Next Phase- Iso Time!- the meaty howdy's

 Isonychia bicolor have just started as the drakes continue- (Bug Doctor J.G Miller image). John will be featured in my "Entomo-Logique" department/column in my new online journal coming in two weeks- stay tuned!)

The heavy rains and storms have raise the rivers but lowered water temps. Perfect hatching conditions of the big meaty Isonychias. These are very fast swimming nymphs that hatch from the water on the Muskegon. They really catch the trout's eyes and they and the swallows go mad for them!

They emerge sporadically all day into the evening..The larger trout will target both the swimming/emerging nymphs and hammer the adults.

( my Iso-crack wiggle nymph swung down-and- across on heavy tippets will bring vicious strikes!)

(Here are two CDC adults in the traditional and FrostyFly version)

Here is another look at that magnificent beast of a brown I caught a week ago on the early gray drake spinner fall..one of my finest ever! (that was my 45." salmon/steelhead net

Cheers!
MS

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Posted in: dry fly , gray drake lodge , isonychia , Matt Supinski Brown Trout-Atlantic Salmon Nexus book , mayflies of Michigan , michigan fly fishing , muskegon fly fishing , wiggle nymphs

No Bugs?, Siphlonurus sunken Impressions- lethal wet swinging when no spinners fall

(my Gray Drake Super Submersible- lethal swinging when nothing is happening!- great for all banded-bodied/segmented mayflies/drakes)

How many nights or mornings ( drakes BTW spinner fall at both times) have you driven to the stream or walked down from your cabin/lodge saying... " tonight/this morning will be the one!- the hatch /spinner fall will happen and I will get my 20 inch brown for sure!..And?, the weather turned crap; too much wind, too hot or too cold, started to rain etc. With climate change's ups-and-downs  it's always something and nothing happened, or worst yet bugs came out but didn't fall- sucks right?- here is the solution.

Once the gray/green/brown drakes start to hatch and emerge will easily last for a few weeks (siphlonurus drakes on my Muskegon and Pere Marquette, East and West Coast  waters along with other Baltic/Scandinavian country hatches) and up to 4-6 weeks on cool damp springs. the selective trout get quite imprinted to barred and banded mayfly adults, spinners and the nymphs. Unlike other drakes that emerge from the surface, Gray Drakes swim to shore during dusk and thru the night to hatch on damp wooded debris and grass along the shorelines, only to come back to the rivers surface at dusk and dawn to spin/mate and lay eggs. That is when the football splash-like surface explosions occur. Drakes couple in the air and drop quickly to the surface and often leave airborne several times, thus they can be tough to grab for a trout until fully spent which sums up their robust rises.

( Early morning fat truttasaurus spinner sipper while others were still sleeping from going to bed late and fish-less, chasing the midnight spinner fall that often yields tough returns)

But many nights there are tons of "bug karma/sex synergy" of mating swarms in the air but no coupling occurs due to cold air coming in quickly, too hot and sunny etc.- its a real tough one to hit it just right! Hunting this hatch for 30 years I've come to at least 80% accuracy in my predicting this "prime-time" to be on the water, but that 20% inaccuracy is getting bigger, again with the uncertain weather patterns and water conditions of climate change that even has the bugs confused as much as us.

When the hatches are thick for weeks like on the Muskegon. the surface will be carpeted in drakes like sawdust clumps and often make imitations useless. The bigger selective trout imprint to this food form and also target the shorelines where they emerge. Also due to the density of this hatch, many spinners sink and get water logged. They become very appealing due to their sheer numbers.

When nothing is happening on the surface, my "Super Submersible" pattern will bring rod-jolting strikes in the middle of the day since it imitates the migrating nymph and sunk spinner, plus soft- hackle swingers will love to swing these.

 I use a long Thomas & Thomas 12ft /3 in./3 weight-Contact model, which lets you feel the fly and swing in an unparalleled manner through technology that didn't exist years ago, coupled with my Abel. 

Good luck! 
Matt Supinski

FLY RECIPE
Hook: Daiichi 1260
Thread: Uni-Black-3/0
Tail and Body: Nice thick Hareline Gadwell Duck feather nicely barred, planted with tail and center of feather situated flat on hook as you Palmer the black thread around the feather in a uniformed banded distance covering length and circumference around hook
Thorax: Hareline UV Peacock Ice Dub
Wing: Pearl Krystal Flash
Hackle: Hungarian Partridge
Bead: Black Tungsten 

Get more in-depth with this subject and more in my books!

