Saga of my Biggest Brown on the Dry

My 27 1/2 inch brown I caught on the gray drake spinner fall over a week ago was my personal best on a dry. 26 was my previous pinnacle.

It was a cool sunny morning- not ideal conditions to catch a brown of your lifetime. Cloud cover with filtered Cirrus cloud sunlight would be better. Yet I was hoping that the gray drakes ( Siplonurus)  which have been too thick to fish in the past few evenings due to blanket hatches, would mate and spin in the AM, where I have had perfect hatch matching conditions in the past. Sometimes you catch a perfect "not-too-many" mating flights in the air in the mornings before noon that get big browns to feed for a very short duration- this day was not one of them I thought prematurely.

In a spot where I have seen some real donkeys in the past weeks feed, I posted my Stealthcraft and sat and waited...and waited. Almost an hour and a half went by without a cast. I sat there, worked on my phone and was ready to pack it in. All of a sudden some cirrus clouds showed up, a cold chill filled the air, and I had gray drake spinners above me. I continued to watch until a bowling ball explosion rise happened 12 feet below my jet engine." Holy Shit"... that is a big-ass brown! It sprayed water at me when it moved the surface so quickly. Suddenly pairs of drakes were coupling up- a very few but just enough.

So what has happened in that hour plus was the big brown got very comfortable with my boat, thought it was cover since it casted a shadow on the bottom and used the bubble line crated by my stern. If I would have been casting that would not have happened. Catching big browns is like turkey hunting, you have to assimilate to your surroundings and become a hunting predator, be still and wait.The old bullshit saying "can't catch a fish iof your line is not in the water" is foolish in big brown hunting.

After the second rise, on hands-and-knees I crawled to the back of the boat. With my dry fly already lubricated and dried, I did several dapping/roll/ underhand casts, and puddled the long 18 foot leader and let it uncoil drag free into the bubble lane where the fish rose 12 feet below the engine-SMASH!, surface explosion and the fish was on!

It tore downstream like a Maserati, "Mr. Big" jumped once 4 feet in the air cartwheeling like a steelhead , and peeled off backing on my Orvis 5 weight Helios and 3x tippet. I did everything to get the anchor up fast and floated with the boat for about 150 yards with the fish not exhausting . As I rounded the bend , I looked down and was glad my 45 inch steelhead/salmon net with long handle was there and ready. As it rounded the corner bend, it headed for a log-jam near shore and I beached the boat and ran out to chase it. Saying Hail Mary's...it was finally in the net by shore and I was spent!

That fish remained in my net as I went to my Pelican case and got my Nikon D850...the rest is what you see! The colors of this "wild" as we determined after I showed it to my local biologist friend remain spectacular, Abel reel matching to boot!

Cheers!
MS

Read more »

Posted in: #abelreels , #orvis , #stealthcraft , gray drake lodge , Matt Supinski #Brown Trout-Atlantic Salmon Nexus book , Michigan brown trout , Michigan ground zero brown trout legacy , muskegon browns , Selectivity book

Awesome last week at the Gray Drake!...some beasts of Steel !

Was an awesome last 9 days with my boys from Indianapolis, Lansing, Traverse City, New York City and Chicago. The steelhead so far this March have been some massive beasts - probably the biggest I've seen in 9 years like the Chinooks last fall... Plus the river has plenty of fat plump browns and rainbows. Going to be an outstanding spring!...enjoy this weeks pics!

Read more »

Posted in: Brown Trout-Atlantic Salmon Nexus , gray drake lodge , Great Lakes steelhead , michigan steelhead , muskegon fly fishing , muskegon browns , Muskegon River steelhead , steelhead dreams

Any day now!- the sac fry hatch begins!

As the photo-period of day light gets longer, the signal for new life is on! Chinook/Coho /Atlantic salmon and brown /brook trout fry will hatch and it will be 'game on" for matching the sac fry  hatch!....salmonid cannibalism at its finest! Steelhead and big leviathan browns love to crush sac fry and get fat and sassy after a long winter's dormant spell...enjoy this cool YOU TUBE video on brown trout gluttony and cannibalism

Read more »

Posted in: chinook salmon sac fry , gray darke lodge , gray drake lodge , muskegon browns , muskegon fly fishing , Muskegon River steelhead

Caddis and Isonychia hatches have been great!- the whole river is fishing very well/excellent conditions

With higher than normal flows (3,000cfs)-actually perfect flows and water releases for this time of year!... and cool water temps, the Muskegon has been fishing AWESOME!...caddis all day have the trout looking up, and Isonychias, Stenos and still have gray drakes at dusk, the browns and rainbows are fatter and healthy than I've seen in 20 years...

