STEEL CHROME IS HERE!

 

Finally we have rain!...and fresh chrome fall steelhead are here!

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Posted in: fall steelhead , gray drake lodge , michigan steelhead , muskegon fly fishing

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

The Gray Drake mayfly hatch is here!...come experience this amazing big brownie dry fly nirvana -Also my favorite recipe!

 25 years ago we named our lodge and outfitters "Gray Drake Lodge" for a reason. The Muskegon River has one of the most dense and long lasting gray drake mayfly hatches on the planet! Only the Pere Marquette and other nearby rivers sourcing   from the same marl bog watershed have these hatches in such density. Baltic countries also have them. When we opened up our cedar lodge during the hatch in early June, the next morning the entire lodge turned gray from all the adult mayflies molting on the cedar panels and tree trunks from the previous night's hatch.

( insect images by bug master JG Miller)

( Morning and early evening spinner flights were gray blizzards last year)

( Freshly hatched gray drakes molt on the lodge and trees nearby. The Muskegon browns that take drakes can be ultra selective and have stunning colors brought on my heavy protein overloads from salmon/steelhead and sucker eggs and scuds in winter )

This spring 2020 (June when we open back up) we will be offering single/double  and small group Gray Drake Clinics. 
Our focus will be on dry fly and swinging emerging wet fly guide trips that incorporate school-like clinics on how to better understand the dynamics of this "mystery hatch", which the famous Dick Pobst once described it in an article in Fly Fisherman in the 90's. Many anglers are confused about the drakes and are usually baffled by their behavior, how the trout take them, what presentations are best and when to strike the hatch right! We will attempt to teach the the selectivity approach to mastering these hatches and a 20 inch brown on the dry fly reality!

These  larger mayflies bring up the big browns that are often elusive all year other than on the streamer. But the intricacies of the hatch and how selective browns feed on them is a cloaked mystery to many anglers.We have been studying these hatch details for two decades and would love to share them with you!

Last year (2019) we saw one of the heaviest gray drake hatches we have seen in over 15 years- it was a solid morning to dusk  spinner flight event that coated the water thick as sawdust with spinners. 2019 had a long cool and moist spring/early summer which favors the gray drake hatch cycle.

(A few fat butters from gray drake season )

The hatch cycle of Siphlonurus has been a mystery since you will never see an adult dun on the water. Thanks to the bug doctor:Johnny Miller of Catskill fame, who worked at the Gray Drake Lodge for many years, he uncovered the mystery. Honing the darkness middle of the night hours and shorelines/ swamps of the Muskegon's banks, he found the nymphs to swim like minnows and crawl up on shore in the middle of the night and hatch and fly off in the brush ( midnight till just before dawn). Johnny, as in the style of Caucci and Richards, photographed them hatching in his aquarium tanks- here are his images 

( nymph here crawling up on wet stick)

Besides the other local hallowed Pere Marquette river that has dense hatches, the Muskegon hatch is a 4 week long magnificent display of nature like no other! The Siphlonurus mayfly ( rapidus, alternatus, Quebencences ) is a true #10 sized mayfly that is perhaps one of the most elegant mayflies and has blizzard flights in both the A.M. and P.M.- most only think of dusk!

FLY PATTERNS

I have taken my gray drake patterns developed over the last two decades to new heights recently in my #browntroutatlanticsalmonnexus and #selectivity book fly patterns. Using new materials I've incorporated realism and imitative search patterns that target predator forager feeding profiles during the hatch period.  The larger selective brown's feeding can take on unique on preferences and key in intricate spinner patterns , sunken spinners and wet swinging articulated swimming  patterns. As the hatch thickens their selectivity rises and can take on "hair pulling" frustration. Our clinic trips will teach the intricacies of these patterns and how to present them.

MY FROSTY HEMINGWAY DRAKE RECIPE  (From my Nexus Book)

The realism and effectiveness of this pattern is truly remarkable! I have been perfecting gray drake patterns for over 25 years and this is beyond the best!

