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

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!

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Posted in: gray drake , Great Lakes steelhead , michigan steelhead , muskegon river , Orvis Helios , Orvis Mirage , pa spring creeks , trout and eagle , winter steelhead fly fishing

FROM THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO...........TO CHROME SILVER ON THE MO......!

( Skip with Muskegon Chrome!-love the purple sheen on this freshie!)

(Blue-winged olive-dun fatty shot by the Bug Doctor Johnny Miller)

Skip Herman, my client yesterday, is a world gallivanting pilot/corporate lawyer extraordinaire. Part of the William Harris group-Charlie and Jack Polsky, and the diabolical business wizard Mr. Cahn, got to tangle with a few chrome steelhead and some big bruiser red buck males- one fish was nicknamed Jack Dempsey!

Skip just came back this past weekend from an overseas trip from Istanbul, Turkey, Cairo ,Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Germany, only to fly his plane into Freemont airport for a day of fishing on the Muskegon. Skip is an avid Montana Fly fisher and has a home on the Yellowstone River. The chromer pictured above was his biggest ever on the fly rod. Took a #14 green caddis larvae on 4x Orvis Mirage. We sight fished it in the low-clear waters a good part of the day . Keeping a very low profile in the boat , Skip made some excellent presentations until the fresh chrome hen moved a foot to the right to take the dead drift, Indy style presentation- chomped hard on it. Glad I had the barbs pinched down cause she inhaled it!

Raining hard this morning-THAT IS THE GOOD NEWS!!! Last evening saw the first big hatch I've seen of Ephemerella latas- size #16 blue winged olives. In the past years, there were always a few in the first two weeks of May- but last evening they were a "new super hatch"- and the trout- both stockers and fat holdover browns and rainbows were plucking off the duns and emergers with regularity.This is another edition of the increasing and ever changing hatches of the "new Muskegon".

Saw good numbers of cinnamon caddis at the same time.The glory days of hatches are yet to come- I'm getting very excited about the upcoming weeks!! We still have a few choice dates avaliable for the hatches in the weeks to come and our first Selective Trout weekend school-June 4th thru 6th is filling up fast!

After this rain, I think we will see another small push of chrome steel- it always happens -regardless of low flows. We are now having March weather in May when we had June weather in March....go figure!

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Posted in: blue-winged-olive , gray drake , muskegon river , muskegon trout steelhead , Orvis Mirage , Purple Rose Of Cairo , trout eagle lodge and outfitters

UTAH SILVER CEO FINDS MUSKEGON SILVER!!!!!!!!

It was a magnificent day on the mighty Mo today! Had the pleasure of guiding Clayton Walker, COO of Rio Pinto Mining Co. from Salt Lake City, Utah. Along with Ken Wooley , another Rio Pinto Executive, they are spending three days in search of Michigan's steelhead. Ken put on a show Saturday-BUT TODAY- It was Clayton's chrome ride!

After getting the techniques down yesterday, Clay ( an excellent trout fly fisher who fishes the Provo, Green, Bighorn etc.) put on a steelhead performance. The Orvis Mirage Large Arbor reel and and Hydros rod, along with the skinny 3x Mirage Maxi knot tippet , held the tiny # 14 wiggle Senyo stone perfectly.

Congrats Clay- your chrome train came in!!!

Enjoy the pics!

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Posted in: gray drake , muskegon river , muskegon steelhead , Orvis Helios , Orvis Mirage , trout eagle lodge and outfitters

WATCHING THE RIVER FLOW!!!!!!!!!

Sorry for the delay- very busy and love all the new found northern guide traffic.Bob Dylan wrote it right! Flow is low.......But, we saw and landed some fresh chrome steel coming in. The rain will bring in our steelhead third run- more to come in MAY!
Cold night time temps have kept river temps down. The boat flotilla keeps coming- now Pere Marquette and Manistee brothers of the guide fraternity. Only problem......saw a lot of those drift boats with Huron-Manistee stickers with steelhead on the stringer. Maybe its that when they go away from "the hallowed northern waters", they like to rape and pillage! Shame on you "fly guys"- you know who you are and god damn you and may your penis shrivel to a mere diameter of a pencil-"oh take that back"- a straw!
So, waiting for the Mayflies, saw good numbers of chrome hanging in pools waiting for water like love sick Atlantic salmon.and the rest is coming together.
Images from a few days
Also -FYI- Little Manistee weir only passed 1.700 steels- PROBLEM GUYZ!