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Posted in: gray drake lodge , Matt Supinski Brown Trout-Atlantic Salmon Nexus book , may fly hatches , mayflies of Michigan , muskegon river fly fishing , Selectivity book , siphlonurus gray drakes

Realism and Traditionalism- Packed into one powerful delivery- FrostyFly materials

( Nexus book fly plate for FrostyFly/Hemingway- they are sick/and very fish-able and made of materials connected, not "molded facsimiles" like some fly water does not allow)

(Yesterday's care package from Boris- just in time for drakes!- get some!)

In my Nexus book I introduced FrostyFly/Hemingway materials in the fly plates. The stuff is really amazing when combined with traditional materials. They are made from foam/light soft plastic and are light and don't "twist tippets" like the  the other experimental "hard/stiff" materials introduced into the past. They are extremely light and sleek and can be tied with tradition materials..

Boris at FrostyFly/Canadian/Slavic company has done amazing stuff with their materials that are truly "deadly"...check them out and tell them I sent you!

https://frostyfly.com/

I can't wait to try the new caddis wings, could be a shell on top of a clump of CDC feathers tent wing style , They are killers for Hex and all the drakes and sulpher bodies are sick real!

My Gray Drake imitation-lethal! ( body can be tied bent like real spinner)

( Nice brown that fell to the Frosty drake last year- first drift over it!)

BTW- a  very few drakes have hatched but the flood and high waters, plus the very cold reservoir waters are holding them back-THANK GOD FOR SMALL FAVORS!- we cant be hit with any more disasters eh?- think I see a Pale Horse riding around!

                                                                   ( Hex- Brown Drake)

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Posted in: dry fly , FrostyFly , gray drake lodge , Matt Supinski Brown Trout-Atlantic Salmon Nexus book , Michigan hatches , Selectivity book

Enshrined Waters- the magic tonic of woods,cold springs and a ground-zero vision for brown trout

                           ( The magnificent Oxbow bends of  "The" hallowed Pere Marquette)

When the Pere Marquette Railroad conductor snaked his fired-up locomotive past the tall pines and dense hardwoods of what was to someday be the Manistee National Forest, little did he know that his train ride would be on a historic level to trout bums as was  Paul Revere's midnight run .That historic and precious cargo run would leave its mark on the western hemisphere in a profound way. The Germans have arrived to conquer the trout world forever!

                   ( Michigan/Federal Fish Commission car that carried 5000 brown trout fingerlings of Black Forest/Schwartzwald German genetics arrived in Baldwin on April 11, 1884 and started a whole new dynasty of trout fishing in America )

This week I had to take my power drifter boat up to Stealthcraft in Baldwin, which is 35 miles due north to get a winch repair. I got out to fish for a couple of hours as I waited on the hallowed Pere Marquette, one of the most iconic historical trout streams in the world. The water was still high and very peat stained from all the rains and flooding we have had, so I decided to throw a few big articulated streamers for its extremely elusive and selective wild browns of the true ground-zero lineage. I managed to elude one 8  inch beauty that took a white game changer as long as its body- a testimonial to the aggressive kill-artistry browns are noted for.

 

( This little "truttasaurus in training" beauty has the typical characteristic red spotting along the lateral line so distinctive  of browns form the Black Forest/central European stock) 

( A P.M. wild from years back when I was writing Selectivity- again laterally  thematic )

(Tuesday's walk just gave me a strong dose of what a wooded paradise is all about- browns and wood are synonymous )

( The movement of the Chocklett Game Changer should be illegal it is that effective. This one a 4 segmented articulation was gifted me by good friend and streamer fanatic Paul Zagorski. AUTHORS NOTE: check my prior blog on "Stump-Jumpin Leviathan Browns for small stream brown tactics)

But when I walk trout and salmon rivers and streams today it is more about the echos and reminiscing of days long past that gives me the most joy. Being a true fly fishing romantic this nostalgic dreaming has always given me the most joy. It is evermore so satisfying today now that I have fished most places on the planet and have caught thousands of trout , steelhead and salmon- everyone was very special and unique which I cherish. But my chase today has taken on a new meaning of all  natural ecosystems  great and small  including a level of depth and perspective of simplicity that can never be satiated.                                                                                  

"Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it's not the fish they are after"-Henry David Thoreau.

