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

THE P/D TO S/R- TO A/A SUMMERTIME SELECTIVITY SHUFFLE -TOPIC -FREESTONERS

( afternoon ant eater on a cow country spring /freestone mix) 

It's an amazing time of year! In decades past states would close their trout seasons in July (PA for example). But now with more tail waters and focus on mountain ice cold frestoners and spring creeks, this is actually the most challenging and rewarding time for the true troutsman to shine.

FREESTONERS

There are two main types....valley frestoners and high altitude mountain gradient freestoners. The first is usually a series of tributaries culminating into giant freestone rivers -the Catskill and Montana rivers can describe these waters. In teh summer there is strong trout migrations towards ice cold thermal brooks and refuge areas- Horton Brook on the Beaverkill is one example.

The later has very cold mountain spring caverns that keep its predominantly wild trout-mainly brookies, happy and cold all day.

SELECTIVITY SHUFFLE

The mornings usually see the tiny trico hatches couple with a few rusty Pseudocloeon spinners (bwo). Also a few very large leviathans are stirring from the night feeding foraging binge before they go P/D for an afternoon snooze.

Afternoons are the S/R mind game venues that trout play with terrestrials; ants, beetles, hoppers..etc. I say' mind games' because though they really relish these morsels, they somewhat always question the authenticity of their being...and make very complex/compound rises

  
Night and evening activity brings out the A/A behavior of the larger brown trout that go on the hunt for anything that moves: large pteronarcys stoneflies, mice, snakes...anything that will feed these 70 million year old modern dinosaurs...concentrate around bridge pools, and deep pools with wooded structure. 

Next...spring creeks !

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Posted in: freestone , gray drake lodge , michigan fly fishing , muskegon fly fishing , Selectivity book , selectivity dvd , terrestrial insects , tricos , trout and eagle lodge

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

SUMMER SKAMANIA STEELHEADING....INDIANA SPRING CREEK STYLE...HILLBILLIE LINE FISHIN!

YEEE- HAHHHH!...video says it all!...alligator mud wrastlin...its a blast!

 Watching steelhead open their white mouths and eat green caterpillars falling from trees is way to cool!....that's country boy, Doc "Steelhead" Mike Davison do'in a little mud...the ultimate topless fish porn wrastlin!...extremely hot and humid...water temp 59F !

The Finale!....fish in hand...Doc Mike finally got descent and put his shirt on! NOTES.....We finally got cooling weather and lots of rain...the summer steelhead run is about to start in a big way....also caddis hatches on the Muskegon as waters continue to cool...August can only get better then the sweltering weather of July....river levels finally got flows!

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Posted in: gray drake , Great Lakes summer steelhead , Indiana Skamania , summer skamania steelhead , terrestrial insects , trout and eagle

got rain?...FINALLY!...SPRING CREEK SUMMER STEELHEAD....NEW YORK'S WILD TROUT MECCA

( Tom Terrry from Chicago with his fisrt summer run fun which jumped into a tree on its first leap from an Indiana spring creek on a pink scud last weekend)

( Client Dave Richardson from Virginia and his first summer Skamania steelhead- also...great to see water flowing again!)

So sorry!...for the long delay in posting. As you are well aware we have been in the grip of the worst drought and heat wave in a century.The whole country is dealing with it but I'm glad to say we are over the hump with the big storms we had the last two days and cooler weather coming.Laurie, Peter and I  spent the first two weeks of July at our family's summer home in the magnificant Catskill mountains of  of New York- a wild trout mecca! The ice cold tailwaters of the Delaware and Neversink, with their deep mountain ice cold reservoirs with several hundred feet deep bottom draws made these rivers ice cold. Air temps were hitting the 100 F  range and both the West and East Branch and the Neversink upper tailwaters were 42 degrees.