We have availability this week and next week, so come on out and enjoy it!...
For up to the minute posts from the river, view us on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter for "real time" river reports:
Facebook :Gray Drake/Trout Eagle page Matthew Supinski page/Selectivity TSS page
Instagram : Gray Drake Lodge page
Twitter @MattSupinski

Read more »

Posted in: Brown Trout-Atlantic Salmon Nexus , Eagle Lake Rainbows , gray drake lodge , isonychia , muskegon fly fishing , muskegon browns , Muskegon hatches , super caddis hatches

Still a few Drakes ...now big fat trout, bigger mayflies and perfect water conditions!

The gray drake hatch was the most massive and insane mayfly hatch we have witnessed in 25 years! ...its now just about done!...thank God! Never thought I would be wishing a mayfly hatch to go away!- when they were that thick it was tough to even fish for dinks!

Many 20 inch trout were caught during the insane 4 weeks of dense spinner falls that went on all day! The result is all the browns and rainbows are so fat, that 10 inch stockers will send you into their backng, since they are 10 inches long and 10 inches wide! The browns have been heavily fed and are buldging with very fat bellies.

Now, the Isonychias are on the water and creating more reasonable hatch matching equal ground since their numbers are sporadic but the trout seekng them....or throw big meaty streamers since the big browns will be seeking to fill a void in their stomachs!

Swing big Iso nymphs and soft hackles. Caddis , some olives, cahills are all in the mix. 

Our rivers have never looked this good in decades with plenty of water and cool temperatures. We have openings this weekend so get out and enjoy the Muskegon like we have never seen in late June...cool summer predicted to come also!

Rich Felber's massive brown on the gray drake spinner (largest ever caught on a dry on the MO) was just a sign of great things to come for the Muskegon with the new trophy brown type III Regulations and massive brown trout fingerling stockings

Give us a call and come out to enjoy a nice cool traditional Michigan summer!

Read more »

Posted in: gray drake lodge , isonychia , Matt Supinski Brown trout-Atlantic Nexus book , mayflies of Michigan , michigan fly fishing , muskegon browns , muskegon fly fishing , Muskegon hatches

The Gray Drake Hatch 2019 has been insane!...without doubt the heaviest hatch I've witnessed in 20 years!

                                     

  ( A stunning Muskegon brown that destroyed my #NEXUS gray drake spinner- the spinner falls in the mornings and evenings have been tremendous- that is an understatement!)
Without doubt, the gray drake hatch of 2019 has been the most intense I have witnessed in 20 years. A very cold/cool damp moist spring, very heavy water flows all winter and spring and last nights 36F and cool days are favoring the mayflies and trout in a big way!

The perefect conditions are in palce in 2019 for amazing hatching by Siphlonurus. As you know, the nymphs emerge on land at night, thus full banks with lots of water and overhanging tree/sandy bank structure is ideal for them.

 Last year 2018 was one of the worst emergences since the river was dry, the heat went to 89-90 F in the middle of May when the bugs emerge and literally "burned up' the hatch before it was spinner bound ( enough eggs can replenish the hatch even when on minimul levels ) but total 100% hatch and spinner flight success takes place when all conditions -(moisture/cool/full river flows) takes place like now. 

The morning and evening spinner falls have been sawdust blanket spinner falls and often too heavy to imitate with fly. There are so many bugs that fly around all day by the gray drake lodge, land on you when you are outside...totally insane! The big browns have come out of the proverbial wood work and are chowing down on them at a venomous rate (15-22 inchers, plus the 80,000 stocked browns and 80,000 eagle lake rainbows are going feeding frenzy nuts!

Please not that the river is now a type III trophy brown river (15 inches from Croton to Lake Michigan- watch out what the year will bring in size and growth with a cool summer forecasted by National Weather Service :)

The hatch will wane and then be replaced by our big Isonychias which are less in ### and thus these pig filled browns will come to the fly with a vengance- the next few weeks and summer looks very promising!!!...we still have openings and would love to see you at the Gray Drake!...cheers!- Matt &Laurie- enjoy the images/even the Bald Eagles are on the hunt!

Read more »

Posted in: gray drake lodge , Matt Supinski Brown trout-Atlantic Nexus book , mayflies of Michigan , michigan fly fishing , Michigan hatches , muskegon fly fishing , muskegon browns , Nexus , siphlonurus gray drakes

Temps going to 60F this week!- Alleluia!-done with the winter from hell!