                                                          

                     

                    

          

 (My first author's copy of : River Journal: Pere Marquette (1994, wrote it when I still managed corporate hotels) And a nice sampling of my Hendrickson ties: adults, spinners and emergers ready to serve up to the trutta Buddhas of the ground-zero hallowed P.M. ( Hendrickson- E. subvaria- magnificent images by the one and only bug Doctor: J.G. Miller )

(The Manistee Forest parcel in our lodge driveway was planted during the 30's depression by conservation corps paid by the Feds to put people back to work and forests back together after the massive and catastrophic logging era. Even though it is 35 minutes up the road I haven't spent that much time on this beautiful natural and scenic national treasure that the P.M. is since I wrote the journal.(Rzeka is river in Polish and feminine for lady) Last Tuesday's very brief visit was a retrospective wake-up that I need I need to come and spend more time enjoying my micro-ecosystem wold of springs and forests.I now look at rivers with the blinders off. Blinders that can  become inbred in individuals that work in beauty day-to-day. They are blinders that kills the sensitivity and awe that we once had as children when we saw and heard running water. I remember the days of growing up as a boy in Niagara Falls and playing by the falls with my friends. I would sometimes stare forever at the rushing waters that truly hypnotized you  by their negative ion effects ( why so many are called to jump into them like a demonic curse) A river now to me has so much more intrigue to investigate every component part and understand it's complexity.image Roman Kahler)

So now let's get back to when the train conductor , the brakemen and biologists who took turns ladling for oxygen in the milk canisters for those 5,000 German brown fingerlings on their destination to the P.M. and Baldwin rivers. Did they realize that the historic planting they were about to make had the same ecological components of habitat as did the German Black Forest?, or was it just circumstantial? I would love to go back in time to have a whiskey with them to chat about their thoughts. When Von Behr sent his promise of eyed-up eggs to the ichthyologist master:Fred Mather in New York's Caledonia Hatchery via a ship to Long Island, I doubt that they intentionally dropped a "Google Pin" on the perfect location for them to take seed like their native waters. Coincidence is often a gift of nature. 

                                       ( A toothy ground-zero P.M. Brown-R. Felber image)
To a wary and elusive brown trout that hates light and loves dark places, this river is the prime predator foraging profile for the kill: night hunting ( this reminds me I have to spend more time this summer with my friend , savage madrigal of the darkness, the one-and-only "Trutta Buddha of the Night"-:Tommy Lynch) Night stalking is perfect in these dark wooded debris and undercut bank places they love. It is in these dense woods gifted with a plethora of cold springs that this Salmo trutta Eco-nirvana exists. Couple all these dead-falls with ice-cold springs that emanate from the ground every few feet, add some gravel and silt for aquatic insects and spawning and you have a brown trout utopia! Identical to the Black Forest they came from.

                                (Sifting along the banks for morel mushrooms and ramps on Tuesday, this image really caught my eye. You really dont appreciate or realize how many or how pronounced underground cold spring emanations are on Michigan spring-fed rivers until a springtime walk along them. When the ground is still a dull brown you see all the bright green watercress and duck wort vegetation as emerald as shamrocks. Here a massive spring bog empties into the river next to the train tracks that brought the browns by rail. Despite such an acidic forest/bog environment, surprisingly Michigan's spring-fed rivers are alkaline which is why their insect life and fertility is so pronounced) 

Finally, here is an image that friend Jacek Kaczynski  from the Gdansk/Pomerania/ Baltic part of Poland has shared .It is here I fished as a boy when I briefly lived there on my Dad's farm that had a trout and salmon river running through it.. The streams there look exactly like the P.M. and Michigan's/NY'S/WI/PA's  forested rivers. He shared this beautiful wild brown that portrays all those German Von Behr brown attributes. 

More tales, the science, the tactical chase and the journey of the brown trout are in my Nexus book.