Thread: Light Grey

Hook: Daiichi Short Shank Dry wide-gape 1110

Tail/Body: Frosty Flies Realistic extended body Mayfly foam-Gray Drake -size Medium

https://frostyfly.com/

Thorax: Hareline Ice Dub UV Peacock

Wings: Organza Dun with Light Dun Hackle

(Here is Rich Felber's magnificent 28 inch beast of a brown taken 2019 on my Gang Bang double. Rich has been an awesome gray drake chaser for years

and is one of the fishy-ist dudes I know!- that was the biggest brown taken on the gray drake spinner fall last year!)

(Drake magic time)

A BROWN TROUT FISHERY HAS BEEN UNLEASHED

( Going a full year now with the TYPE III regs and safe to say, is working very well and the larger browns are now becoming a strong year-class)

With the new trophy 15 inch brown regulations now in place for two years and the amount of 13-17 inch browns and 20" er's we have taken on nymphs and streamers this past winter and during the early black stonefly hatch on dries, the trophy brown fishery is ready to explode on the Muskegon! 

My Final Thoughts 

This 2020 spring, as we struggle to get back and re-open our services and everyone's lives to some semblance of normal with all the Covid pain and anxiety everyone has suffered, there is hopefully exciting things to come! For those that have been blessed with survival and my condolences to those that have lost loved ones ( I lost a cousin I played with in Poland as a boy, a strong, healthy, rugby playing Doctor to this terrible thing last week I am sad to say) I pray good things will be brewing despite our hardships.It has taught me, and hopefully all of us to appreciate the things in life we have taken for granted: family, loved ones and the simple things like having another day on this amazing planet to see and witness the wild natural beauty that has been created for us. It has been a very cold spring which is ideal for the gray drake hatches to endure for great lengths of time.and intensity. Last year's hatch was the strongest we have ever witnessed in my 25 years on the Muskegon. It became a day-long event from morning until dusk, which I have never seen and lasted a good solid 4 weeks. The gray drake hatch will be the telltale sign of great things to come when every brown in the river will be poking their heads up to eat drakes on the surface.

Please still stay safe, strong and positive!...this thing is not over yet and lets not be foolish and careless in our actions!

Cheers!,

Matthew Supinski

 Call or email us for more info!

COME JOIN US!

www,graydrake.com

msupin2583@aol.com

231-250-2846

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Posted in: Brown trout-Atlantic , dry fly , gray drake lodge , may fly hatches , michigan fly fishing , muskegon fly fishing , Muskegon hatches , Nexus book , siphlonurus gray drakes

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

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

THE MOST PERFECT BROWN TROUT!- SIMPLY SALMO TRUTTA MAGNIFICENCE

                         ( Master Muskegon River guide, associate and friend: Jon Fortuna, one of the fishy-est dudes I know, with "THE" most perfect brownie I have ever seen!- a true massive congrats Jon! )

In case you haven't noticed, I'm passionately obsessed, possessed and compulsive with all things  Salmo: salar and trutta-browns and Atlantic's- the "Atlantic trouts" . My Nexus book on them was the most difficult and thought draining tome I've ever embarked on. #browntroutatlanticsalmonnexus

 When a fish touches your soul at at a very early age in the impressionable boyhood stage like brown trout and Atlantic salmon did on the Baltic rivers of northern Poland that I open my Nexus book chapters with, the power of these fish to cast a spell on you for life is simply spellbinding .

When Jon a few days on one of his evening trips texted me this image of the brown he just caught with client, I could feel his shaking/trembling with joy and humbleness coming through the texted image. When I first saw it, I was awestruck by the truly magnificence of this brown's "perfect" morphology/color spectrum/allele spotting patterns- everything about this #groundzerobrowntrout specimen- simply amazing does not do Jon's catch justice. When writing #Nexus I have looked through thousands of images of brown trout for the book- some of mine and other world class photographers so kind to gift me with their works) Here is why this fish is so special.