After dealing with below zero F temps/ice and snow storms/blizzards and wind gusts up to 60 mph for the past week, it finally changes this week as temps are approaching 60F -AMEN!
Time to get out and enjoy spring steelheading( 80% of the 18/19 run is yet to come), and big browns!
 NOTE: Our great brown trout fishery finally gets the trophy regulations it deserves. Starting April 1 we go to a Type III designation of 15 inches for brown trout from Croton Dam to Lake Michigan. With 100,000 Wild Rose/Gilchrist/Sturgeon River strain browns stocked in the Muskegon 2018 at 6-7 inches/and fingerling, the trophy brown trout fishery will become epic!. 
Also still have a few openings left for this spring's steelheading, but they are going fast!

Read more »

Posted in: gray drake lodge , Great Lakes steelhead , Michigan brown trout , michigan steelhead , muskegon browns , muskegon river fly fishing , Muskegon River steelhead

April 1st- NEW! Type -III Trout Regs- Alleluia !!!!

Alleluia! It is finally a reality! (I’ve/and others been pushing for these regs for 15 years!) The new Type III-15 inch trophy Brown Trout Regs are printed and go into place April 1st, 2019...AMEN! ( from Croton dam down to Lake Michigan ) I can't express enough thanks to our new brilliant and progressive biologist Mark Tonello, who has in one year of being in charge of our district has done amazing things for us! Since our last retired biologist, who did everything he can to destroy the Muskegon trout/steelhead fishery, in favor of Walleyes and suckers, Tonello has radically improved management policy to make the Muskegon river and its wild trout small tributary watersheds an amazing trout/steelhead utopia fishery for the future. Besides understanding that the new regs will make the Muskegon a better and bigger brown trout fishery , which already has some massive browns in it, to become even 10 times better with these regs ( he used the Big Manistee and its Type III regs as a model ). In my entire world travels, the Muskegon is one of the most fertile in food prey rivers I've ever witnessed (yeah we could defiantly use more elevation, but I don't expect any glaciers and mountains soon eh?) Last year, Mark took the old biologist model 40,000 browns Wild Rose and Wild Gilchrist strain 6 inch plants for 18 miles of the Muskegon ( a mere drop in the bucket for such a massive river), and bumped up the brown trout plantings to double that-80,000 in 2018. Plus last December 20th, he gave us another 20,000 surplus fingerling brown trout- total for 2018 =100,000 browns, that must grow 8 inches before legal size!!!.( the vast richness of the Muskegon's fertility of food forms, having migratory salmon and steelhead adding egg and fry prey items, along with sucker spawn and minnows, plus the incredible hatches/crayfish/ crustacea, can support these enhanced fish populations, because the impoundments add fertility along with the Great Lakes conection- plus the deep pools and massive amount of spring-fed seepage/creeks along the entire sytem, along with the oxygen bubbler, keep drastic thermal conditions stabilized in stress periods, even with drastic heat like we had last summer, the browns fed all summer on midges, tricos and caddis and were fat footballs once September came- most stressed out fish on freestoners "slink-out"- ours feed ( food will take precedent over thermal stress. #Nexusbook) bio studies) IF that isn’t blessing enough, he introduced the wild Platte river Coho ( a great fly chasing game fish) program to the Muskegon in 2018 (we already have a massive run of super large King Salmon)...so, amazing things to come for the future of the Muskegon! (oh btw, I'm sure a few old codger brown trout killing bait bucket brigadiers are bitching, but you can still keep 10 inch rainbows- so whack those rubber rainbows away me lads, besides they are pretty stupid and will take anything you will throw at them! - the browns will be pretty smart by the time they get to 15 inches, so let the trophy games begin- EVERYBODY LOVES BIG BROWN TROUT !!!- EVERBODY!!!
( Image of client Geno Kelly from Boston with a big "truttasaurus" brownie from the Muskegon last April - more of these to come!)#browntroutatlanticnexus #brownatlanticnexus #graydrakelodge#michiganbrowntrout So I'm very honored to be part of this great freshwater micro-ecosystem/ wild and wonderful state of Michigan, which has the greatest trout/steelhead/ salmon utopia and DNR fisheries management in North America- no other place can compare !

Read more »

Posted in: Brown Trout-Atlantic Salmon Nexus , gray drake lodge , Michigan brown trout , michigan fly fishing , muskegon fly fishing , muskegon browns

Finally!!... cooler weather and the Tailwater trout have survived and are fat and healthy!