Final Note: I have been working on starting my own online magazine you will be hearing more about in the days to come. There are still great magazines out there, especially the ones that I have been honored to write for like Fly Fisherman, and along with the ones I admire with great respect for their amazing content:TROUT magazine and Atlantic Salmon Journal. 
But I hope mine will take on a whole new perspective that is actually somewhat  retro .It will hopefully be what fly fishing magazines used to be, and what fly fishing was meant to be. The biggest constant complaints I get from social media friends is... "what happened to the quality of content in magazines?"..."why were the magazines so great in decades past!"..."I still love to read all my old issues, they had so much more substance back then".  But let's face it, we are living in a retro-society that still yearns for nostalgia. 

I will attempt to re-think your relationship with fly fishing and the way it used to be. Some things are pure and sacred-this is one of them.
Stay safe, strong and positive!
Matt Supinski/

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Posted in: Baldwin Michigan , Blaine Chocklett , German brown trout , gray drake lodge , Matt Supinski Brown Trout-Atlantic Salmon Nexus book , Michigan ground zero brown trout legacy , pere marquette , Stealthcraft

Letort Flashback- Somethings Never Change

                       ( The Letort had a massive chemical/insecticide kill in the early 1980's from a watercress farm that wiped out 80% of its wild brown trout population. . It has a chemical spill last year that killed 280 wild brown trout or so. . Despite all this, the resilience of wild Salmo trutta goes on. Yet we still cant figure out how to manage this holy shrine in its total exclusiveness- I just shake my head! )

Flashback Wednesday - SlideScan app ( seems like everyday is one nonstop Groundhog Day flashbacks 😂😂😪)

Letort Spring Run PA. Circa 1992, July .air temp 98F . Before global warming was invented. When I was a cool metro- sexual wearing my Dunlop Wellington’s I bought in England , and using my favorite spring creek setup : Orvis CFO with the Orvis Graphite Spring Creek 10ft/ 5 weight- total aristocratic Orvis purism that made you a true country gentleman, even smoked a pipe back then and always had a flask of Spey side scotch . Using a true Letort Hopper and Cricket . The heat was oppressive but the upper meadow was alive wth terrestrials and trout smashing them . A typical “ Loch Leven” brown with cross German genetics is what a Letort trutta looked like back then. Many had dark overtones to them since they spent a great amount of time in undercut banks 

( A Letort brown- 2007)

                            For more great stories on the Letort and many others, read my                                                     Selectivity and Nexus-Stay safe and strong!

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Posted in: Letort Spring Run , limestone spring creeks , Matt Supinski Brown Trout-Atlantic Salmon Nexus book , Selectivity book

( My 12 inch wild trophy brown for a good cardio workout-worth every bit of sweat!) )
Hoofed-it for close to three miles through steep ravines and glens on my ground -zero gem ( last stocked in the 1880's with the original Von Behr Black Forest German bachforellen) Got one wild 12 inch trophy to show for it- it was worth it! Turned a 20 inch plus donkey by a downed tree stump, but it saw me and with the low, clear water and he wasn't interested. Found some bear shit, smelled very herbaceous like it normally does at this time of year. ( I'm a bear shit expert!😁)

The most beneficial thing to small stream 'stump-jumpin' is the excellent cardio/muscular workout you get. Climbing/bending over downed logs/trees, crawling up-and-down banks and steep inclines, You are totally sweating by the time you come back to the car. Pace yourself by looking on the forest floor for edibles- only saw a ton of skunk cabbage today.. Take plenty of water with you in your pack! ( can't get that kind of workout in a motorboat!

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Posted in: brown trout , gray drake lodge , Matt Supinski Brown Trout-Atlantic Salmon Nexus book , michigan fly fishing , Michigan ground zero legacy , spring creeks

Things Pure and Sacred..A Rite of Spring to rejoice in : Opening Day of Trout Season -Tactical Hunting

                                ( My  'ground zero' genetic prize: a crown German princess!- a true aristocratic beauty from its Black Forest generational blood line before her. Here 19 incher beast (check out the v-shaped crown red dot spotting), taken last spring opening week on a tiny wooded spring creek you could jump across in the Huron National Forest down the road from us  These little gems are all around us and come in every form and have their own beauty; from a local park creek and pond, to grandiose forests and lakes, we often take them for granted. With our new total re-set of life, we now will appreciate the little things we too greedily took for granted-Supinski image )
There are some things so sacred and pure that thinking of them brings me goose bumps, tears of joy and shivers of excitement. Things that kept a young boy like me awake dreaming of that big brown trout on the night before the opener of the trout season in Western New York on my Dad and I's favorite trout stream system in the Allegheny foothills - The East Koy /Wiscoy Creeks. On that night I would look at the clock every hour and could not wait to pound on my dad's door at 3 A.M. as he bit back in a grouchy mumble trying to wake up: "Ty zwariował chłopaczek!" ( means have you lost your mind boy-in Polish!) as he begged for another hour of sleep! When I was growing up we only spoke Polish and German until my parents learned English, became citizens and I went to kindergarten with a rough European accent, having learned only "street English".

