallow water sight nymphing a.k.a. Johnny Miller style!, with water at 580 cfs-perfect- and upper 40/low 50's water temps. Thanks to West Branch Angler Resort and longtime friend and guide Johnny Miller, we floated several days and got into some 'Patagonia sized " browns and rainbows.

( main stem Delaware)

( awesome spotted wild and very, very selective west brtanch browns eating olives and sulphers)

The pictures and short video tell the story!!!!!!!!!!!!
Muskegon conditions good with lots of caddis. Unfortunately the tuber/canoe/kayak hatch was out in full droves this past holiday weekend cause of the warmth and nice weather which made daytime fishing tough and frustrating.
Good numbers of summer steelhead in the St.Joe River with all the rain they had been getting!

CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT IS SHOWING UP LATELY!...HEXES AND BROWN DRAKES-ON THE MUSKEGON?........YOUR MAD SUPINSKI!

2011-06-17T10:22:00.000-07:00

( hex?......yup!)

It has been a "bug festival" this spring on the Muskegon! With the downright cold and wet weather, our mayflies ,caddis and some stones have truly gone through the roof!
Honestly, I haven't seen the diversity of aquatic invertabrate life like I have seen in twenty years!
Last night and a week ago, Had HEXES!(YES HEXAGENIA LIMBATA!) on the door under the lights at the Gray Drake in the mornings.

( brown drake0

Frank, my next door neighbor sent me a picture of a brown drake ( one of several that were on his screen doors at his magnificent river view home). Yes, that is a Brown Drake!
Water conditions are ideal- 2,180 cfs- water temp at High Overlook this morning- 59F- at the dam- 62F. Still a strong tea color which is making for 'exceptional' dry fly and swinging wets. Had the guys from OST systems from G.R. yesterday and my clients broke off an exceptional 20 " plus brown swinging soft hackles in the morning- he didn't let it run and the 5x snapped fast. We unfortunately watched the hog jump 5 times next to the boat trying to check the size 16 wet fly- we were dejected to say the least after witnessing the size of that huge red spotted sucker...lol!

( that is why these guys are packing on the pounds!!!- if we continue with the cool summer which they have predicted, and the cold -water bubbler combo- we "all' might have to take these trophy fish more seriously- much to the reluctance of the many that want a strictly"catch-and-kill' fishery- your comments are welcome! Despite having one of the "hottest and driest" summers on record last year, our trout survival was significant when compared to other 'cold water" rivers in the state- reason-tons of sub-terranean spring creek/seeps throughout the entire higher gradient Muskegon))

Here are the current hatches you can expect right now
MAYFLIES: sulphers(16-18), American March Browns( 12), light cahills( 14), blue-winged-olives(16-24) brown drake(8-10, Hex( 4-6) gray drake (10-12), Isonychias(10)
CADDIS:CINN. AND GREENS( 16-20), black glossosomas/dot winged sedges,( 14-16), plus tons of micro black/green caddis by the bazillions
Stoneflies: giant black pteronarcys(2-4), olive stones-(12-14)
PLUS TO ADD TO THIS CRAZY FOOD SUPPLY!.............newly hatched steelhead fry, chinook salmon parr, sucker minnows, newly hatched dace fry........sucker eggs..........no wonder these fish are fat hogs!!!!

HATCH MATCHING CONUNDRUM!!!!!!!!...........THE INFAMOUS MUSKEGON MASKING HATCH

2011-06-10T09:20:00.000-07:00

Hatch matching on the Muskegon, P.M.,Manistee-West Branch of the Delaware..you name a selective trout river!, can be very tricky business.

( gosh are these browns getting really fat and healthy- I did a stomach pump on a few 12 inchers and found the following: caddis-cinn., greens, micro blacks,/ cahills, sulphers, bwo's,craneflies, graydrakes, olive stones, sucker eggs, a chinook par/ anewly hatched steelhead fry- it was a damn buffet!)

I've had the extreme pleasure of guiding Tip from the Grand Cayman Islands and Wally , his friend from Charlevoix all week. We streamer stripped in the mornings and chased the hatch and bugs on the second evening shift. Being on the water from dawn till dusk- with an afternoon siesta break gave us a whole gamete of possibilities. We've also expiereinced every weather extreme- stifling upper 90's heat, thunder, and now cold wet rainy weather.

(note: gray drake dry spinner above the adipose fin- dropper in the mouth- 4 nice size browns fell for Tip's dropper, the bows took the gray drake!!!)

We have witnessed blizzard gray drakes, significant sulphers, cahills, and gazillions of caddis at dark.

( yet to come any day- the ISO!)

Last night's conditions were ideal- overcast, cool and not tons of bugs- just enough to really get the fish moving. The gray drakes started early, so did all of the above mentioned mayflies and caddis.

The late great Carl Richards always talked of the "masking hatch"- just when you thought you knew what the trout were keying in on the surface- guess what!- they were not!!!
We had some very large browns and bows making some significant bulging, boil rises and some drakes were copulating and falling.BUT-----, they were not taking them. Tip finally hit a nice 19-20 inch brown but it took the dropper under the gray drake spinner.

Can anyone guess what the masking food form choice this extremely wary brown was keying in on?

( Hmmm........!!!)

Water conditions perfect- 2,210 cfs- water cool 59F-cool damp weather and cool days for the rest of the week...............IDEAL FOR THE HATCH MATCHING FANATICS! GOD I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR!!!!

( gray drakes on the tree- next couplke of nights should see good bugs since the past two were cold )

( Jerff from Abel spent the night with us- I took a shot of his new vented brownie)

TO AM OR PM...............THAT IS THE QUESTION!!!!

2011-06-06T13:53:00.000-07:00

TIME:9:37 A.M.
CLIENTS: Tip DeLisser from the Grand Cayman Islands and friend Wally from Lake Charlevoix fishing with me for the whole week.
Method: streamer stripping blood diamonds
On the water; a few gray drake spinners, caddis and some sulpher spinners
CATCH; BIG ASSS BROWNIE!

So verdict is made.......fish both A,M and PM!..............IT'S THAT SIMPLE!!!...........have lots of coffee!!

NIGHTS OF SCHERERAZADE!,,,,,,,,,,,,SEXY DOINGS WITH BUGS, GULPING TROUT AND YES!......ANOTHER FRESH STEELHEAD SIGHTING!

2011-06-03T09:36:00.000-07:00

( Cast master Todd)

This has been an incredible past two weeks on the Muskegon! Tremendous mayfly and caddis, activity, lots of fat browns and rainbows feeding on the surface and yes!..........another fresh steelhead sighting yesterday!
Had the pleasure of having Todd Jensen last night for some hatch matching and it was another amazing fantasy night. We witnessed another "sexual orgy"( as my title implies) of gray darks, sulphers and caddis mating into frenzies! The cool weather-upper 60's-low 70's daytime highs, coupled with cold 40-50F nights have spurned tremendous hatching activity that we last saw in 2009. After the oppressive heat and lack of hatches of 2010's spring which made us scratch our heads with" where have all those bugs gone?"- it just goes to show you how amazingly resilient mother nature is!

( very nice rainbow taken on a drake!- the ones that don't die at ten inches.lol!)

The real big story is the almost blizzard like caddis ova-positing female flights of the last few nights. We almost lost our caddis hatches due to the invasion of the zebra mussels for over ten years. The water was clear and empty of case /clinging caddis larvae.Why?- cause caddis larvae are plankton filter feeders- so are the zebra mussels attached to the very same rocks on the bottom of the river.

( my new gray drake soft hackle- works before the hatch and anytime of day)

So the zebras filtered millions of gallons of water daily and stripped all the plankton and any debris in the water, thus starving out the caddis literally.
The river today is crawling with caddis larvae everywhere and has a strong"tea tannin stain' we have not seen since the late 80's /early 90's........WHY!

( peat color evident)

Because the zebra have been dying at an alarming rate for the past three years- Consumers Power has the turbine power steaming facts to back this up. The tea stain is caused by the rivers high marl, deciduous,pine emanations in its system. So the mussels, are not capable of removing those tannin particles due to the lack of them.

( caddis females ova -positing all day!- each year will only get better!- like the old days when Carl Richards and Pobst wrote their caddis books on this river)

What the tea stain means for the trout? Nothing but fantastic news. We had trout rising in the past few nights literally 2-3 feet of the side of the boat -or where you were wading. In that water, you could barely see the bottom- normally you could see 12 feet down easily on the Muskegon1-not no more. So the trout will feel more comfortable and less skittish in the darker water and are more prone to rise at all times of day and closer to you.

( how big browns can get with healthy caddis and big mayfly populayions on the Mo- Bacon with a hog taken on a drake!)

Also, Todd made an excellent comment. The tannin stain will also lower summer water temperatures since light penetration will be mush less then it was in very gin clear water.

( gray drake image -John Miller@)copyright)

So why the reduction in zebra mussels you ask?
three things have occurred
* when a new exotic invader infiltrates a new ecosystem, their proliferation is quick and explosive, eventually over-reproducing and dying off in big numbers due to over eating their food source
*they don't like cold winters, which we have had several strong ones
* they don't like high fast water flows. This last flood was the second worst in the past 100 years(86 was the biggest). We also had several big floods since 2004.
SO ANYWAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT'S THE GOOD DAM NEWS!
River levels- 2019 cfs- water temp 58F---------all is good and ready for some great hatch matching!
Todd saw two chrome steelhead on gravel yesterday while wading- yes they are still winter strain steelhead!. I asked Todd, " you sure they are steelhead not suckers?. "Not unless these suckers have a red stripe and spotted triangular tails!,"he shot back.
Life on the river is good!

