WILD,WEIRD,WHACKY,WET...WTF!....THAT'S HOW TO DESCRIBE THE WEATHER AND HATCHES....BUT "GOT BIG TROUT! "

(Tom Terry's nice brown from Saturday)

In all the years of fly fishing....god embarrassed to say how many.....never seen more crazy weather/hatch patterns, and generally confused 'everything' ! Some nights the hatches are thick....most nights nothing!. This weekend, I had the pleasure of guiding Tom and Sue  from Chicago for three days. We caught a ton of nice trout nymphing/streamers with 5 hefty browns and a bow in the 19-21 inch range on the Muskegon, despite the gazillion tubers, canoes/kayaks etc.. Those smaller bows/smolt steelies and brownies are as fat as footballs and put a heavy bend in Tom and Sue's Sage ONE 4 weights- they were amazed by how hot these fish fought in the current.

(Isonychia adults have a a deep green/burgandy thick body)

( Tippy's nice brown on a Iso at the begging of June)

 We were surrounded by Doppler radar red and yellow all weekend but managed to escape till last night when we got hammered with storms and rain. BUT............ we needed it since it was gettin g dry and water levels were dropping.

( Iso wiggle and CDC dun with tailing shuck)

(Hex has been showing up in increasing numbers on the Muskegon by Croton dam...or lower river0

 So "WHAT'S UP WITH THE HATCHES?"....god I wish I had a clue....and for me that's embarrassing to say!. There are Hex's on the P.M. already. Our Muskegon has seen some great sulpher hatches....very sporadic gray drakes which makes no sense since we had a good year last year. Our Drakes did start around May 3rd...very early, but nothing consistent.Lats nights sporadic cahill stenonemas and a few Isonychias.
 Here is what I'm seeing. Still poking around the muck and lagoons near shore , I'm finding gray drake nymphs.One devestating theory I had was when we had those huge floods in early May, they pushed siphlonorus nymphs into the grassy banks which dried up quick when the water came down fast- mortality possible. The gravel in riffles and shorelines have tons of Isonychias, caddis larvae, blue wing olive nymphs.
 BUT......bugs don't like erratic and wild barometric pressure changes which we have been full of!....why?....Darwinian my friend,,,evolution. Aquatic insects that through the millenia that hatched on severe weather barometric changes didn't survive....they got blown away into oblivion and their seed found no purchase. The most successful aquatic mayflies hatched under satble conditions. Blue Winged Olives like overcast and rain....but stable lows and low light...not wild trends like we've had. Caddis don't care one way or the other!
 SO....now with our water level up to 2940 cfs...from 1800 yesterday....the PM/Manistee north waters high off-color and we are going back to 60 degree daytime highs and 37 F nights....after 88F yesterday, this is actually good for all mayflies except HEX.!
We should see good Isonychia emergence's and more gray drakes to follow in the next few weeks, which like somewhat cooler weather patterns and rising water.Caddis also like spikes in water levels to hatch.
 That's the latest from the bug world. The rivers are loaded to the brink with chinook salmon parr and the steelhead fry which just hatched are everywhere...plus you know what is still spawning...trout are "FAT"AND WILLING".....and I'm not going any further on that one...period.....Cheers!
COMING TO THE GREAT LAKES FLY FISHING THEATERS SOON- SKAMANIA SUMMER STEELHEAD....HAVE YOU CAUGHT ONE?....WANT TO?....TIME TO START PLANNING!

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Posted in: blue-winged-olive , chinook salmon , gray drake , isonychia , monster brown trout , selective trout , siphlonorus gray drakes , skamania steelhead , steelhead fry , super caddis hatches , trout and eagle

SULPHER CITY, SCULPINS....the "CEREBRAL GOURMET".....AND THE BROWN TROUT "TOAD" GALLERY!

( Guide Jeff Bacon with a "ginormous 'brown-it's good to know that gene pool contributor is still swimming for this fall if it can dodge the rapalas and worm dunkers. A perefect Ephemerella Invaria - sulpher- above by John Miller......you can click on images for clower detail )

Cold nights, cool nights, hot days, cool days, massive thunder storms....what a roll of the weather!.............BUT GOOD NEWS!....the trout are starting to look -up at the surface with a passion!

( Dr. Mike Davison with a pair of nice browns on the sulpher emerger Saturday)

 The suckers are pretty much all spawned out, so all the trout are cruising looking for chinook parr and steelhead fry that just hatched and the mayflies and caddis. Last 5 nights we had lots of sulphers, American March Browns, Blue wings, caddis and gray drakes trying to get going but the weather has been their detriment....early June like customary should be their peak along with Isonychias.