( view from our families place in the Catskills)

( The amazing Neversink River of New York- a fusion river: mountain freestoner, spring creek and ice cold tailwater all in one....PLUS!.... the birthplace of American Fly fishing....Theodore Gordon/Hewitt and La Branche...this is Americas 'ground zero' of fly fishing...above a wild Neversink brown, the spring creek like waters and the steep falls at Fallsburg)

I spent each day chest deep and chilly, watching wild brown trout sipping sulphers, olives and stenos in the middle of the afternoon as the waters warmed to the prefered low 50F range. Their fisheries are managed for wild brown, rainbow and brook trout which are splendidly colored and fight like mad....also ultra super selective .

( Angler chest deep on the West Branch....44F water...air temp 95F...tailwater fog)

( West Branch sulpher sipper..."drive by style".... only my guide/friend/sansai/trout coon dog, and Catskill trout master...Johnny"Miller Time" Miller can figure out...he has finally figured out how to crack these big selective/reflective sippers feed...incredible habituation behaviour is taking place here on these extremelly "hammered to death" fish...since this river was the only fishable place on the east coast!...except for spring creeks.)

 On the way back, I got to stop by my childhood wild trout classroom...the Wiscoy Creek in the

 southern tier Allegheny mountains. I fished here last 31 years ago when I lived in Niagara Falls and it is here I learned of the selective cunning nature of its exclusive wild brown trout.

( Wiscoy terrestrials..."da box")

( I love bohvines...if you talk to them like puppys they follow you all day...my pals!)

( New York does an amazing job of public access and wild trout management)

 It is a cow pasture spring creek/freestoner that runs through Wyoming County- "little Switzerland' of western New York. The water levels in all the New York streams were very low due to the drought but things gave changed with the rains.

( Pota mayfly shuck)

( Peter walking the Wiscoy Crekk Falls...we stayed at the Wiscoy Creek Lodge...a spectacular log cabin...go to their web site...big thumbs up!!!!!!... a true forest setting an hour and half south of Buffalo)

AND NOW!....after many prayers answered the rains have come and my pursuit of summer steelhead  with my clients from all over the nation could not have come at a better time. The "Skamania Alley' of Michigan/Indiana got anywhere between 2-4 inches of rain with the storms depending on location....the mother load of summer runs are yet to come!.

The St. Joseph remains too warm for fish yet but will change. I'm concentrating on smaller spring creeks and some private new water I've obtained. Those creeks are icy and have good flows now.
Muskegon Report. It got really brutal in early July- so did all the blue ribbon wild trout waters of Michigan's PM/Au Sable where water temps hit 70's...that's all changing.
The Muskegon bubbler only had so much cooler water and the cooler nights and lower daytime temps will gradually get things back to normal...if normal exists anymore! The trout are concentrated in the deeper pools andfast shallow riffles due to the river hitting a brutal low and hot 797 cfs...now 1,090 after it hit 1800 cfs after the storms. They are sipping #26 olive rusty spinners in the mornings and evenings and the tiny green caddis is starting up. The rocks are covered with cinnamon and green caddis larvae/pupae and the rest of the summer thru October should see massive caddis hatches. Their has been no trout die offs noticed and the trout that are caught are still fat and healthy despite the heat from the caddis pupae...please exercise extreme caution when fishing till temperatures cool further!!!
 Heard reports of summer king salmon coming in Litle and Big Man and PM Lake.
 I think we are over the heat hump and more storms and showers are predicted even though temps will climb again... the rain buffer is the key!....Cheers!

( high water Skamie box...some of Greg Senyo's masta egg eating minnows...and more master Senyo creations...a monument will be built to this Great Lakes steelhead flyt tyer....all of us are humbled next to him!...no blowing smoke!)

STILL HAVE SOME OPEN DATES FOR SUMMER SKAMANIA STEELHEAD AND THE "SUMMER TROUT EVENING SIPPER SPECIALS" THAT WILL LAST TILL OCTOBER!....SEE YOU ON THE RIVER!

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Posted in: gray drake , Greg Senyo , Indiana Skamania , muskegon river , Neversink , New York wild trout , skamania steelhead , summer steelhead , terrestrial insects , trout and eagle , WEST BRANCH DELAWARE , Wiscoy Creek