Ground Zero Genetic Infusion 

In Nexus I romanticize the importance of our subliminal  micro- ecosystem of tiny to medium cold flowing spring-fed wooded rivers from Newaygo to Baldwin, Michigan. Here in 1884, a special train came up from the Federal Fish Hatchery- Northville, MI to stock the "first brown trout"west of the the Atlantic ocean in civilization's new world western hemisphere- kinda a big deal ! 

Baron Von Behr's promise to send his beloved Black Forest German brown trout was on that train. They are typical of  the many brown trout strains of internal river systems in Europe : mix of brown spots with red dots circled with white rings, orange "butter" bellies, and a blue sapphire dot on the cheeks- a beautiful creature! These were and still are the main allele configurations of our ground -zero browns in our Michigan legacy. Our progressive Michigan DNR, leaders in fish culture for centuries, have preserved these German brown genetics by stocking Wild Gilchrist Creek browns at fingerling stages in rivers where natural reproduction needs help. 

As time progressed, other strains of brown trout came to the new world such as Scotland's Loch Leven and more coastal estuary/large water body specimens that had access at one point or still do to the Atlantic and surrounding seas, thus having less spotting and more silvery forage pelagic based allele structures that favor their life survival strategies.

Loch Levens when river based tend to have the more fuller brown spotting/leopard spot looks dominance in their appearance. Michigan uses a Wild Rose ( Wisconsin originated) brown that has faster growth potentials than the much more elusive and shy Black Forest German Forellen( Bach Forellen is German stream brown trout). Jon's perfect specimen embodies all these allele spotting into a fusion that takes on massive artistic implications. The fusion of leopard spotting with red crimson cell-like spots , extreme orange butter, reddish blood marking transitions, a cluster of leopard spotting running into the lower belly like Marble Trout of Slovenia....the artistic diagnosis never ends with this fish!)

"YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT"- THE MUSKEGON'S MASSIVE FORAGE BASE DIVERSITY
The Muskegon is one of the most fertile rivers I've ever witnessed. Since it is a tailwater that connects inland lake reservoirs and the Great Lakes it has a massive infusion of ecosystems that fuel the food chain in both directions. After years of lobbying for Type 3 regulations to create a trophy brown trout population, our new and talented /dedicated biologist Mark Tonello of the MDNR had the wisdom to implement these regulations and the brown trout populations are responding nicely and growing larger!
A big part of a brown trout's appearance /lifestyle and diet come from their genetic backgrounds and what they forage on, including adapting their morphology to their habitat type/water color and viscosity.
This "perfect" brown has an ideal mix of genetics that was fueled by an extreme diversity of prey. Robustly colored  browns usually result from extreme aquatic insect and freshwater crustacean, which the Muskegon has an enormous amount of. Crayfish, scuds and the entire aquatic insect smorgasbord of mayflies, caddis, stone flies and midges abound. Also bait fish such as sculpins, darters, chubs, sucker minnows and salmon /steelhead fry add to the mix. Couple these with the seasonal onslaught of eggs from spawning salmon, steelhead and suckers and the food supply is mind boggling, thus creating morphological vibrancy .
Bottom Line: All About The Fish
To me and many others, the fly fishing journey is more than just the catching. It is in the appreciation and adventure to witness the beauty of the natural order of things of God's creation. No fish is more stunning, sporting and beguiling , and captivating of the soul and eyes than Salmo-#civilizationsfoundingfish. Vision is a divine blessing we often take for granted. When you lay eyes on Jon's brown trout, a magnificently balanced beast of 30 million years in the making, you can only be humbled by the power of the natural world- how anyone can kill a fish of this beauty is beyond my comprehension. To all the guides and anglers that practice catch-and-release , the Salmo gods bless you!- especially with our Atlantic salmon populations that need mankind's help now more than ever.
One thing is for sure: you will be seeing more trophy brown trout ( Truttasaurus!), and stunning looking ones at that, in the years to come from the Mighty Muskegon!
(blogger's note: A year after my Nexus book was released, Jon's brown made me realize once again what emotional joy we receive when we catch a big brown!...to those that worship these fish, more of this adventure is in my Nexus pages)