( The famed Roman Moser of Austria, who contributed to my "SELECTIVITY" book at the publishers Stackpole Books, here are his 3-D Plush Sculpins that are lethal on aggressive big trout!)

 Had the distinct pleasure of guiding Dr. Mike Davison, a trout'aholic, this weekend and Mike got some nice fat browns on the sulpher emergers. Jeff Bacon with clients hit an absolute "hog' brown like Jeff always does every May......he's a toad sniffer!

( another late night sulpher sipper and a rainbow parr chinook fry and Abel brown trout reel- below the river is loaded to the gills with chinook parr and an easy imitationn)

( The grouse hen is back terrorizing all that come- she builds her nest near our driveway and chases all the cars daily protecting her little ones)

( Boy did they stock the Muskegon this year.....just got the numbers from DNR Gary Whelan- head of hatcheries.........staggering #'s......90,000 Eagle Lake Rainbows, 60,000 Wild Rose Brown trout in Newaygo...........30,000 browns at Muskegon Harbor, and 66,000 steelhead at Pine St........plus all the natural reproduction we are having with the cold water bubbler....YIKES!....that's a ton of trout!)

( wild steelhead- 3-4 inchers Jeff and I picked up all spring....Bacon got one two days ago swinging wets...the stockers are 8-9 inches and silver-fin clipped some)

Swinging soft hackle wets and sculpins on sink-tips have been productive. Waiting for a good spinner fall of gray drakes with stable weather. Had a good spinner fall with Dr. Mike as we did split days on the water ....dawn to dusk , with break in the afternoon.
                                                             
CULINARY CORNER AND NEWS BITES!!!!

 Check out our NEW HATCH MATCHERS SPECIAL ON OUR MAIN PAGE TICKER TAPE!
Water at perfect dry fly level...1960 CFS and perfect hatch mayfly hatching temps......CHEERS!
So this week's cooking had to do with good old fashioned Polish cuisines, Spring Rack of Lamb, fresh clams and scallops and beef carpaccio.....raw beef with garlic and goat's cheese.....DELISH!

( BACK IN POLAND AGAIN!....Dr. Mike got fresh Frank's Market Polish sausage from Grand Rapids- grilled and basted in beer, Polish sweet and sour sauerkraut with caraway seeds and good old fashioned potato pancakes....add some hot Dusseldorf er mustard and you got a feast!

( don't forget all the great Michigan asparagus we have now....marinade them in olive oil, lightly crisp on grill, add balsamic vinegar and Swedish sea salt....awesome!

( and now.....an episode of the "CEREBRAL GOURMET".....lol. Last Wednesday I had the two big hitter Ford execs.- Ed and Randy. Ed is an aspiring chef and sometimes he would rather cook on the boat with the Weber than fish....he did an amazing Rack of Lamb chops on the grill.....Ed is not the most articulate guy or politically correct....excuse the crass use of a certain word....Ed did not know he was being filmed by my ever ready i phone which I'm having a blast with....GO ED!......you won't see the "Cerebral Gourmet" coming to the Cooking Channel anytime soon.....LOL!)

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Posted in: American March Browns , blue-winged-olive , caddis , gray drake , isonychia , michigan fly fishing , monster brown trout , muskegon river , sulphers , trout and eagle

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

( 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!

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Posted in: blue-winged-olive , gray drake , midges , montana , muskegon salmon , muskegon steelhead , nelson's spring creek , trout eagle lodge and outfitters , yellowstone river

THAT'S A "BINGO" FOR BILLY!

As Col. Hans Landa from "Inglorious Bastards",the SS hunter put it in the Caption above, Bill Benson , CEO, Investment Banker/Real Estate Mogul from Rochester, MI, had the best day so far for Summer runs-he went 5 for 5 on fish between 12 and 15 lbs.

Today , we could not find a fish!!!!!!!

The Joe is cooler and fish are moving fast. We have great Olive /caddis and flying ant hatches on the Muskegon to the browns and rainbows that had no problem holding over"thanks to the bubblier" - and YES!.....good numbers of salmon are coming in with the cold nights and rain Thurs.

The good news! My late dad was in the Polish Army -1939- and killed hundreds of Nazis- my mother was in Auschwitz, had to deal with the Bastards and survived it.
So Brad Pitt- (a.k.a Aldo Raines- who said" Nazi kill'in is my business, and business has been pretty good lately)you're my Idol!
GRACIE!-- Thanks Q.TARANTINO- for a stunning and brilliant movie-BINGO!
How I went from summer steelhead to Nazis is bizarre- just deal with it!- that's how my mind works- what the heck-eh!