WE'VE GOT IT ALL!............BLOOD DIAMONDS, BROWNS, MEN FROM DOWN UNDER, GRAY DRAKES- AND YES!........ONE LAST STEELHEAD!

2011-05-30T09:39:00.000-07:00

( nice brownie on my" blood diamond")

Memorial Day weekend is a very special time! We give thanks for our courageous service men that gave their lives for our taken for granted freedom we enjoy. And it is an amazing time in Michigan if you are a fly fisher!
Sorry for the delay in posting!.........had a busy week on the water and things are really starting to cook! We go from cold to hot in one day literally.

( the blood diamond-Senyo's Laser Yarn and Hareline's eyes are the key!)

Tons of gray drakes last night from Croton down to Bridgton. A very reliable source said there were a gazillion drakes/black quills so thick they were in his teeth!....down by Bridgeton. Trout were taking them better up top once the wind/cold/rain died down and it got calmer- tonight-Late- should be "esscellent" as the bros say!

( Gray Drake dun-image by Johnny"Bugsy" Miller)

The Muskegon is perhaps at its finest! Water levels excellent-2080 cfs- clear with a peat tannin "natural" stain. The hatches have started in earnest- caddis -both greens and Cinnamon's-also tiny blacks-# 16-22's, gray drake spinners have been out at dusk-and dawn!( now with the heat, we will find more a.m. spinners), sulphers in good numbers, craneflys, midges, blue-winged-olives...........YOU NAME IT!

( last night's swarm!)

The Chinook fry are jumping in the air along the shorelines for midges and micro -caddis- plus dodging big trout, smallies, drop-back steelhead and herons and king fishers. The bald eagles are soaring and picking up dropper steels and suckers, while the suckers are spawning in full swing.

( the key to the fly's effectivness-black parr marks and a rainbow color combo gives it a chinook/eagle lake rainbow color- the Senyo's yarn moves and glitters in the water)

So a Muskegon trout is a fat football feeding machine! Eating all the above.
Had the Pleasure of guiding new neighbor Jeff Doornbos- who bought the property by the high -overlook -the Conservancy land .

( Julian streamer stripping- he is one hell of a good caster when contained..lol!.....Julian, you know what I mean, bro!..lol)

Thursday and Friday I had the pleasure to guide Julian Cribb- world famous scientist/author fro Australia who was in Chicago lecturing at a symposium on global climate change and food famines /sustainability. Julian is the author of the famous book"THE COMING FAMINE". He is also a great fly fisher who fishes New Zealand often. Stripping my new"blood diamond streamer " he caught some nice browns and rainbows.He was very impressed with the Muskegon!

( we were hitting nice fat footballs all day on the diamond-this brownie eat well on scuds since crustacean diets bring out the red spotting)

Yesterday with Joe Bekkin and Tom, we had dry fly caddis action, drakes, streamer stripping........and yes........we hit one female chrome steelhead and a few dark males nymphing-these late fish fight like summer runs-aerial/out-of-control!!! ........they always seem to hang -on till Memorial Day weekend if you know where to find them.

( yes!- I got a haircut yesterday- beginning to look a little Jeremiah Johnsonish!)

( the gray drake trout huntress-Laurie loves to dry fly fish in the rain-NOT!- YET ON OUR NIGHT OFF WE BARRED IT- HAD NICE STEAKS AND SHRIMP ON THE GRILL AND GOT A BUG HATCH TO BOOT!)

( the making of Blood Diamond-Senyo's Laser the key!)

( ephemerella invaria- sulphers- Johnny Miller image)

( my" gay drake special"!-can anyone name the materials and key to this fly's success

June will be an exceptional month to come...........hope to see you this summer!

IT WAS AN AMAZING APOCALYPTIC DAY!...........UNVBELIEVABLE BROWN TROUT, FRESH CHROME STEELHEAD AND CADDIS............AND A STURGEON NO LESS!

2011-05-22T11:24:00.000-07:00

(Chris with a Muskegon brown of a lifetime!)

With the rapture of earthquakes and doom only hours away, Jeff Bacon and I had the extreme pleasure of guiding two gret bunches of guys. Jeff guided Mark and Chris Courtney- both medical doctors from Chicago and Arizona. Mark has never fly fished and Chris is an avid trout chaser on the Rocky Mountains.

( Dark tan caddis now hatching on Muskegon-#14-16-image by the "Le bug Doktor-Johnny "bugsy" Miller)

I had my yearly visit from that good 'ole Polack- Grandpa Alex Michalowski from Saginaw, his grand son Johnny from Big Rapids and his son-in law David from Washington, D.C.
The day started out hot and humid. Jeff and his guys hit some nice male steelhead and a "chromer then chrome" fresh female steelie in the morning. I taught my guys the finer art of fishing caddis dries on the surface and we caught a nice 18 inch brown after many dozen presentations to this very snooty selective wise guy!
Later , I tried to get Johnny -age 14- his first steelhead, but he lost three or four after some fierce jumps by the fish.

(Nice fat selective brown David got on the surface!)

After we had our lunch of Beef Shish-kabobs with basil pesto Potatoes, we saw this "ginormous" grayish olive 7 foot pointed head log swimming right next to the boat."OMG----IT'S A HUGE STURGEON!- I screamed and all three guys were amazed at its sight. It vanished before I could get my camera out.......way too cool!

( AND "STEELHEAD JOHNNY"- FINALLY GOT ONE IN THE NET-WAY TO GO DUDE!!)

Finally around 4:45 pm after a long day, Johnny put a nice chrome male steelhead in the boat to his elation! Johnny kept saying," an hour and 15 minutes till its over!"- the 14 yer old lad was fascinated by the whole doomsday thing! Just then , Jeff and the Courtneys came by us and said" You are not going to believe the brown we got stripping Chinook Parr streamers- it was an absolute beast of a river brown at 29 inches-8-9 pounds!!!!( the pictures and video below tell the story!!)
SO..................6:00 p.m came and went, I was still on earth ( I was a little concerned but my faith teaches me differently) and I sat down and poured a single-malt scotch and lite up a cigar( being the good Jesuit raised Catholic I am), said a prayer and toasted to a "GREAT ALOCALYPTICAL DAY!"

RIVER CONDITIONS- Muskegon water level perfect-wow!...... where did that new very deep peat color stain come from?- I think the floods really put another big dent into the river's zebra mussels thus the discoloration, which means lots of plankton/ nutrient load and excellent for rising trout to camouflage themselves. One thing zebra mussels-( or as the late Carl Richard's put it" those damn clams!) don't like is fast flows and cold water- we had both this winter and spring for the "double whammy punch! Water at 2,570 cfs- 56 F

( The birthday boy- master Cole Jensen-or otherwise known as "The steelhead slaying Cole-amani"- this dude can really fish!!!Todd-you should be proud of this superstar!)

P.S.........God bless that preacher Camping from California!........poor guy ( SHIT NO!, I take that back-"rich guy" that radio Evangelist has made multi-millions off his fool hearty followers!) has a lot of time on his hands to make such crack-pot prophecies. I pity all the idiots who left their jobs , drained their bank accounts and destroyed their families over this nut-job's predictions.
"Be very careful what you wish for" as the saying goes.
For it is written, "Behold, for I come like a thief in the night!"- nobody knows the time other than the "real big guy" upstairs-period!

Peter Gabriel and Genesis wrote a great tune back on their "Foxtrot" album in the 70's entitled"Supper's Ready'- if you've never listened to it- its time you downloaded it from I-tunes- Pretty cool stuff!

ANOTHER AMAZING DAY!......AND WHAT A GUIDE DOES ON A 18 HOUR DAY!

2011-05-18T18:47:00.000-07:00

Had the great pleasure guiding Todd from the Anglers Club Of Chicago and Rob from G.R. this crack of dawn morning for steelhead( thanks Kevin W.!!). We hit some nice fish and had a great lunch.Only saw one boat the whole day- "that guide!"- who was "netting-killing and " winning" -as the the soon to be ex-Charlie Sheen would say...........hhh...mmm!

( nice fatty tonight on the 'kill bill")

Came home, tied flies between sets of free-weights in the garage (Yes Polish people can multi-task!), and went streamer stripping for trout.........WHAT ELSE DOES A GUIDE DO IN A 18 HOUR DAY!

( my new "KILL BILL " pattern!)

TODAY!!!.........IT WAS BLOODY MAGNIFICANT!

2011-05-16T16:35:00.000-07:00

Had an excellent day with the "steelhead guru- Dr. John Murphy and his neighbor Paul from Bloomfield Hills. Honest to Pete!.....I probably have at least 900 PLUS slide and digital images- no shit!..of this man with steelhead with me since 1997!) this dude can catch a steelhead in "a toilet bowl in the Bahamas!- I could build a monument to this mensch!).The pleasure with "Johnny" is all mine!)

Is what it is! Chrome will keep coming till June since this is a very late year. Morels have just sprung............BUT!.........PLEASE! don't kill these late spawners!!!....... Give them respect, angle them, kiss/quick photo them--- and let them go!
With these high water levels , drop-backs are making their way back to the big lake with ease- so mult-spawners?...... we will have next year if you don't feed them to "team IGLOO" .
So sorry if I pissed off anyone by "my blog " comments!( I'm sure the "killers" will mount the assault".....god bless!). Plenty of walleyes out in the back eddy areas for the skillet!.............DNR protects them ....not steelhead!( OXYMORON!)- and all the "jet boats' on the Muskegon are strictly targeting walleye- YAH-YUP!