                          ( A spring monster of my youth, about the size of my fist brown trout at age 7 caught on a woolly worm . This is a wild German brown beauty from my little ground zero Michigan creek. Little did I know that those creeks in New York we fished and the ones here in Michigan have the same German genetics that came to Caledonia fish hatchery near Rochester, NY, and to Northville, Michigan.You can read volumes of this glorious history in my Nexus book- Supinski image)

( The first thing you did as a boy was run out of the car and stare down from the bridge like you were Ponce de Leon finding the fountain of youth- just maybe the stream is our eternal fountain of youth, that transforms men and women to be boys and girls again!-just maybe (Lucas Carroll image)

( Caledonia Hatchery- the Seth Green  Laboratory of modern fish horticulture in the late 1880's- Andrew Steele Nisbet image)

( Modern stocking trucks have replaced the trains from the 1880's. Some states like New York do an amazing job with signage and Public Fishing waters-Supinski images)

The drive to the stream high in the hills in the dark was full of anticipation to the point where my dad got frustrated as I nudged him to make sure his eyes weren't  shutting. ( poor guy had two full time jobs) I kept saying  "we have to beat everyone to our secret hole Dad! 
"jedź szybciej"( drive faster Dad!) as my father drank coffee to stay awake as I barked out orders making sure he took all the right turns on the dark farm country highways that had poor signage back then. He had to pull off the side of the road for me many times to go "shee-shee" since I was so excited I wanted to piss my pants as I drank Coca Cola at 5 A.M. Our opening day ritual was a bonus. I got to drink Coke and have Bologna and ketchup sandwiches on Wonder Bread with Canadian Salt & Vinegar potato chips, Dad had plenty of Polish sausage/Kielbasa and Polish Vodka, but we both chowed on Mom's Austrian apple strudel she always had wrapped.

 (My ground zero Michigan spring creeks are typical of the many wooded streams in western New York, and throughout the east and Driftless Area of the Midwest, also like northern Poland along the Baltic ,where the other episode of my childhood memories lie and still pleasantly haunt me - they are all about Chapter 1 in my "Brown Trout-Atlantic Salmon Nexus" book.  Here Marsh Marigolds pop through the forest floor greenery where spring flows emerge - (Supinski images)

( A Polish wooded spring creek in Pomerania along the Baltic-R. Bartels image)

( If you are lucky on opening day, you will see this awesome sight!-J.G. Miller image)

 In the warming part of the afternoon, , you might run into a spring hatch after you take a snooze/nap in the sun by a tree by the brook, as I once did since it was already a long day for me as a boy back then and I was crashing from a Coke caffeine buzz. Hendrickson and American March Brown mayflies,  sporadic gray fox Steno's, early black stones and Grannom caddis might waken you, as they did me one afternoon. I put on a size #12 Adams and caught my first 16 inch brown trout, as trout were aggressively feeding and splashing/ boiling  the pools in surface feeding.

SPRING GULPERS

( Image by Albert Pesendorfer from Nexus)

(Image J.G. Miller)

( The perfect spring dry-Quill Gordon-image Stacey Niedzwiecki from Nexus) 

Though they are very eager for a good  "chowing-down", don't take the selectivity of these early spring browns for granted! ( I have a whole blog on the interval timing on spring surface feeders two blogs prior to this- read it ) Spring fish are a little rusty in surface feeding and need a little time to 'get revved up'. Their rises will be slower and less frequent due to the cold water temps. But due to the insects long flight delay times due to cold weather or snow, their selective/reflective index is in full motion since they can glide with the dry in a compound fashion for long distances in the slack/slow waters you will find them rising.
( But snow is usually the case as this Bald Eagle rests on a branch looking for freshly stocked trout or wild ones that got a little greedy surface feeding after a springtime dusting-J.G. Miller images of mayflies and Eagle )

            ( Another German wild brown from my other " ground-zero" love in New York state- the historic Neversink River, where we have a summer home down the road. Walking in the footsteps of Gordon and Hewitt bring chills of delightfully haunting thoughts to the days long past- the foundation of American Fly Fishing-Supinski image)

                                      ( Gordon on the Neversink- Catskill Fly Fishing Museum- notice every fish was sacred and eaten back then- nothing wrong with that as long as its done responsibly!)