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Posted in: blue-winged-olive , caddis , gray drake , muskegon salmon , st.joe skamania , summer steelhead , trout and eagle

ISO TIME IS HERE!........ALSO THE WHOLE KITCHEN SINK!

( number one son-Master Peter , just turned 13 and 6 foot tall, with his first nice brown on a swinging down-and-across wet fly Iso wiggle nymph.Petusz is a upcoming world class soccer player and just did the "golden boot award" at last weekend' largest Michigan travel team soccer tournament by scoring 4 goals in three games-yes I'm bragging!!!)

( a pre- dusk nice brown taken on an Iso wiggle nymph)

( ISONYCHIA BICOLOR)

( my version of the Senyo Iso wiggle)

It has been a great week of cool weather, rain( more coming in the next 4 days thank God!) and hatches- you basically have everything from "soup to nuts".

Last night saw good numbers of Isonychia mayflies-big size 10 bicolor.

Here is the line-up

River from Dam to Thornapple-tons of gray drakes, zillions of cinnamon caddis, Pteronarycus big stones

Thornapple-Anderson Flats- Isos, sulphers,cahills,olives,caddis,drakes, big stones-also tons of salmon fry which the big trout are chasing at dark-which for big smashing surface rises!!!!

Water up-1800 cfs.temp back down to 17 C.

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Posted in: blue-winged-olive , gray drake lodge , isonychia , muskegon river , stone flies , sulphers , trout eagle lodge and outfitters

HATCH BOX IS OPEN FOR DRY FLY MANIA.........THE MAGIC 58F IS HERE

( Organza wing-curved drake spinner)

( emerging drake dun-one of a kind image in the world shot by the one and only 'bug doctor"-West Branch Johnny Miller!)

(Baconator with a fat pig on the drake)

YUP...........THEY'RE BACK! The entire cycle of hatches are in full swing.Caddis, Drunella b-w-o's,sulphers,March Browns, Quill Gordons,Gray Drakes-THIS WEEK WITH THE WARM TEMPS WILL SEE SOME SIGNIFICANT HATCHES!

Water level-1890-cfs.

We still have some prime hatch matcher's dates and also our new Hatch Matcher's special-250.00-one or two anglers from 5:00p.m. till O'dark hundred!

Like to thank Blair and Jim at Orvis Cleveland for having me this weekend- they have an amazing store in Chagrin Falls,OH!

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Posted in: American March Browns , blue-winged-olive , gray drake , hatches , sulphers

AS ROD STEWART PUT IT-"EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY-DON'T IT?...........GOSH- I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Epherella invaria - sulpher- Drunella is the same - only with dark-olive body- dun CDC wings-light dun!- the finest aquatic insect photography only by the one - and only!!!!!!!!!!!Bugmeister-Johnny Miller of Catskill fame!!!!!!!

Trutta= THAT IS BROWNS!!- ON the hunt for BWO'S AND SULPHERS)

Morchella.........UHMMMM-GOOD!

(Tom Butkovich From Chi -town- fresh chrome---UHMM. concerned about all these fresh hens coming in with "lamprey scars"

She bitch Grouse - sole proprieter of Gray Drake Bluff!

Chrome steelhead for the past three days in the morning nymphing, afternoons with blue-winged-olives( #16 Drunella latas), sulphers(Ephemerella invaria) and browns and rainbows smashing them on the surface.......oh yeah, finally some fresh morels(morchella delicsiosa)..........and grouse drumming in the woods like kick-starting Harleys going up to the blessing of the bikes in Baldwin

Doesn't get any better..really doesn't- especially now we have great water flows

CHEERS!!!!!!!!

BTW........We just launched a" HATCH MATCHERS SPECIAL"- FOR THE SPRING AND SUMMER MAYFLY AND CADDIS HATCHES-250.00 FOR ONE OR TWO FROM 5 P.M. TILL DARK!( see the ticker tape at the top of our website)

Also, we still have a few spots available for our SELECTIVE TAILWATER DRY FLY TROUT SCHOOL WEEKEND(JUNE 4-6TH) AT THE TROUT&EAGLE AND GRAY DRAKE LODGES- IT WILL BE A GREAT TIME FOR BEGINNERS AND ADVANCED TO LEARN MORE ABOUT AQUATIC INSECTS AND FISHING TO FUSSY SIPPING TROUT!

The best time of the year is coming-TROUT ON THE SURFACE AND TONS OF BUGS!!!!!!!!!

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Posted in: blue-winged-olive , dry fly , gray drake , may fly hatches , morels , muskegon river , muskegon steelhead , selective trout , sulphers , trout eagle lodge and outfitters

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