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Posted in: manistee , muskegon steelhead , Orvis Mirage , pere marquette

THE "STEELHEAD QUEEN" TAKES HER THRONE AGAIN!.......AND EVENING SOIREE.......PART TROIS

( Shawn with perfection in beauty , form and performance)

( another member of the Evening Soirre club)

The hottest steelhead stick in the Midwest, Shawn Murphy does it again! Sunday morning, guiding her and John and drifting a deep fall/winter pool looking for fresh fish, Shawn's rod exploded and a chrome hen went ballistic!Throwing Senyo's Super Ice Man Minnow,( this pattern will be featured with tying recipe in my fall Great Lakes article in Fly Fisherman Magazine)the huge chrome hen did an aerial display and continued to charge under the jet boat as we drifted down river to keep up with it. Shawn was unbelievable holding that fish on using 3x tippet. Three times it went completely under and around the boat-the last time the Orvis Zero Gravity 8 weight was completely at the breaking point- I couldn't look and winced! Miraculously, she eased the fish out after a extremely long battle as we put the net under it. The eyes on the minnow, which were epoxied on firmly were shattered and the 3x Orvis Mirage tippet- despite hitting the aluminum chines on the boat and once through the anchor which John got out(I have to complement him for that) was not abraded- a miracle! It had to be the best fight job I've ever witnessed and only "Shawny" could pull that one off! I almost crashed the boat twice into the shallows and the island trying to maneuver around the fish and low water.

In hindsight, Shawn's delicate -yet firm hand on the Zero G (it has a very light delicate tip on the mid-flex), the perfectly smooth drag of her Abel Super 8 steelhead reel, and hopefully my new improved double Duncan's loop knot I've been tying with the 3x maxi- knot all made a difference. Also , she reels right handed, so her ability to pick up the slack moments was crucial as the fish went up/down/all-around town!

Moral of the story: we had breakfast at 8 a.m., were on the river by 9, let it warm up and heard all the crack-of-dawn weekend warriors and clockwork guides motor over all the gravel redds and knocking the fish into deeper lies(where they best take the fly- when you can't see them and they can't see you!) So, sleep in like Shawn likes to( being the Manager of the U. of M. Cardiac surgery center, she wakes up at 4:00 a.m. daily) so on a weekend relaxation trip, sleep is good!......AND YOU STILL CAN BE A STAR!

YOU GO GIRL!!!!!!!

Now for Evening Soiree...Part Trios. The Murphys left early after I did Joyce's famous pea soup and my Black Forest Ham Panini sandwiches back at the lodge. Seeing it was somewhat warm, calm(thank god!.. after two days of 40 mile wind gusts) I saw a few black stones coming off. So armed with Helios 10/5 and I went looking for some "heads popping the surface". It was ideal for selective tailwater trout- overcast, calm and not too many stones, just a few to satiate their fat bellies that have been stuffed by stone nymphs and egg layer adults for 5 weeks and going.. Didn't have to go far to find some hogs slurrping.BUT.......they were very selective to dead egg laying quad winged spent female adult stones.

The picture tells the story! Those Eagle Lake Rainbows are getting huge!!!- and ain't dying at 10 inches like they are supposed to!....SORRY RICH!- YOU KNOW I WAS GOING TO SAY THAT....LOL....LOL!

River conditions .Water at 2,020 cfs, water temp 50 F- rain or Icelandic volcanic ash would be very welcomed if you hear me big guy up there.

Still nice chrome hen steelhead coming in- saw more in the last three days then all spring. We are always a late river and in 20 years of consistency on that note, it won't change. Still a lot of fish off the piers in Muskegon. That is the way it is on the Mighty Mo.

The Trout!..........NOW THAT IS THE EXCITING THING I'M TALKING ABOUT!

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Posted in: Abel , black stones , Eagle Lake Rainbows , gray drake , Iceland volcanic , muskegon steelhead , muskegon trout steelhead , Orvis Helios , Orvis Mirage , trout eagle lodge and outfitters