(Paul with his first fly rod steelhead....his first steelhead period!....p.s... if any of you want to know why my left hand is always on the tail.......it is because I want to stabilize the fish to get 1 or two good exposures in 5 seconds and get it back in the water)

CHEERS!........and as Uncle Ricco says.."HAVE A NICE DAY!

IT IS PURE MICHIGAN'S GREATEST TIME OF THE YEAR!

2011-05-15T11:21:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh.........the middle of May in Michigan! To the fly fisher this is absolutely Nirvana!!!!
We FINALLY got some warmer weather after one of the coldest springs on record. The morel mushrooms have started and the river has so many great choices!
Water level is perfect- 3,300 cfs- nice clear peat stain, and just about everything happening!
Hatches have started with lots of caddis, Quill Gordons, Black quills( Leptos) and American March Browns , sulphers and drakes soon to come. We still have good numbers of steelhead in the system and chinook parr are everywhere- browns and rainbows chowing down on them!
The beginning of June will see a ton of hatches fusing together- drakes, isos, sulphers, BWOS,caddis etc. If it stays nice and wet and cool like two years ago( so far that is what National Weather service has predicted!)- BINGO- we will be on fire!

(Allison from New York with an enormous male this past week!- her first day steelheading!)

( big bugs just starting- Quills, march browns, drakes etc.)

( Trout and drop- back steels going GAGA for these guys!_)

( Drakes soon to come- watert temp is 54F- 59F is the magic #)

Hope to see you !

NOW THEMS SOME BOWS!!!!....AND FRESH CHROMERS TOO!

2011-05-09T14:24:00.000-07:00

Had another great day with Dan Goldstein from Chicago and his dad Morris from Wash. D.C.-they were amazed by how awesome our rainbows are here!.Morris fishes Jackson Hole - he said it will be tough to go back there after what he saw and caught today!

Yowza!!!!!!............( and one last "PIG" from Dr. Ron yesterday!)

THE CHROME KEEPS COMING HOME!

2011-05-07T16:42:00.000-07:00

FRESH CHROME- BUCKS -HENS................OMG!!!- WELCOME TO THE FIRST WEEK IN APRIL!..............DAAAAA!!!!
Dr Seth from Ann Arbor and Dr. Ron from Chicago- new additions to the "steelhead uber mensch club ",with one of the best days we've had so far!!.....we trout fished in the afternoon and will be curious to see what black stones are left- saw a few

Got a few Morels today and heard the grouse drumming- spring is a month late by all means.

HOW SWEET IT IS!.......WHAT A DIFFERENCE A WEEK MAKES.....CAHN-FIRMATION DAY!

2011-05-06T15:03:00.000-07:00

A week ago we were at the second biggest flood in a century.............today was "steelhead Nirvana".

Mr Cahn Tran, long time apprentice whom I always have the pleasure guiding, and steelhead fanatic , not to mention CEO of an aspiring global software company, put on a steelhead nymphing clinic. Steelhead buggers were trounced upon and that little green- thingy (wink....wink!)
I'm seeing excellent numbers of fresh fish moving in and seeing fish in spots that didn't hold fish all spring..............I THINK OUR RUN IS FINALLY COMING IN ON A NEW WAVE!
Congratulations Mr. Cahn on putting on a thorough spring steelhead clinic-YOU DA MAN BRO!

BACK IN BUSINESS FOLKS! NO MORE FLOOD STAGE AND SOME LAKE TROLLING FUN OVER THE WEEKEND!

2011-05-03T12:50:00.000-07:00

HURRAY!!!!..............no more 10,000 flood cfs- river back to 5,100 this afternoon- time to get"safely' on the river. Last weekend as the river went to the second highest flood stage in 100 years at 10,000 cfs, some idiots almost drowned and risked the lives of Sheriffs and DNR game wardens cause of their stupidity- thus they shut down the boat launches.
So now we are ready to go steelheading and hatches for trout.
As Peter Basta and I made a safe and cautious choice not to put the lives of our clients in jeopardy fore the almighty dollar, we went trolling with switch rods and baitfish patterns up north at a lake that I heard was known for producing big browns and atlantic salmon.....uh..hmmm!-
ENJOY THE SLAPSTICK VIDEOS-WE WERE TWO CLUELESS FLY ROD TROLLING GOOFS HAVING FUN- HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR PLEASE!

AND THIS FINAL OUTCOME........DID NOT COME!!!.......WE WERE TWO CLUELESS RIVER GUIDES WITH NO FISH FINDER AND TROLLING 'OLD SCHOOL" NEW ENGLAND STYLE..............ZILCH/NADA/NICHTS!!!!!- BUT WE HAD FUN.
HOPE THE GUYS AT ORVIS AND ABEL HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR!

MISSY THE SPEY QUEEN "TORE THEM UP' AS THE RUN WAS JUST GETTING REAL HOT!...........THEN THE FLOOD AND BUILDING THE ARK!

2011-04-28T13:33:00.000-07:00

YES SAD BUT TRUE!.........THE RUN WAS JUST EXPLODING FOR THE PAST 6 DAYS, AND THAT DAMN GLOBAL WARMING THREW A FLOOD AT US!. After being in what Peter Basta called' the "" Artic Shield"........the new global warming term for all the Artic air is parked over the 45th parallel- and it is warm up in the artic??? ( true!- I've been in some kind of snow/sleet storm every day in April on the river), the steelhead run was just starting according to my estimate, and "BHAMM!!!- BUCKETS OF RAIN THAT DIDN'T STOP!

( dock 4 feet under water and river flowing thru our lower property!)

( Peter Lovis from Boston,MA with a nice chrome hen with Peter Basta during the deluge)

We hit 9,000 cfs this morning- the worst flooding I've seen in the 21 years since I've been in Michigan on the Muskegon.Our entire lower property is under water. But good news is the water has crested and is receding- should be fishable by next week with excellent numbers of steelhead coming in on this big dam blow!
Here is Missy with some nice fish during the monsoon.
As trout season opens this weekend, all rivers in the state are flooded and a ton of big browns WON'T be strung up on stringers by the worm dunkers.........YAHOOO!

IT KEEPS GETTIN BETTER AS THE SPING RUN IS "REALLY JUST STARTING?"

2011-04-23T14:00:00.000-07:00

( Today's chrome and two Abel steelhead reels-sweet!)

( Steelie Johnny with a nice brown)

YUP......!, it has been a brutally cold April- lots of snow and rain, thunderstorms, river at 4,500 cfs but clear.Water temperatures have been down-right cold!!!!!!!!-upper thirty/low forties-best bite has been near noon on some cold days . Steelhead "Johnny Murphy really tore them up today- nice hard fresh chrome hens and an awesome brown eating eggs ....................IT JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER EVERY DAY!........MAY WILL BE ON FEUGO!
The pictures tell the story!

( Chef Gavin with an Awesome chrome hen)

( John Hurley from Cisco Systems.-"winning", with his first steel")

P.S...........the stone fly hatch has been put on hold due to the cold Temps!- morel mushrooms coming soon- Thanks to Chef Gavin who gave me his little secret on Morchellas!)
Cheers!

APRIL UPDATE.........THE STEELHEADING JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER, AND SO DOES WINTER!

2011-04-17T14:20:00.000-07:00

(Dr.Grace from Sharon,PA, with an awesome male buck from Saturday!---you go girl!)

SOOO.... sorry for the long delay in posting blog updates!. I've been up to my ass in alligators....busy with great client groups, working trying to put out two new books, market a new DVD, and trying to lead a family life has been KEEPING ME BUSY AS HELL!

(The Barretts from Chicago)

Woke up to snow this morning-when will winter stop!
Want to thank all the great client groups we have had..........the Kelly group from Boston, the Heils from Wisconsin, and the Whipple group from Connecticut,Barretts, Wayne,...........not to mention the "steelhead queen"- Sheela from Ireland and Paul, the Freidrichs and the "steelhead queen"-Dr. Grace Smith from Sharon, PA.

( John from N.Y.)

River is perfect.......3,800 cfs ( water temp dropped to 41 F from 43-crazy!)- clear and fish hitting gravel and fresh fish and drop-backs in pools. From the Calvary riffle /Pine st./ and dam is where "you" want to fish!

(Sheela-Ireland's steelhead queen)

We have just seen our first run of spring steelhead- we have at least 2-3 more good spring runs to go as soon as water temps hit 50F! May will be on fire and we will probably have steelhead 'till June like all the cold winter/springs in the past!

( one of my"BIG CASINO" boxes)

Afternoons have seen great black stone fly hatches- we hit our first 17 inch brown two days ago on the surface...........THE MAGIC TEMP # IS 43 f-5.0C !- for both steels and black stones
CHEERS!

(CDC stone)

( fat morning egg eater and afternoon dry sipper)

We are in for a very cool summer( that is according to the global warming experts which say a cool/wet summer is a sign of global warming!).........hatches will be great and plenty of trout.......THINK LATE MAY/JUNE FOR GRAY DRAKES!

AND IT JUST KEEPS GETTIN BETTER!!!!!!!!!

2011-03-30T16:55:00.000-07:00

Had a magnigicant 4 days with the Vogels-Joe and Bonnie, and Kelly Payne from the North Carolina Casters group......they became master steelheaders on the fly in a very short time!

