ISAAC COULD BE THE PERFECT STORM WE NEED!...PLUS EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING ALL OVER!

( Summer steelhead and Lake run brown jumping eel weir trap on Trail Creek Indiana-image courtesy of J Mcneill/IDNR )

 

 

Sorry for the long delay in posting !.....between editing my "Selectivity' book for Stackpole and guiding summer run steels and trout back-and forth I've been swamped!
 
The latest cold trend we had the past two weeks couldn't have come at a better time and rescue for "all fish"!!!....We were on the brink of losing every trout , summer steelhead and early salmon we had, had it not been for the cool days, rain and night temps that were freezing in the 40's!

 Now back to the heat and storms.....kinda good for moisture and rain.
 
Latest look at Hurricane Issac looks like its headed straight up the Kentucky/Illinois Great Lakes alley....YEH...HAW!!!.....sorry that I'm cheering on a hurricane, but if this system lingers it could dump lots of "MUCH NEEDED' RAINFALL...especially in those parched central Midwest states where those poor farmers got destroyed this year....Michigan might luck out too!
Latest storm tracker on Issac...bullet is eventually us!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26295161

( WHAT THOSE CADDIS PUPAE LOOK LIKE !....THAT THOSE FUSSY MUSKEGON TROUT ARE TAKING...USE TAN AND GREEN RUBBER TIED IN RIBBING TO IMITATE SEGMENTATION..VERY IMPORTANT IN PATTERN !-J Miller images)

 

 Here is the roundup.
Salmon: Manistee , Platte, Betsie, Pere Marquette , Trail Creek Indiana, St Joe, ...even Muskegon have fish coming in.. Some salmon on Manistee are really dark...came in weeks ago on lake turnover then cooked!
Trout:Caddis, Tricos, tiny olives #26- and 'incredible stenonema Cahill hatches from Thornapple down have the trout heads looking up!. If you are fishing smaller creeks: White and tribs, Bigalow, Tamarack....phenomenal terrestrial action!...you can't beat this time of year.....PLUS!....flying cinnamon ants are everywhere sizes #14's to #24's....trout are feasting now that water temps have dropped.

(round gobie caught at Trail Creek- that's why the Skamania are so big  lately!)

Summer Steelhead/Lake run Browns/coho: Excellent numbers coming in St. Joe and Trail creek in Indiana...!!!

(What those late night trout are sipping...quad spent caddis and left over flying ants...that's September magic!)

 

Storms are coming in as I write this at my office in the Stream building in Newaygo....a very cool place which has allowed me to write the two new books and correspond/network with people all over the world.If you need remote office space for your business/company etc., you have to look at this facility!

(those foggy steam mornings and tricos....yes! Muskegon now has a very viable trico hatch...20 years in the making!)

(T TIME)

 

We still have a few opening during the week for this fall's salmon and steelhead runs which promise to be outstanding based on the big lake catches....ALSO!...SEPTEMBER CADDIS TIME IS COMING!.....my favorite trout dry fly fishing of the year!

(my favorite salmon fishing ...swinging for pooled up" noids" coming any day now!)

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Posted in: flying ants , gray drake lodge , Great Lakes summer steelhead , lake-run brown trout , muskegon salmon , stenonema hatch , super caddis hatches , terrestrial insects , Trail creek , trout and eagle

SUMMER SKAMANIA STEELHEAD EATING TERRESTRIALS?,,,,,AND FINALLY!... COLD AND RAIN!

We finally got what we prayed and wished for!....cool, cool rain. How the daytime highs go from the upper 90's to the upper 50's F is just the continued saga of the global bizarre climate change roller coaster....but we needed it bad!. It has poured rain in Michigan for the past 48 hours and much welcomed. Water levels are rising, river temps. are falling and the remaining summer steelhead and caddis hatches are poised and ready to roll!....next weeks highs are expected in the uppper 60's/70's...what a relief.
SO....what's this garbage about summer Skamania steelhead eating terrestrials?....YEP AND MORE .....YUP !....wouldn't have believed it myself to be honest.

 It all started weeks ago on Trail Creek in Indiana when guiding several clients in log overhanging pools and hot steamy weather. Crickets, beetles , inchworms and hoppers were all over in the sweltering hot heat. I saw an inch worm fall from the log jam and ...WHAM1... the swirl take of a huge summer run destroying it. With Doc Davison and that crazy YOU TUBE video we posted, the fish hammered a brown caterpillar off the bank.

 This week, guiding several clients from Chicago, Roger Nordy caught his first summer run on a beetle imitation that hit the water and his chrome beast went three feet to inhale the offering with a vengeance. If you want to try and catch 30-40 ich steelehead on a floating line and terrestrials....which by the way is way too cool!....that's what I've been up to and loving every minute of it. Trail Creek is a limestone spring creek and real cold water in its upper stretches in the 50'sF....those steelhead act like large spring creek rainbows with all their curiosity.
STATUS OF THE SUMMER STEELHEAD RUN:....Now that we are getting rain and colder temps , The St. Joseph, which had the hottest and driest conditions in a century, should start to see its summer steelhead run finally start up since it got a few fish in June.
Since the Indiana spring creeks are cold and ready for migration, the Lake turnover of temps. is all they will need to bring in the remaining steelhead which are still huge in number.
I will be guiding summer runs thru early September. The bonus at this time of year are the huge 300,000 stocking of Coho Silvers that take place there which bring in big runs of these perfect fighting beasts that readily take the fly if you've experienced them in in Alaska...hot fish!
MUSKEGON TROUT:...now that the waters are cooling , we should start to see the August thru October mega hatches of Green and Cinnamon caddis. The trout have survived well despite the heat and on my trout/smallie trip on Thursday morning with Dave Richardson we caught browns and rainbows  in the middle of the river targeting tricos and tiny olives- Cahills were also emerging all day in the rain...the insects are still on the rocks and cooler water will spur their emergence. Todd at the Trout & Eagle already saw a few salmon porpoising in the pools.
 We go from hell heat to freezing polar fleece fast and quick....crazy stuff.
NOTES: I still have a few dates open for summer steelhead if I've piqued your interest....it's a blast!...and the best of summer is yet to come my friends. Every body should experience the hottest fighting game fish in the Great Lakes....hands down no contest!
 Cheers!

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Posted in: beetles , dry fly steelhead , gray drake , Great Lakes summer steelhead , Indiana Skamania , Muskegon trout , summer skamania steelhead , terrestrial insects , Trail creek , trout and eagle