In my Brown Trout-Atlantic Salmon Nexus book, I tell many the tails of small stream delights that you can never shake off no matter how many world destinations you have visited. Paradise is often in your backyard yet we are too spoiled to realize it. I am very fortunate to have an amazing Michigan DNR that does management programs with their trout fisheries at the highest level. They stock wild strains of brown trout native to our state ( Gilchrist/Sturgeon strains- descendants from the first 1880's stockings) where and only if they are needed. At stockings sizes of fingerlings or  6-7 inchers that are well under the catch-able size limit, they eliminate hatchery truck fiascoes like I witnessed in MD/VA/PA. Michigan and similarly New York have long stream closures to protect wild spawning populations and winter hibernation when trout are vulnerable.The season in MI is open last Saturday in April to September 30th- closed almost 7 months which is a good thing!  My biologist who I have an excellent relationship once asked my opinion, which I greatly appreciate of him. ( I am known to be a little strong in opinion in case you haven't noticed-PC and an old Polish warrior have no place together!) His question was about a particular small spring-fed stream that has an amazing carrying capacity for wild browns and brook trout. "Do you think we should open it year -round with catch-and-release  in extended season ?"..." NOPE!, I said, leave it closed please!, next thing you know a guy with a big spinner treble hook will be raping/snagging bigger browns and brookies spawning in the fall- no fishing or walking the stream PERIOD!, in off season", I told him - it remains that way thanks to his wisdom which I greatly respect.For the first time in my life I finally met a biologist that thinks like me which I thank God for. Wild Steelhead in Michigan are still unfortunately treated as "big $$$ fish" and thus get a very strong lobby from commercial harvesters- but that is changing fast with mother nature's doing as you will see. But nature, like everything in life, just sometimes needs a break- today more than ever! Closed season for 7 months is a good thing. There is an old Macedonian story of a young child crying to a mother in a Peter Gabriel /Deep Forest piece called " While the Earth Sleeps" In it the child begs its mother so it can go outside and play ( wow!, wouldn't today's parents love that!!!) but the mother refuses the child, and in turn says let the earth take a rest and get a little sleep.As Earth day approaches and we have a whole new world order of respect unfolding, let this be a thought for all things in nature...click here to listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3qy23UIynU

            ( Painting- Henry Rolfe-and  fresh cured Scottish style/sweet wood cold smoked trout)

                        ( As a culinary person, I highly value and respect the joy of eating fish. I could eat fish every day! ( my preference is walleye/ perch/salmon ) But I kindly ask all trout anglers, regardless of methods, to be good guardians and stewards of the few fragile wild trout/small stream resources we have been left with. Climate change and habitat destruction and stupid human tricks of letting out careless chemical spills are eliminating wild trout water at an alarming rate. I ask all to respect the code of natural decency and preservation that humans have been bestowed with- a consciousness that must be solely the responsibility of each individual regardless of laws) 
Where streams are 100% put-and-take, enjoy the resource for the table- ther are lots of them in most states, and they far out number wild fisheries . But where there are wild trout populations and hold-over wild trout potential and cross-populations, respect each fish and give it life to further procreate the streams wild populations. Killing even one or two( God forbid more!) big spawning year class fish on opening day (14 inches plus), where these fish have starved all winter and are vital to the streams natural carrying capacity, can be catastrophic for the tiny stream that rely on a few spawning pairs to carry it through. Nothing wrong with going fishing for hatchery trout for the table- that is what they are there for! Or similarly on tremendously rich wild trout streams with massive carrying capacities of year-class populations, harvesting a fish or two for table is more than respectable.Hording/ freezer burning is a waste and disgrace to these natural beauties.