(Joe with his 5th steelhead in two days)

We fished winter pools- and not gravel questing yet- gosh I wish they stay in the pools- that would be nice!

( Joe and Bonnie with Greek herb and garlic chicken and feta pasta!)

Anyways, water droping and warming- tons of stones on the surface today!

All the pictures tell the story........April /May will be on FIRE!!!!
CHEERS!

(Joe with his first nice buck steelhead!- Peter Basta-BTW....Bacon, Drew, Allen,......and the guy that knows the least about steelhead.....MOI!.......had a great time!)

( FLY KEY QUESTION FOR SUCCESS!..........what is the river's biological drift now- two things!.......if you have them, you will crush fish!- e-mail me if you've got the answer!- THIS ONE IS JUST PART OF THE SOLUTION!)

IT'S BLOODY WINTER!.......BUT THE CHROME ARE COMING HOME!

2011-03-27T19:10:00.000-07:00

( MY TWO NEW STEELHEAD QUEENS!- BONNIE AND KELLY FROM NORTH CAROLINA!.YOU GO SISTAS!)

SORRY FOR THE DELAY IN POSTING!!.......OMG!...up to my ass in seminars/book/dvd alligators and steelhead.......YET!- still fishing winter pools!!!...Al Gore, what happened to "no more winters by 2014" as you said?. Please, Al!!, give us some relief from global warming............6 degrees F ABOVE ZERO this morning..not wind chill!
We have a great group of 10 from Casters in North Carolina, Territo's , Jason Kuipers group ,Eckhoffs, etc. River was blown out Thursday- ice storm - no power, THEN ARTIC ZERO NIGHTS!
Here tells the story- images are ......PRICELESS?
We are a "LOOONG" way away from a full blown spring run- going back down to 8 degrees above 0 tonight............ice in the guides all day today!..........river dropping and clearing very nicely!
Caio!
"LET'S HAVE LUNCH!"

THE IGFA RECORD IS OFFICIAL!...........NEW DVD!.... AND RIVER UPDATE

2011-03-15T13:07:00.000-07:00

Had a great trip back to Washington, D.C. this past weekend as the headline speaker at the National Capitol Trout Unlimited show. They had me running ragged doing master fly casting classes, a spey casting demo and two presentations on Great Lakes steelhead, salmon (both Atlantics and Pacifics) and lake-run browns- also a tail water and spring creek trout presentation. Here I debuted my our new "SELECTIVITY" DVD we shot this past year and the response was overwhelming! I only had a small sample 6 dvds with me and had about 50 people that wanted them right after the presentation- I guess that is a good sign! It was shot on NY/PA's west branch of the Delaware and Catskill streams, PA spring creeks, Michigan's tail waters, WI/MN spring creeks and Montana's Paradise Valley spring creeks. I will be showing it this Saturday at the Chicago Fly Fishing Outfitters with my two presentations at 3:00 and 5:00.

ALSO SOME BIG FINAL NEWS!!!-........that new world record IGFA land-locked Atlantic salmon client Tom Aufiero caught with me is finally OFFICIAL!!!, and listed on their web site and is good news for Michigan in a constant barrage of what seems like bad press news.

Meanwhile, back on the Muskegon, each day sees new arriving fresh steelhead as the water warms up- but we still have a ton of snow and the reservoirs are still frozen. We still have a few openings for April and we would love to have you join us for a what promises to be an exciting spring steelhead season given the good sized fish we saw last fall and this winter. Water at 2400 cfs and 36 F.

The early black stone flies have started to hatch and Jay-one of our guides- saw a few fish targeting them on the surface yesterday.Also, slamon sac-fry are hatching!
Got to get ready for the next three days guiding and back to Chicago!
Cheers and Tight lines!

MARCH MADNESS HAS BEGUN!...........NASTY WEATHER AND SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION!

2011-03-06T14:06:00.000-08:00

(Cheif ring-leader, Dan Pridemore with a nice one!)

Well, here they came,OMG.......I mean in droves! Yesterday marked the official end to the calm , quiet winter season on the Muskegon. It was a fricken boat show out there on Saturday!. Maybe 40 boats between Pine st. and Thornapple- more downstream. It was fun to watch the boats/anglers/ dusty guides who had "no clue where to fish" or park their boats to get good swings/drifts etc. The gravel seekers where out and on a "rampage"-the fish probably felt like the Polish horse drawn Army on Sept. 1st, 1939-when the German blitzkrieg came thundering down on them!- they went underground!
Thank god for nasty weather that got most of the weekend warrior madness ( don't mean to offend anyone-it is actually good to see people having to work Monday thru Friday!-I applaud you!) off the river early. Most went home fish less and I could count on a few fingers of one hand the anglers that had some success.

(Tony with a nice brown- looks corn fed...lol !-acyually she was very pregnant!)

Jeff Bacon and I had the pleasure to guide the Dan Pridemore party on Friday and Saturday. Dan had his auto exec. clients with him and despite the ice and snow, everyone caught fish-despite almost having to wait a good amount of time just to fish a pool or run , since there was a boat or angler in all of them- mostly by twos!

(Jerry with his first steel on a fly rod!)

I hate to "toot" our horns, but between me and Jeff we have 35 years of fly fishing guiding for steelhead on the mighty Muskegon, and it comes in handy when you have to fish "tertiary water". since all the prime holes are locked up and boats anchored on top of the fish holding buckets. We found fish and some nice ones-including a lake-run brown female that was just about ready to spawn-!.....yes spawn. I saw two new gravel beds dug on Friday, and with 33 degree water temps, they weren't steelhead beds.Last year I caught a large male brown in early March that squirted milt on me at photo time. The Seeforellen strain of browns(our fish still have some of that inter-mixed blood in them) are late winter spawners-despite browns being late fall/early winter spawners.
( the Mowl-meister with last Weds. fish-an April last year drought breaker!)

River actually dropped to 1,800 yesterday-BUT- rain and an ice storm are coming. Fish still in winter mode and holding water.
I'll be the main speaker at the National Capitol Trout Unlimited Show next weekend in Washington, D.C., but if you need to get out and fish, our guides will be ready to get you into fish- trout and steelhead! A guide that knows the river , fishes ethically and gets you on fish with a fly under crowded conditions, makes working Monday-thru-Friday worth the money!-...eh!

Cheers!- more chrome yet to come with higher waters!
(sorry for the shameless self pimp promotion!!!!-but-that is just the way it is my friends!- proof is in the images and happy smiles-can't BS here!)

HOWLING AT THE MOON!!!.........AS THE STEELHEAD CHROME COME HOME!

2011-02-22T14:12:00.000-08:00

We are really starting to see the post Valentine's push of steelhead and it is impressive! All indications are this spring will be a great one with'very good sized steelhead' so far.The heavy snow-(foot and more) Sunday night, plus now the colder temps and a slight warm-up, will continue to bring fresh fish in-March and April will be great months!

The full moon plays such a huge migratory impression on the steelhead's neuroendocrine pineal/hormonal glands since it doesn't allow for much build -up of melatonin in the bloodstream-thus causing excellent upstream migrations. Last weeks thaw brought the water up to 3,000 cfs-now down to 2,100 cfs with the single digit nights. This roller coaster has had positive results on the migratory steelhead. Besides....the trout fishing has been excellent. The rainbows and browns have some of the most vibrant colors at this time of year.

Had the pleasure of guiding Dr.John Murphy and daughter Lindsey who did a magnificent job with their landed steelhead- plus got four beautiful colored -up nice rainbows. Lindsey who is at Beaumont hospital starting a bright new career hasn't fished for steels in two years and did an amazing job landing her fish..........one huge buck broke water three times in very cold weather and she handled it incredibly well.....go girl!

Water temp dropped back down to 34, but the fish are acting like it is spring.

We still have a few choice dates available for spring both at the Trout&Eagle and Gray Drake- don't wait too long!
Cheers!

VALENTINE'S WEEKEND STEELHEAD/CULINARY FEST!........PURE MICHIGAN CHROME COMES HOME!

2011-02-13T12:56:00.000-08:00

OMG!!!.................what a fabulous weekend was had by all that came out for our winter celebration weekend of outstanding Italian Gourmet cuisine by Chef Frank and the steelhead that decided to show up for the event blew my mind!
Having three boats go out on Saturday-steelhead and trout fishing- everyone caught fish and had a memorable culinary extravaganza!
I personally had the pleasure of guiding Gene Kelly who came with his lovely wife Meg from Boston, MA. Gene guided with me on Friday and Saturday and the fish gods really gave us an amazing look into what is to come on the run this spring.

Gene has fished all over the world- Iceland's Big Laxa for Atlantic salmon- out west-Alaska etc.-BUT!........has never steelhead fished before. He said there was this magazine sitting on his office desk for years, with a guy in a white and black winter camo coat holding up a large winter steelhead against a snowy background. We always thought about catching a winter steelhead and given the terrible cold east coast winter, he and Meg just wanted to get away for the weekend. With a 580.00 round trip flight from Boston to Grand Rapids "for the two of them-plus rental car-that's unbelievable", they found us at the Gray Drake surfing the web when they punched in winter steelhead.