After chasing wild #groundzero Browns on local ice cold Michigan spring creeks last week during the heat waves with my clients and avoiding the bigger rivers and tailwaters , the cooler nights and rainfall has lowered the temps of tailwaters to cooler levels that you could get out at 5:30 am and fish at the crack of dawn for a half day and quit by 10 before waters warm up. I was amazed to see how fat and healthy our Eagle Lake California rainbows Michigan has adopted as their own have held up so far thru the worst heat wave and drought Michigan has seen. Thank you Charlie Atkinson for staying on top of Consumers Power and exposing their shifty doings on WOOD TV as far as their flow regime inconsistency and temperature / oxygen bubbler maintenance.

Please carry a very functioning digital thermometer and take temps at all sides of the tailwaters. Yesterday I found a significant cooler water difference between which side of the river I was on , and dissolved oxygen levels just by moving 20 feet- and different from USGS Gages that are set up in the wrong place- a series of new temperature monitoring is coming at the end of July by trout unlimited to our tailwaters - bravo!!!.

Now that Consumers are experimenting with the mixing bottom and top spill blubber flows, I think they are finding their groove and what is working- the trout seem to love it!. I pumped a throat and the rainbows were filled with caddis and midge larvae and were fat and happy . If you fish , do it very early and fight fish fast and keep them in the water, or holding up near it for 2 seconds, and only using Ketchum release to slide down to your barbless hook for fast release .
Tricos, midges, ants, soft hackles and caddis are getting ready to start- the rocks are covered with caddis larvae, and the best trout fishing on the MO is August and September to come!!!!

Read more »

Posted in: brown trout , Eagle Lake Rainbows , gray drake lodge , michigan fly fishing , muskegon browns , Muskegon hatches , muskegon river fly fishing

Private Hatch Matching Sessions- Individual or Partners

Want to learn to catch trophy tailwater and small stream browns and bow's during  hatch periods! What to look for when nothing is hatching or the river seems void of activity?Are your fly offerings constantly rejected? Are you undecided on how to read rise forms and know what stage of feeding the trout are on-nymph, emergers, adults, spinners?. Do you want to learn how to cover river water and read prey interception points on any river or stream for tossing streamers -no matter where you are?Do caddis hatches leave you crippled for answers?

For the last couple years,I've been doing personal schools as people are shying away from group schools, where you are just another body with a rod, and looking for more in-depth personal attention. My guided sessions deal with all the information issues :both stark novice and advanced anglers are looking for. Aside from the above, I teach:
*proper casting profiles/ presentations in situations
* show how to tie lethal patterns
*power-point hatch matching specifics
* put you on trophy fish and all the steps you need to deduce and put together an action plan to catch them consistently- just having a boat and cool gear doesn't make you a consistent and successful trophy trout hunter!

I do one/two or three person class guide sessions-AM or PM, or both together. You get more out of these encounters than you would in a school scenario.
Call or email for more info. I custom make them to your needs and what you want to learn and come away with, and can't just do it from books, You Tube and pod casts !

Read more »

Posted in: fly fishing schools , gray drake lodge , masking hatch , muskegon browns , muskegon fly fishing , muskegon river hatches , Selectivity book

Drakes on a roll, with cooler wet weather!

( Tommy Visser with a hog of a brown on the Muskegon yesterday)

After the crazy heat wave, our weather is back to a cooler normal.Water flows and temps are prefect! The Gray Drake hatch has been on fire- am and pm, and last couple of nights have been thick with bugs. Sulphers, steno cahills, bwo's and caddis also heavy in the mix. The next two weeks will see big browns and rainbows on the surface, and nymphing in certain areas where you know who?
NOTES: We still have some good openings and if you want to really learn about the intricacies of our trout and hatches, you cant' just do it by bying a boat and having cool equipment- knowledge is acquired, mentored and fine tuned from guides that spend a lifetime studying the prey predator relationships-WORD !

Read more »

Posted in: gray drake lodge , michigan fly fishing , muskegon browns , muskegon fly fishing , Muskegon hatches , Muskegon trout , siphlonurus gray drakes

Drakes are BACK!!!!

They're BACK!!!!...Siphlonurus gray drakes- truttasaurus manna from heaven! -morning and evening spinner falls for the next six weeks- here is your chance to get a 20 inch plus brown on the dry !-one of the most intense spinner falls you will ever witness anywhere on the planet- check out or new "hatch matchers" special on our website

Read more »

Posted in: gray darke lodge , muskegon browns , muskegon fly fishing , muskegon river fly fishing , siphlonurus gray drakes