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Posted in: Brown trout-Atlantic Nexus book , Brown Trout-Atlantic Salmon Nexus , gilchrist browns , jon fortuna , Loch Leven Brown , Michigan brown trout , Michigan ground zero legacy , muskegon fly fishing , wild rose browns

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!

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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

Valentine's Chrome Home

Ice storms last two days and power outages, then back to arctic air/wind this weekend won't help our cause this week!... But, Valentine's Day is just around the corner and is always the turning point/flip the switch for fresh steelhead from winter to spring.For all those lazy steelhead ( 75% of them) that never ran the rivers last fall beacuse of the arctic switch from a hot fall to brutal winter in November, and caused them to chow down on all those bait fish piles the now dead kings left behind, its "time for mykiss to phone home"- and get back upstream. Their hormones are exploding at this point, their pineal gland clocks picking up those extra minutes of daylight hours, and a full moon coming shortly- all systems go for "chrome home!

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Posted in: gray drake lodge , Great Lakes steelhead , michigan steelhead , muskegon fly fishing , Muskegon River steelhead

Why got STEEL!!!!

  My new steelhead queen -Katie Sloan Goggins from Dallas Texas just a few days ago.

WE GOT STEEL!- and more on their way...all I can say, gonna be a great fall/winter run.

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Posted in: gray drake lodge , Great Lakes steelhead , great lakes winter steelhead , michigan steelhead , muskegon fly fishing , muskegon steelhead , steelhead dreams

Could be the most satisfying two days of my guiding carreer..a tale of a Dad and Daughter

                   ( Two days last week that gave me the most emotional joy and satisfaction of my 23 years of guiding- teaching a young lady the joys of fly fishing with her talented fly fishing father as he watched with joy in his heart-beyond words!)

I have had thousands of days in my 23 years of my guiding/Gillie-hood in Michigan and around the world that were truly spectacular- and a few that I was glad to forget. They are full of epic  big fish and numbers catches,big hitter fly casters and legends, celebrity clients, world record fish, insane and challenging conditions, harrowing brushes with weather,  death ,wild animals, Russian mafia AK-47's in the Kola Taiga, Deliverance-like stalking from "inbred cretans" in the Podunk backwoods...you name it!-I've seen it all ! 

But the last two days I spent with a father and daughter, who were experiencing the emotional bonding and joy that fly fishing and down-time from the hectic pace of electronically driven constant barrage society only to escape them,  are the moments I cannot put into words, but only a tear and a warm felling in my heart to those moments. 

It is now, in my emotional halcyon days of reminiscing of my youth in western New York's Allegheny foothill spring creeks and my Dad's Polish farm tree house on the Wieprza river and its beautiful colored browns, that I think back to those days and how they now inspire me to my passion and love of teaching the joys of trout and the fly, and those special places they live in- it is beyond word

                     ( Dad Bill and 15 year-old daughter Liv whom I had the pleasure of teaching/guiding this past weekend)

When Bill called me and booked two days to teach his daughter Olivia the fine art and joys of fly fishing, I relished the challenge. It only took me a good 15 years to "chill out"to finally figure out the needs, desires, pace and emotions of young people getting into the sport and how to make it fun, relaxing and no pressure, which they love and what most parents cant do ! The intensity a parent delivers to their offspring to learn sometimes is too overpowering, thus an intermediary guide /instructor can accomplish the task because we have learned to "chill" and take it slow and easy which works 100% of the time. To say that Olivia was a natural talent is an understatement. Being an avid volleyball player, I find most young adults and youth who play eye/hand coordination sports: baseball, Lacrosse, hockey, tennis , golf etc., do extremely well and learn very quickly and with fluidity and muscle memory- Liv embodied this!