So Friday, after two nights of minus 15 below temperatures, it was going to get up to a balmy 19-20 degree F day. It was snowing pretty good and windy as we started our winter special trip-250.00 from noon to dark. I showed Gene the finer aspect of deep drift Great Lakes nymphing the pools and runs and he started to get the idea. The weather was nasty and Gene had a strike which he failed to capitalize on and set the hook!. But there was always Saturday, with the promise of sun and 30 degree weather which would greatly warm up the water and a stable high pressure would hopefully get things on the bite.........hopefully!
When we got back to the lodge and a hot fire place, Gene said embarrassingly,"OMG, you are the guy on the cover of that Fly Fisherman Magazine I've been looking at for three years-I couldn't recognize you with all that head and neck gear on.......what a small world!", he said!
Saturday came and conditions were balmy-even tropical feeling as we started around 11:30 in the hot sunny 30 degree F weather."I'm gonna hit the pools that have had the sun on them since morning", I said to Gene. "Your the boss, he said".My goal for Gene on his first winter steelhead trip was to hook, fight and land a steelhead-I didn't care what size the fish was, just to get the monkey off his back!
In the first pool we started at, I worked the run/pool from the top down very slowly and carefully covering every inch of water. Gene's drifts and presentations were looking good."WHAM..........holy crap, I got a fish on !, Gene said.This fish hit really hard and busted water and charged downstream then up- violent head shakes mind you! It absolutely hammered the Iceman February super minnow streamer with a vengeance as Gene pumped the Mirage and Helios 10foot 8 weight perfectly -having big saltwater and Atlantic salmon experience. When the fish came up as I readied the net, I couldn't believe how chrome and big the Valentine's hen steelhead really was. "I haven't seen a female steel this big in a long time", I said. We landed the gorgeous princess and took some great images-HURRAY- big chrome first of a Lifetime steelhead in the boat - the day was made. Artifical fly-no chumm...lol!- and life couldn't be better. We high fived and celebrated a victory dance. It was only 1:30 and we had a lot of time left . Having seen only one other boat all day in the stretch I was working, we proceeded to another"all day sun pool" which had to have been warming -up nicely. Gene and I were already glowing!- and whatever else came would be a bonus!
We worked this long pool all the way down for about an hour and again""""KABAHM!......a violent strike and another humongous chrome hen came flying out of the water in an aerial display and the fight and chase was on!!!!!
I could barely lift the damn net under the fish- she was a pig!-again on the iceman minnow!I decide to tie them longer and very sparse and the movement of the ice fibers was too much for this big alpha female to resist. Gene shit himself when we finally got it in the net."I really am speechless........two giant hens- middle of February and your first steelhead trip!- DUDE!....go play the lottery- this is Amazing!, " I told Gene. It's one thing to get one giant hen, but to stick another even bigger then the first.......that just doesn't happen after sub-zero weather and low water for weeks.
I then told Gene, for the almost two decades I've been winter steelhead guiding, the Valentine's Day push of chrome big fat hen steelhead has been as timely as the swallows coming back to Cappistrano-they are perfectly gorgeous specimens. Water was on the slight rise- it went from33 to 36 F- STEADY HIGH AND THE BITE WAS ON! The longer days of photo -light period was triggering the steelheads neroendocrine pineal/hormonal glands and despite bitter cold water and temps, the spring migration is on. The "SIZE" of the fish means these females have been hammering gobies in the big lake just like they are in Lake Ontario- this is Very,Very promising for what is to come March/April/May- hold on tight for some BEASTS TO COME!

As for the Culinary side , all the couples that partook of Chef Frank Zamarripa's masterpiece were blown away!
Courses:
classic minestrone zuppa
Mediterranean Spot Prawns, fire grilled with crushed chili rub,heirloom tomatoes,asparagus and Morel Mushroom Risotto
Parmigiana-Reggiano sweet pea agnoloti, San Marzano toasted basil red sauce,tellicherry peppar
Braised Short Rib and roasted quail, winter root vegetables, super Tuscan Veal Demi
Tiramisu and berries--------------DELISH!

( an awesome shot of Dave's male taken by his guide-Drew!)
SO.......................there you have it! A true winter weekend celebration of all the great things we have in Michigan to offer..........we are very blessed!

THIS COULD EASILY BE YOU!............GRACE BRINGS HOME THE CHROME

2011-01-31T14:34:00.000-08:00

Saturday, January 29th. Air temp-upper teens-low twenties. Wind chill- single digits. Muskegon river,. Michigan. Water temp- 33.8 F.
Angler- Dr.Grace Smith. Pediatric Cardiologist from Akron, Ohio. Avid steelheader and trout chaser.Frequent fly plyer of Lake Erie's "steelhead alley". Loves the west coast,PA spring creeks, Colorodo's South Platte and Jackson Hole Cutts-bows.First trip to Michigan for steelhead.
Wants: To catch a steelhead in the coldest weather in the dead of winter when the creeks and rivers are not frozen -up like they are in "steelhead alley".
Toughness; Lasted 8 plus hours on Saturday perfecting her drifts and presentation without complaining about her hands and and feet- that is one tough lady!
Accomplishments: Landed a gorgeous 12 pound chrome winter Michigan strain steelhead at 4:00 p.m near dusk guiding with yours truly.
NOW THAT'S PRICELESS!

Had the pleasure of guiding Grace Saturday and as Austin Powers would say, "the pleasure was all mine!" She was an addict for steelheading information, is a great fly tyer and is falling into a female legacy of great lady steelheaders started by the ' ground zero steelhead queen'- Shawn Murphy. Why women are so keen in steelheading revolves around their extreme focus and concentration factor.Grace had tons of karma and steelheading zen- not to mention cold weather tenacity!
She is a Sage/Simms person, but she fell in love with the Orvis 10ft. 7 wght. Hydros for its lightness and ability to protect a 3x tippet with iced-up guides. The Mirage LA purred with its sealed drag system and is the perfect and true tension keeping reel for iced up and cold conditions. I believe she has been converted.
Her fly was my # 10 Great Lakes Mysis Otter shrimp in baby pink.
Congratulations Grace!- the steelhead gods are smiling down for your next encounter in the spring.

Tight Lines from yours truly,
Your winter steelheading pimp daddy, Supinsk-dog
P.S, you can't catch a winter steelhead sitting home and complaining about the weather- JUST DO IT! Gosh I love this stuff!

THE CHROME HEN STEELHEAD HAVE COME HOME TO ROOST!........AND WHAT TO DO WITH LEFT OVER SALMON FILLETS!

2011-01-27T13:01:00.000-08:00

As the swallows come home to Capistrano, the first new year arrivals of fresh chrome hen steelhead always happens around the third week of January aligned with the howling wolf full moon cycle. Despite below zero temperatures and near freezing and low water levels on the rivers, the power of steelhead migration perseveres.
The magic of the steelhead's neuroendocrine pineal gland( the transparent brain window in the dermis) which measures light photo-period of daylight length, is triggered by the ever increasing length of daylight as the sun is now setting longer and longer each day.Despite there being ice on Muskegon Lake and Lake Michigan, this powerful gland which measures and synthesises melatonin through the enzyme hydroxyindole-o-methyltransperase (HIOMT),starts to trigger egg production and hormonal development. Steelhead and migrating salmonids are truly amazing organisms.

We are expecting a nice warm-up in the 30'sas the water levels continue to much appreciated rise-up to 1,610 cfs. Water temp anywhere from 34 to 36 Degree F depending on where you are at in the fishery.I posted a beautiful image of a hen steelhead taken at last night's dusk. It took a cerise pink Matt's Great Lakes shrimp(Otter braid sucker spawn Tangerine with cerise and Krystal pearl flash-black mono eyes).Orvis Spey Rod, Airflo Delta floating line, Thill strike indicator and indy spey mending, This is very effective for very slow , near shore bubble line lies where this hen was found.
ALSO..........what to do with left over Atlantic/Pacific salmon pieces/end tails. Having our culinary weekend just passed, we did grilled farm-raised Chilean Atlantic salmon Provencale in my last blog. I had several end pieces of fillets left, so for something different, do a pasta dish!
Linguine with pesto, roasted red bell pepper, artichokes and olive, grill the salmon fillets and BHAM!......you got a great Mediterranean pasta! Flake off the salmon into the pasta, plenty of crushed black ground pepper and you have a killer dish----as Rach would say.........Delish!

Or next Culinary weekend is the Valentine's Italian Amore with Chef Frank - we have 4 couples signed up and we have room for two more. It will be Tuscan cuisine at its finest and there should be more steelhead in the river- next full moon is a Valentine's moon and that's when the pretty lady steelhead really start their migration

FIRST WINTER WEEKEND GETAWAY!............Brrrrrrr!.................SNOW AND ZERO TEMPS-BUT GOSH WAS IT FUN!

2011-01-23T09:34:00.000-08:00

( when the sun came out, the 5 degrees felt like a heat wave!)

(Michael is an avid wildlife photographer)

( a bald eagle followed us around all day in the boat-image Todd Jensen)

( French winter comfort food!!!- 1st coarse- Alsatian Onion Tart, salad- mixed field greens with Anjou Pear, gorganzola cheese, dried cranberries and a balsamic vinaigrette- and here, Grilled Atlantic Salmon Provencale- Basil pesto, calamata olives,roasted red onions, baby chantrelle mushrooms, with roasted redskin potatoes and rosemary, along with asparagus and hollandaise
-Monsieur Pepin would have been proud of this!)

( Beckers cross-country skiing)

( Michael barring the cold)

( warming his toes on Mr. Heater- he burnt his socks!)

( Laurie couldn't wait to dig in- no smiles for the cameraman here-"let's eat!)