Like so many other state's angler's we take  our fisheries management for granted and always criticize- its now a time to appreciate and respect.I have built-up amazing relationships with my biologists of this state, which I cherish and work together with them to benefit our  goal "all about the fish first!-I highly encourage all anglers to do such also. The gain and spoils will come if you build it with a mutual goal of putting nature and what is right first! Politics/$$$$/ and greed has no place in the new world order to save our planet and ourselves.

( Wild edibles and foraging ,is a long lost art that trout stream anglers should pursue, since you are walking through a garden of Eden! ( even your local downtown park can be one if you let it!)  I talk about foraging at length in my Nexus book Chapter 12. It is part of the self-absorption/into the wild element we take for granted and the joy and wonderment of a spring stroll along your trout stream. As much time should be spent looking at the forest structure as we do looking at the stream features- big dividends with your dinner will unfold. Wild ramps, fiddle-heads, chives, morel mushrooms are a few of the culinary delights)

Stump-Jumping "Mr. Bigs"-Small Creek Streamer Hunting Tactics

         ( Small stream brown trout expert and friend, Ethan Cramer of Facebook's  Brown Trout Nation/Ann Arbor TU fame, is an excellent stump jumper tactician. Here he does the bow-and- arrow cast to a small pool. Ethan has chased and tormented every big brown in the countless small wooded spring creek you will find in Michigan that totally fly under the radar )
Here is a nice little spring creek hunting Vimeo I did with the talented videographer: Spencer McCormack on a small Michigan spring creek- shows the underhand/lob/bow-and-arrow casting techniques necessary for these small streams)...Click on the link-enjoy!
                                                     
 https://vimeo.com/162364385

I always go "Mr/Mrs Big" stump-jump hunting for leviathan browns during the opening weeks, since there is most likely a big truttasaurus ready to snatch a big meal after a long winter's dormancy. Using  Kelly Galloup/ Tommy Lynch/ Michael Schmidt/Mark Loughead  inspired streamers, they are the new age inheritance from the founding sculpin master and my old fishing friend: the recently late Ed Shenk. 

                                      

Adding a  gold tungsten head to give it very quick and deep penetration is the key to getting big browns to come out from their winter/spring ambush hunting condos.
 Using the casts mentioned in the Vimeo, let your articulated streamer hop/skip/jig in the tiniest spots next to their wooded condos where big browns evolved in the dark dense German Black Forest streams, which now are the wooded spring creeks here. This is camouflaged hunting. Moving low and slow, like a heron, from stump-to-stump is the key to the hunt. Don't ignore bridge abutments. Do as little wading as possible. Slow everything down.
Analyze each log jam/under-cut bank with a game plan before you toss your meaty delectable near it. Ask these questions:
1. Where do I think a big brown is hiding to ambush prey
2.If I hook it, where am I going to fight and steer it to land.
3. Is my net ready, big enough and at easy access
4. What obstacles must I steer it away from ( you know the Brutus is going to scurry for cover once hooked and you must take command. Only use 12-15 pound test tippets when doing this or you will break off the fish and mess its feeding up for a longtime from stupidity and carelessness - remember they bring you joy, respect their life also!
4. Manhandle the fish quickly ( like mousing at night) or as Mike Batcke once told me on the Pere Marquette at night : "tourney them" -the way Bass Pros fight big bass in 7 seconds hauling them!)
5. Take a quick pic in the water and let them go quick after a fast brisk dogfight. These are our precious brood-stock of the river and carry the fish population from year-to-year, so take care of these wild elders.

Have a great Opening Day! Be safe, practice social distancing and catch-and-release on wild, self-sustaining waters. That 12 inch wild brown you let go today will become the 20 incher you always dreamed of! Respect and wave to your fellow anglers. At least this terrible thing will teach us not to crowd people's pools and waters, which has always been the scorn of opening day. 
To a new beginning!
Matthew Supinski
(Blog author's note: My Selectivity and Nexus books are loaded with endless small stream hunting tactics . If you never have read them cover -to-cover, the information is waiting for you to explore!

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Posted in: brown trout feeding behavior , gray drake lodge , Matt Supinski Brown Trout-Atlantic Salmon Nexus book , Matthew Supinski new books , michigan fly fishing , Selectivity book , spring creeks , streamer fishing