                         ( Liv with her first rainbow and brown trout- she was hooked for life!- and her dad couldn't have been prouder!

Dad Bill was an advanced and outstanding fly caster and tactician, having worked in a fly shop when younger for the late-great Miles Chance Orvis in Okemos, MI. Since the weather finally cooled off with rain and we had a few upper 50F nights, I decided to teach Olivia the joys of a big water /tailwater scenario one morning, and the intricacies of small micro spring creeks the next. We started our days at the crack of dawn :6AM, which wasn't easy on a 15 year old girl on summer break, but she was ready with her Patagonia attire and Orvis gear. My first morning I let dad go and do his thing as I gave Liv a school session in the dynamics of the cast and how "less is more" in her casting execution. In years did I never see someone pick up the fluidity of the stroke and rod load in such a graceful and effortless fashion- she was relaxed , I was in awe and very shortly she was making tight-loop cast with no effort. Before I could help it , I was teaching single hauling and down-and-across reach casting and BINGO!- she was catching her first trout, as I taught her how to strip-set hook and fight fish.

What was truly a memorable event, was that a massive caddis hatch was underway at 11 AM and every trout in the river was on top and chomping pupae and adults ( first big caddis hatch of the year that always starts like clockwork first week of August, and was over a half hour after it started and as we quit early to avoid stressing the trout as waters warmed ( coldest water is very early from nighttime bubler and cooling btw-not evenings that retain warm water heated up from the day!). All we did for two days was dry fly fish: caddis, tricos and terrestrial hoppers and ants, and watched every trout,  a couple big ones, but most smaller, come up for our offerings which Olivia watched every take and died for- she was so hooked !

( a couple of nice 15 inch brownies Bill caught that couldn't resist my new caddis tear-drop pupae- they were chowing caddis in a crazed frenzy despite the sun- blew me away, and I would never have thought that would happen!-I just wrote a book about photophobia in browns  dang it!)

The next day we headed up a little spring creek not far from the lodge and caught gorgeous wild browns and brookies on terrestrials- it was a gas! We quit by 12 noon because of the heat, but the water we were fishing was low-50F at most. After 40 or so trout in two days, we were all exhausted from this fairy tale book two days- EPIC is not enough to describe our days on the water.

( The beautiful wild browns and brookies of our next day's spring creek adventure-these browns were the first stocked in the western hemisphere from Germany in 1883- truly #groundzerotrutta....and the brookie was there for millions of years!- how cool is that? )

SO...parents, take your children and young adults fly fishing. Our amazing freshwater wonderland of Michigan's Great Lakes and rivers is one of the most unique ecological masterpieces that our trout, steelhead and salmon thrive in amazing abundance and wild populations. Give them to all the talented Michigan guides/instructors ( we are the best on the planet bar none since our fisheries are so diverse and demand excellence in every tactical venue ) that can teach them in a relaxed "chill" manner ( children often and unfortunately repulse their parents instruction- its just fact, and nothing you can do about it!)

As your children grow up, go away for educations. have families and jobs....fly fishing is a holy and emotional way to bring families together, to bond and relax, catch up on life and let it all go!- It's a beautiful thing!...Amen! 

At the Gray Drake, we pride ourselves on making families that fish together, love together and have fulfilling supporting lives no matter what road life leads us on. Our legacy is Pure Michigan, pure wild rivers, lakes and fish that is all waiting for every family to explore.

(Olivia in her spring creek wonderland- Pure Michigan perfection!)

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Posted in: fly fishing , gray drake lodge , michigan fly fishing , muskegon fly fishing , Pure Michigan , super caddis hatches , teaching children fly fishing , terrestrial insects