( stoking hot fireplace felt great after the cold day)

( January male steelhead are an absolute gorgeous fish!- perfect colors, spotting and kype forming)

Our first weekend culinary/winter steelheading was a real "deep winter" chiller! As the weather forecast loomed over the would be participants by Wedns., the first calls came in,"OMG, did you guys see the weather?", reluctantly I said,"YUP!-ain't looking good for even the hardened winter aficionados". Lake-effect snow, wind chills well below zero and day time high temps around the low teens-

dropping to well below zero at night were to make it a rough ride.

So needless to say, several couples cancelled, and I really couldn't blame them.Our winter policy is "book it, and if real bad weather comes we'll cancel with no obligation on any ones part- that is really the only way you could host January -February events in Michigan.

The weekend was to feature the chef's tribute to French fusion cuisine master, Jacques Pepin- who took french cuisine to a higher level at La Pavilion in N.Y.C, wrote many cookbooks and did a series of cooking videos with the famed Julia Child.

HOWEVER,the Beckers, Michael and Anne, love the winter, outdoors, photography and ,bird and wildlife watching and steelhead fly fishing."Of coarse we are coming!", they said when I talked to them on the phone,"it's winter at its finest!, they said."Now that's the spirit, cold -no matter how cold don't bother those who have invested in the Patagonia/OR lifestyle. It's actually a challenge we live for and enjoy!

After a breakfast of Laurie's famous Eggs Benedict with her award winning killer hollandaise sauce, Michael and I embarked on a winter special afternoon from noon till dark. When I saw the thermometer still hovering at "8 F", snow coming down and the wind kicking up, I the eternal optimist even had doubts starting to build in my mind. My jet , which was docked at the dock, was the first concern. Did the batteries get drained after a sub-zero night?.Is the jet impeller in the water not frozen?. Is the throttle frozen? First logistics that needed to be taken care of

I told Michael,"first I'm going down to the dock and see if we have the jet de-iced and ready for take off. I'll warm the engine up for at least 20 minutes". Miraculously, the Yamaha jet started up on the first crank, but the four-stoke 115 rebelled with a low disgruntled rumbling sound as the jet and impeller cleared whatever ice was in the system. Throttle- frozen solid, but with gentle prying not to break a throttle cable, I got it to go about two inches in each direction- that was it. After 20 minutes, the engine started to piss and we were ready for a very slow ride- a ride to go fishing never-the less.

I hit the 108 degree hot tub earlier to get the core body heat up, and Michael did the same before we left. 12:30 noon and the air temp was 10 F on the nose! We had Patagonia Das Parkas, Guide shells, every known under layer they have ever invented and my trusty Mr.Heater propane tank sizzler.

The first winter hole we hit, Michael hit two steelhead right of the bat."Damn, these guides are totally frozen shut",he said as he desperately tried to strip line -or let the fish take line-didn't and couldn't happen, thus the fish were gone.

We tried some indy nymphing for trout with the 5 weight and some size #16 scuds and midge larvae and # 14 olive and black stone nymphs that were drifting, but even the trout rebelled as the wind kicked up, the air temps fell back to 8 F, and we headed for water that had hill embankments to shield the wind.

We lasted till dark-6 P.M., by that time our body temps went real low. Air temp as I was docking the boat- 3 above zero!

The fire place was going full blast, and the warm libations never felt better as we sat around the roaring fireplace. Laurie and I were the hosts for the evening as we sat down and had a lovely French winter comfort cuisine dinner with the Beckers.It was a memorable meal to say the least.

The next day dawned at 2 below zero and a warm sun and windless day made it perfect for the Beckers to go for a nice long 5 mile cross country ski outing. Even though temps never got above 12 today, they broke out a good sweat given the sun and no wind chill.

Now that is the way to enjoy a Michigan winter weekend!-regardless of the weather!

Saturday, we had all kinds of wildlife on the desolate river. The bald eagle seemed to follow us around all day in the boat. We saw deer, turkeys, a fox ,swans, ducks- you name it!

Our next culinary weekend is Valentine's weekend , and we already have several couples signed up- we still have a few openings. Chef Frank will be doing Italian comfort cuisine and the steelhead and trout will be waitng and hungry!

Cheers!, Beckers!....... and Bon Appetite and Salute!

A PERFECT WINTER'S DAY OF STEELHEADING....MISSY'S FIRST DEEP CHILL OUTING!

2011-01-13T13:13:00.000-08:00

( warming up with Mr. Heater and a hot seafood chowder on the grill- Wild caught Peruvian bay scallops, with leeks, corn, bacon,celery and new potatoes.............yummy and really warms up the bod!

( with her nice feisty chrome hen steelhead!)

I spent the last few days with the new wunderkind steelhead spey slayer,Missy Apmann, good client who is developing into one hell of a two handed caster and could catch chrome! Missy as you recall, is the National award winning equestrian rider, does fox hunts and polo, and is totally immersed in the world of steelhead , atlantic salmon and spey fishing.

Missy was concerned about the snow and cold, single digit wind chills and whether her hands and feet would hold up for at least 8 hours on the river. She did amazingly well!......( also a special thanks to Mr. Heater and his pal Blue Rhino propane!)

Her spey casting came together very well after two days and she hit a feisty chrome hen steelhead in dam pretty chilly water on the Helios 13/6-8 two hander with 14 feet of T-14 and Rio's Skagit 550 grain

You go girl!!!!!

In a side note, the river took a much needed deep , restful sleep today! Matter of fact while I was out, I heard her snoring!!!(rzeka is female for river in Polish). She breathed a deep sigh of relief from yesterdays enforcement efforts. A sincere thanks to CO Ginn and others for his and their much appreciated work!

WELCOME 2011...........AND LET IT SNOW!!!

2011-01-04T11:19:00.000-08:00

( the deep crimson cheeks of winter males are glowing this time of year!)

( our favorite time of year- winter!- Tony Gates of radio fame with a nice hen from last winter)

( Winter steelheaders box- fun stuff)

( Loch Leven wild strain Letort Spring brown on the Grim Reaper sculpin)

( Vince Marinaro's meadow in the Letort)

( lake-run brown time is here!)

Hope all had a great and happy holiday season! Sorry for the long delay in posting, but our family went back to the east coast to visit our families and I got a chance to fish the Letort Spring Run on New Years eve and day. That has been a tradition for as long as I could remember. It is a magnificent limestone spring creek in Pennsylvania's Cumberland valley with perhaps the most intelligent and skittish wild brown trout in the world! I did manage a nice 16 incher on my Grim Reaper sculpin after many hours and miles of walking the cow pasture spring. These are original descendants of the Loch Leven Scottish and German browns brought here in the late 1800's( watch for my You Tube video at my "flyfishingmichigan" You Tube channel to be out in the next week on the limestone spring creeks)

As for now , we are getting much needed snow pack( we are up to a whopping 6 inches), and the river has bounced up very nicely to 1,870 cfs-this is normal or slightly below normal but is higher than we have seen since perhaps spring( we are also getting the Hardy Dam draw down of water effective Jan 1). This will bring in much desired fresh chrome steelhead and lake- run browns which really get going around January and February on the Muskegon.

Winter is our favorite time of year to steelhead and lake-run fish.............solitude and beautiful winter scenery!

Check out or winter steelheading specials and our culinary winter weekend getaways at our graydrake.com web site.

We are now booking prime dates for spring steelhead....don't wait if you have dates in mind!- we'ld love to see you this spring !

WINTER STEELHEADING AT ITS FINEST!.....PART DEUX

2010-12-21T09:08:00.000-08:00

( Don with an awesome hen that took a hot pink/orange meth weave)

( Charles with a nice buck that took a Super Iceman Minnow)

( Ahhhh!!! perfection after a cold winter's day- European Charcuterie!- Fresh Polish garlic sausage( KIELBASA!) from Frank's Butcher Shop on Fulton St.- Grand Rapids ( 616-456-2706-best Polish sausage outside of Warsaw!)- lightly grilled then steamed in your favorite ale or lager beer in a pot( this one in Leffe Abbey Belgian Blonde), Austrian red cabbage with bacon and red onions( check our home page at our web site- click on newsletters 2011- go to archive -fall/winter 2009 for entire recipie)- and pan-fried new potatoes with rosemary, celery seed and olive oil------unbelievable to warm up the body!- enjoy with a Belgian ale---------Guten Appetit!(Geman) ..or "smacznego"(Polish)-ENJOY!

It was a great four days of my favorite time of year- winter steelheading! Light snow falling, some nippy wind chills ( especially Saturday!) and nice steelhead caught and around to be had.

Had the great pleasure of having "super awesome clients"!- Doctors Frank Vormohr and Jay from Muncie ,IN and teachers Don and Charles from Waterfod, MI. We had a great time learning new techniques, trying new fly patterns, hooking and landing beautiful Michigan winter strain steelhead and talking about everything!- current affairs, our faith, love of cuisine and American single barrel hand crafted spirits and the fish!- of course.

Yesterday in particular was a magnificent day we rarely get in December- sunny, no wind, warm 32F( balmy actually and a great afternoon bite from our quarry-the steelhead! I saw one humongous lake- run brown in a pool that was an actual behemoth, and looked like a large atlantic salmon with its big kype jaw. We worked swinging big road kill, nymphs and egg patterns to it with no avail- but the steelhead were very cooperative!

Cheers guys!..... and thank you for you warm camaraderie and generosity- can't wait for your return steelhead trip!

WINTER STEELHEADING WITH ERIC AND STEVE...........BRRRRRRRR!!

