HEAT WAVE OVER...AND THEY ARE COMING-!

Heat wave of 2016 hopefully over!...it wasn't "that hot"!, ( I remember three summers ago taking son Peter to Northwestern Univ., along the gorgeous Lake Michigan shorelines for a summer  select soccer camp and my car thermometer read 113 F on the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago- we are now moaning about a few 90 F DAYS!-NEWS FLASH!- TIS THE HEART OF SUMMER EH?...have we become a society of whinny wimps?...hmmm!) But, just say'in,  we have been spoiled by two epically cold summers with lots of rainfall....anyways, everyone got a ton of rain this past weekend, and the summer run Skamania steelhead are waiting for a soon to happen Nor'easterly to stage a new push...holding in 55-70 feet of water stacked like sardines between South Haven and Mich. City...more to come soon.Some fresh chrome are already making their presence if you know where to look for them
( BTW:skammy mysis shrimp pattern recipe coming tomorrow - just got off the river and chill'in)...Na Zdrowie!- August will be an epic month!

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Posted in: gray drake lodge , Great Lakes summer steelhead , Indiana Skamania , mykiss shrimp , skamania steelhead , st.joe skamania , summer skamania steelhead

THEY ARE FINALLY BACK!...AND BIGGER THAN EVER!

After being on the Joe all week and watching them trickle in, they have now officially arrived en masse !...about time!, and they are running as big as ever!..With no  weir/fish ladder trapping them at Berrien Springs like for decades ( they need 900 adults) for broodstock/egg/sperm harvest for next year's plants by Indiana DNR, which they now do on Trail Creek, IN, thus, the fish ladder at Berrien Springs is 'WIDE OPEN' and open for serious summer run steelhead biz-ness!

( Mysis Procopius)

Why the size when our Michigan Winter strain ran so small this past spring run? Basically, the Great Lakes mystery of 'constant biologic change" is always 'trending now',  since alewives ### are down =alewives eat mysis, thus Mysis shrimp ### WAY UP LIKE LATE 1980''S!- prior . so!!!... shrimp are the ideal food source for rainbow trout ( remember they are ocean going rainbow trout- finicky and precise predators), shrimp pack more of a power protein ,selenium, B-12, and very interesting iodine,  than even ale' wives

(NOTE: If you have never experienced these amazing  silver, pink cheeked 'tarpon of the Great Lakes', and call yourself a GL steelheader!, time is now through early September to do so. I personally have a very few good dates open and would love to show you the game. 

All dry lines/ no weight,single or two handers, lots of sight fishing or blind  swinging, whatever your schematics/gig desires. I have dedicated 25 plus years chasing these fish, so I'm confident and read a few books about steelhead!..;)...cheers!, sorry for the cockiness, just love what I do!......na zdrowie..yes I get them to eat dry fly beetles on the surface!

( MY flash back beetle dries..Senyo's ( Hareline Dubbin shaggy dubbing) greased up- rubber floats with right grease, and pushes water!)

here are few video testimonials...cheers!!!- life is great!- get out and fish steelhead, and BE PATIENT AND HUMBLE !!

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Posted in: gray drake lodge , Great Lakes summer steelhead , Inn Harbor Shores , Muskegon River steelhead , mykiss shrimp , st.joe skamania , summer skamania steelhead

THE WINTER THAT WASN'T!....OR MAYBE STILL COMING?...LET'S HOPE

( Canh Tran from Chicago last Friday with a model perfect hen)

 

( Son Peter with his first steelhead on the swing Christmas Day...first totally solo...proud Dad!)

( YEES!...FINALLY!....out this spring after waiting centuries!)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!....SO ...is global warming here to stay?....hmmmm... so tough to say. Good news is we have water and excellent flows- Muskegon at 3,000 cfs- haven't seen that in a long time. Fresh steelhead are coming in, full moon coming and looks like spring will be early. So we would like toi see snow or we will have another dry year. But nobody is willing to predict anything. Bottom line, we are fishing all winter like always. Catching winter steelhead is our passion. AND... we have some good slots still open for SPRING STEELHEADING and have a WINTER STEELHEAD SPECIAL on our web site. So get out and enjoy winter....a big snow storm is brewing as I write this ,,,,YUMMY!

( lethal in winter ....my Mykiss Shrimp...tie them down to 12,14,16 on Daichii x120 scud hooks

winter; smaller =better- even on Mo!)

 

( saw first stonefly crawl on the snowy bank today....1/2 inch of snow isn't exactly snowy...but a half foot is coming!....HOPE)

( my version of the steelhead bugger...very effective winter fly)

( Ice man cometh...the Senyo laser dub minnow...hot!)

( big buck on #14 mykiss shrimp)

( Can't beat the new KAST GEAR gloves and stuff....combine them with the Perfection of Patagonia...and you bake while winter steelheading!)

( Had a great time fishing my  yearly pilgrimage to the hallowed  PA. Letort limestoner over New Years ...the gorgeous and aggressive/active wild browns and the 6 incher that took the 6 inch Roman Moser sculpin- that little guy just graduated to Selectivity school 101 !)

( LOVE TO SHOW BIG BROWNIES!... good client Tom Terry from Chicago with a Wisconsin Lake-run with Pecz the spey man on the swing!)

 

cheers!!!!!...hope to see you this spring!~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                          

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Posted in: brown trout , gray drake , great lakes winter steelhead , Letort Spring Run , michigan steelhead , muskegon trout steelhead , mykiss shrimp , trout and eagle