2010-12-12T12:12:00.000-08:00

( my new creation: The Grim Reaper"-targeting aggressive alpha male steelhead and Atlantic salmon- they crush it!)

( Eric with an awesome buck taken right at dusk during a sleet/snow storm and wind!!! Sorry for the blurred picture!- my shots with my Nikon are usually crisp. But I had the focus on manual due to the continuous auto-focus was chasing every wet sleet and couldn't get a decent light meter read since it was just about dark. Something about the big buck alpha males at dusk in winter conditions. They just seem to wait when the river is completely quiet and that it was!)

( Eric and Steve freezing their butts off today-can't wait to start using my jet sled again as the water comes up. Problem with 20 foot V-hull sleds like mine is they don't do well in very low water conditions like we had all fall( two cracked impellers is enough)

( your humble guide"Sasquatch'- ready for the blizzard)

( my Mykiss Great Lakes Shrimp- using Otter's sucker spawn braid)

Had the great pleasure of guiding Eric Dobkin, Chairman Emeritus for Goldman Sachs in New York City and his good acquaintance , Steven Feinberg from Santa Fe, New Mexico for the past three days. Eric and Steve fish all over the world - from Patagonia/Tierra Del Fuego in Argentina to Russia- they are chasers of the silver chrome and this was their first fishing trip to Michigan.

Learning deep nymphing Great Lakes style and their familiarity with swinging flies, they hit a few few fish despite the up-and-down weather....especially today's brutal wind, snow and cold!

Eric hit a very nice buck steelhead right at the "magic time of dusk" -my favorite bite in winter when the water temps are low. It took a Matt's Mykiss Great Lakes Shrimp and crushed it!

Water has come up to 1490 cfs and snow and cold are coming for the next few days!- we need the bump in water to bring in 'fresh chrome- not the tainted Pavlovian chum dogs"!

Thanks so much guys for your patience , time and generosity!

The Hunt for Landlocked Atlantic Salmon on The Fly! And new IGFA World Record Atlantic Salmon

2010-12-08T13:57:00.000-08:00

LET IT SNOW.......LET IT SNOW.......LET IT SNOW!

2010-12-05T10:58:00.000-08:00

( nice deep winter lie buck on a Great Lakes mykiss shrimp)

Winter is here! It has been on and off snowing for a week, with a good pelting today! We were up north of Traverse City Friday and it was brutal!

Water level has come up on the Muskegon- 1450 cfs, and water temp. is 41F. Steelhead and browns are settling into winter lies and swinging flies is done slower and with more deliberate presentations. Deep nymphing will be a more preferred technique with egg patterns and small leeches as water temps continue to drop. We have seen a few very nice lake-run browns caught in the last week........one out of the Gray Drake pool!

Look for an awesome YOU Tube video coming out in the next few days that our guide Drew and I shot on some Northwood Atlantics..........UNBELIEVABLE!!!! footage of very aggressive large kype jawed males attacking big sculpin leeches underwater!

Fresh chrome steelhead were caught off the surf last week in the big lake , so a new push of chrome is coming! Full moon is coming(large migrations take place due to the steelhead/ lake-run browns Pineal gland running 24/7 during this time) and a warm-up by next weekend.

We have Holiday Gift Certificates available and they have been selling well!

Cheers!

( and BTW......."CHUMMING" LOOSE SALMON EGGS IS ILLEGAL IN THE STATE OF MICHIGAN!)........in case you or your guide didn't know that!)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

2010-11-25T07:47:00.000-08:00

( LOOK OUT FOR THESE GUYS TO START SHOWING UP!- THIS WAS A HOG TAKEN LAST YEAR ON NOV.28TH)-note: low water years tended to favor lake-runs in the past-don't know why!)

Hope all have a very appreciative Thanksgiving-thanking God for all the magnificent things we have been blessed with in this country, despite the current way this country is being run!

River is still low..1270 cfs...still fresh steelhead entering the river......look out for lake-run browns to start showing up. Trout still taking tiny blue-winged-olives(#24) and midges on the surface

CHEERS!!!!

SHAWNY CRACKS A NICE CHROMER ON THE SWING!

2010-11-20T16:25:00.000-08:00

(DUSK!!!!!!!!!!!.....happy time)

A.K.A, "the steelhead queen", Shawn Murphy, hit her first true swinger.....a chromer on an orange and copper leech...........YOU GO GIRL.......YOU GO GIRL!!!

UPDATE REPORT

2010-11-18T10:29:00.000-08:00

( the new "INVICTA".......iz da schizz!)

(Magic time for fall steelhead!)

Rivers are still extremely low, but staying on the warm side and steelhead continue to migrate up river- next full moon and some badly needed rain will do the trick. Still excellent numbers of steelhead along pier heads.We started to pick up a few lake-run browns and December should be the month for them as it usually is.

MIKE HITS HIS FIRST CHROME ON THE SPEY!

2010-11-15T13:34:00.000-08:00

Mike Murphy from Chicago wanted to try swinging a two hander with a Skagit., and so he did and was rewarded by fall chrome on the Muskegon. Despite the brutal winds and cold he did phenom!

MISSY HIT THE BUCKS TODAY!!!

2010-11-10T18:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was chrome hens!......today I wanted the" SHE STEELHEAD SLAYING PRINCESS"........to catch some males ( see the kype etc..)..and that she did!

Second day throwing the spey, and she was hitting 70-80 FT'rs with the double spey...YOU GO GIRL!!!

THESE TWO "CATS".............PUT THE "GGRRRR...........BABY IN SWINGING!!!!

2010-11-09T15:50:00.000-08:00

( Missy "the new Celtic Steelhead slayer( two hander spey style, mind you mates!.......princess, conqueror!) ( Dr. Canh Tran........DIABOLICAL MAN OF MYSTERY......with his first swinging spey steelhead!)

( I came up with this pattern two nights ago..........low water, clear sunny days.............Dr.CANH.......very evil man!!!(lol)..... we named the fly....."the CANH-VICT?????............now Missy has baptized the pattern in Celtic blood and toil!!!!)

CONGRATULATIONS !!!!, TO THE DIABOLICAL "man of mystery", Mr. Canh Tran from Chicago.........and the world famous " Horse Whisperer-Missy!", who is now called the"SHE PRINCESS STEELHEAD SLAYER!"

Had the great pleasure of guiding them the last two days( and my soul brother, Charlie Polsky!) to their first chrome steelhead swinging flies.........the strikes and battles were blistering with aerial jumps...!!!...........OMG'S.......WTF"S...........and some magnificent fall steelhead.

If you guys see me limping for the next week, I tore my hamstring muscle netting Missy's fish.....BUT!!!........it was well worth it!! Missy had her first lesson in spey casting with the two hander today and did"MAVOULAS , DARLING!"....I have three more days with the "SHE STEELHEAD SLAYING PRINCESS", and the best is yet to come!!!!

TWO GREAT DAYS WITH THE LADWIGS!!!

2010-11-04T19:06:00.000-07:00

Had the extreme pleasure of guiding Jeff and Jerry from Green Bay, WI for two days....GREAT FOLKS!!!, They fish the Bois Brule , one of the most beautiful rivers off of Lake Superior that the Great Lakes have ever produced. If you like the P.M., the Cat in N.Y., the river of "burnt wood''would really appeal to you.

Here are some great pics.......( btw.... Pete H.......we cracked a huge chrome hen when you went up to have a scotch right in front of your dock on a huge copper olive barred leech right at 6pm....catholic happy hour!!). The drift boat continues to produce .......going slow and making a dozen drops down a run/pool with no noise from the jet ,just stealth rowing from Pine to Henning every day......plus I'm ready to go on a the boxing tour circuit.........any challengers!.......As I get older, pumping the oars and feeling the blood in my muscles has been a gift from the man above, to make you feel like a million bucks when you get off the river...Hope the river gets to 600 cfs!!!!

RIVER REPORT: great numbers of fresh steelhead continue to push through the system at 1,150 cfs,,,,,,,,,they seem to race towards the top of the river........????.........HAVEN'T SEEN THIS IN A LONG TIME!

CHEERS!

DR. MARK HITS THE CHROME BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-11-02T17:37:00.000-07:00

( Marchese( Italian nobleman) with "primi piatti", first coarse, chroma steelheado........as Aldo Raine would say in "I.....taliano", in "Inglorious Bastards"

J'MAN'S BROKEBACK ARTICULATED MINNOW WAS THE TRICK TODAY! ..not to be confused with "Brokeback Mountain".........lol

Had the extreme pleasure of guiding Dr. Mark Dearth, Senior Technical Advisor for Ford Motor Co.

He came to learn as much about steelheading , since he has never done it before. He wanted to earn the knots, flies, tippets, lengths etc.........casting nymphs, swinging flies ...the whole gamut!.......in one day as his birthday present from his wife.

So we drifted in the Hyde and went to school with all the above techniques and did it slow and careful. Mark hit the chrome bingo!!!!!

And is hooked for life!

Congrats Mark!...the pleasure was all mine!

MORE ATLANTIC IMAGES FROM YESTERDAY........ENJOY!!!

2010-11-01T14:39:00.000-07:00

What does a steelhead guide do on his day off?.......drive 5 hours to chase Atlantics!.......what else!

(all images copyright @Supinski Photography)

CHASING AUTUMN SILVER WITH "SHEILA, THE IRISH STEELHEAD SLAYER!!!

2010-10-30T14:53:00.000-07:00

( THE IRISH STEELHEAD CHROME CONQUEROR!)

( ICE, ICE, BABY........IT'S!)

( THERE IS A CUTE STORY ABOUT THEM PEARLY WHITES!.....sorry Sheila,.......lol had to say it!, ...she had a little bike accident in Ireland this summer!)

( the "big casino"!)

Here are the images from the post below that didn't go thru!

ENJOY!!!!!

CHASING AUTUMN SILVER............AND SHEILA, THE IRISH STEELHEAD SLAYER!

2010-10-30T06:41:00.000-07:00

It was a great week on the water with the Bauman brothers from Wisconsin and Indiana, John Murphy and of coarse the talented and magnificent fly angling goddess Sheila from Ireland and her husband Paul.
Excellent numbers of fall steelhead are coming in the Muskegon so far.......some of the biggest steelhead I've seen since 2006!
Sheila, who caught an enormous fall steelhead 5 years ago, tried her first crack at fall steelheading.....and boy did she and her husband fall put on a great show!, catching some awesome chrome silver steels.........congrats guys!!!!
River levels still low - 1,250 cfs . Th bumping of the water to 3,000 was in anticipation of the severe weather we had mid-week, but we got no significant rain. It was a good flush of water that brought some very nice chrome steelhead though.
WORLD IGFA RECORD LANDLOCKED ATLANTIC SALMON NEWS!!!........LOOKS LIKE IT IS CONFIRMED, JUST DOING THE PAPER WORK AND DOCUMENTATION...(SEE BLOG BELOW)
CHEERS! AND HAVE A FUN AND SAFE HALLOWEEN!

OH MY GOSH!!!!!!.......VERY POSSIBLE NEW I.G.F.A. WORLD RECORD LANLOCKED ATLANTIC SALMON!!!

2010-10-24T05:14:00.000-07:00

( I'm "barely " holding up Dr.Tom's pig of a gravid with eggs girl.......IMAGES of Dr. Tom and the three hour pursuit, 17 different fly changes and eventually the landing in the next blog!.stay tuned)

( massive 25 inch girth!)

( the width of this beast was amazing.....it had been eating very good!)

Unbelievable, and wouldn't have imagined it!

On Friday, Dr. Tom's last of five days with me, we decided to head north of Traverse city to some deep-inland clear lakes in search of Atlantic salmon. Tom had a good week swinging flies on the Muskegon catching some awesome chrome fall steelhead and a few fresh Pacific king salmon.........the only thing left was the "TRIFECTA OF A MICHIGAN FALL": Pacific salmon, steelhead and an Atlantic.

What we found was something amazing.............a 26.7 lb chrome female Atlantic that took us 15 minutes to land. It was the largest, thickest, fattest Great Lakes Atlantic I have ever seen.I have chased these things from the St.Mary's in the Sault, deep inland lakes and finger lakes of Michigan and New York, Lakes George and Champlain of the Adirondacks and the Salmon river of New York..........not to mention my salt Atlantics in the Gaspe, Iceland, Scotland and Russia.

The current I.G.F.A. record is a 23 lber taken from a Lake in Sweden in 2002.........I think we got this one beat.

I am proceeding with the paper work, documentation, witness affidavits etc.with the I.G.F.A next week, and if all goes well, Michigan will have yet another world record( besides the last year's world record brown!)

I'm stoked a s hell!

More of the story in the next blog

TOM , THE......"GRRRRRRRR" MAN! DID IT AGAIN!

2010-10-20T17:46:00.000-07:00

( TODAY ....9: 31 A.M----"GRRRRRRRRR!)

IMAGES!!!!( as the Mexicans say in " Blazing Saddles!), "Images?.... we khnow need no stinkin images!!!!!!!!!!!!!-

MORE FROM DR. TOM!.....GOOD STUFF!!!!!!............ FRESH STEEL COMING IN!....... SOME OF THE LARGEST STEELS SINCE 2006!!.And I'm a critical bastard!!!

swinging flies,...........SCSHOW!!!!!! ( THAT IS DUTCH FOR "SO") ...anyways......do this...... Tight rod, drop rod..........let steel inhale fly.( riffle hitch corner of the mouth...turn on it ...........BINGO!!!!!!!!

Dr. TOM HAS PUT THE "GRRRRR!" IN SWINGER , BABY!

2010-10-19T15:30:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long delay in posting.....been a crazy busy past week.!!!

Have the pleasure of guiding Dr.Tom Aufiero for the whole week, a heart surgeon from Indiana, who is a phenomenal spey caster and British Columbia aficionado who is know to hang out in the haunts of Smithers,B.C.

Tom could "swing" his Skagit heads and Loop rods all day with the patience only a true two handed chrome junkie can muster up. I have been using my Hyde drift boat after cracking impellers on rocks with my Yamaha jet. The slow, quiet and stealthy approach with the drift boat and the low water is really paying off big time since I'm covering every yard of real estate on the water and not jumping around like a whirling dervish!- I might never leave it the ole Hyde........plus I'm in boxing shape!

Tom cracked an awesome chrome 12 pound buck today on my pink/orange copper black leech.......it was a magnificent battle. The pleasure was all mine watching a true spey master!!....Congrats Tommy!

ROD: LOOP OPTI- 12'4" 8/9( one of the finest rods I have ever casted.next to the new Orvis Helios 13', 6" and my 13- 8/9 G. LOOMIS Dredger, Roaring River

REEL :NAUTILUS- 8/9

LINE: RIO SKAGIT 570 GRAIN, 10 FEET OF T-8

FLY: MINE

TIPPET: 10LB MAXIMA FLOUROCARB

AWESOME DAY!!!!!!!

NOTE:WATER LOW AND CLEAR, LOTS OF SALMON AND SOME BROWNS....STEELS ARE COMING WITH THE FULL MOON,EH!!!

As Austin Powers put, " I put the "grrrrrrrrrrrr! , in swinger, baby- so did Tom!

MISSY THE HORSE WHISPERER AND SALMON SLAYER!!!!!!!

2010-10-13T16:19:00.000-07:00

( Missy the salmon slayer!!!)

( Missy the foxhound master!)

I had the extreme pleasure of guiding Missy Apmann and her wonderful mother Nancy the last few days....it is such a pleasure to have two extremely intelligent, beautiful women as clients to spend the day with!( love you guyzes, but women rule when it comes to catching fish!!!!!!!!!!)

Missy is an incredible athlete. This was her first foray into fly fishing. She has hooked giant bill fish, tarpon in deep sea fishing and have fought them for several hours. But when I introduced her to salmon fishing on the Muskegon, she performed incredibly well. From her horse riding skills of concentration with a "gentle touch and extreme focus" , she landed salmon-after - salmon, due to her incredible riding and athletic activity.

She had shown on the hunter/jumper circuit at the highest level......she qualified for her horses at the nationals every year in the top 10 in the country........WOW!!!......places like Palm Beach, Florida,International Kentucky etc.

She now specializes in foxhunting with hounds(Cornwall style hounds), is an amazing tennis player and is fascinated by the art of fly fishing........which she got a taste of the fever with me for two days..her next step is a two -hander!

Bravo Missy and Nancy!- THE PLEASURE WAS ALL MINE!

PEREFECT DAY!-PERFECT POOL FISHING FOR SALMON - AND LOVED OLD PARADISE VALLEY IN MONTANA!

2010-10-06T11:53:00.000-07:00

( Mike with several nice pooled -up kings which took Ian's Muskegon Akroyd spey boss)

( the pool schizzz box!)

( Montana's Nelson's Spring Creek- unbelievable Paradise Valley!)

( wild Nelson's rainbow-very,very selective fish!)

SORRY FOR THE LONG DELAY IN POSTING- HAD A BUSY WEEK AND A HALF!

The salmon are coming into the Muskegon in good numbers despite the low clear water. The trout fishing has been fantastic- good caddis and blue-winged-olive hatches.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of fishing with Mike Mooradian from Smith Barney. We absolutely crushed them swinging bosses, comets, Akroyds in the pools- See some Mike images below.

Was out in Livingston, Montana last week finishing the final shootings for my new DVD -'SELECTIVITY'- we filmed on Nelson's Spring Creek off the Yellowstone and got some amazing footage of their very selective browns and rainbows taking 26-28 midges and blue-winged olives on 7x- fih up to 20 inches........I can't wait for you guyz to see this DVD.........its awesome.!!!!!

Hope you have enjoyed my article in this issue of FLY FISHERMAN on Giant Lake- Run Browns!

BIG KING FOR THE SCOTT MAN!

2010-09-26T06:59:00.000-07:00

Scott Nicholas, GE exec hit a nice fresh buck Chinook and had one hell of a battle with his 9 weight and an Orange Boss............GO SCOTTY!

CEO MEETS ELVIS!

2010-09-22T15:09:00.000-07:00

( keep an eye out for this pattern in the new issue of FLY FISHERMAN MAGAZINE)

( Cahn meets "Elvis")

His first hook-up this morning was a huge chrome steelhead!- it had to be a stray summer run- chrome silver, pink cheek and gray back and as long as a torpedo.Four 3-4 foot massive leaps and a 5 minute battle took the fish into the huge weed beds currently being washed down the Muskegon after a hot and low water summer. On very warm years, when the the St. Joe is slow and void of Skamania , we always attract pods of stray summer runs- happened in 2008.
I had the pleasure of guiding Cahn Tran, great client and CEO of Patern Recognition Inc., a nationwide high- tech software company he founded.He hit several nice Chinook salmon swinging orange and black rubber legged comets.

Congrats Cahn!