Fishing Report

July 26, 2005

Hi All

There is so much to catch up on with my report this might be a long one. I wrote a report a couple of nights ago that ended up in cyber space. There went 4 hour for nothing. Needless to say, I was slightly upset and that wasn’t the first time that has happened to me. Now I’m back in the saddle ready for the next big fall maybe I’ll avoid getting kicked in the head this time.

The river is on it’s way up for the first time this summer. My rain gage had 1.5" on Sunday morning and this morning it had 2.6"... we needed it. Right now the river is coffee stained and only a couple inches from the bottom of my cement pad and around 8" from the top of it's banks. There have been a few good wind storms with lots of trees blown down. From what I’ve heard on the news stations, around the Bowman bridge area there was 130 mph winds est.. 4 miles of damage some are calling it a tornado some are calling it a wind sher. Anyone floating might want to check before going out.

The fishing has been good to fair. Friend's and customers Bill and Marla were out over this last weekend. Marla picked up a 7 lb. summer run steelie and both of them caught a few other smaller Trout. Other people I have talked to have been picking up a few large Trout at night on Stimulators, Mice and Hex’s. During the day Terrestrials like Chernobyl Ants & Hoppers with a Nymph dropper rigs are getting some nice fish, also just strait nymphing rigs with or without a strike indicator will do the trick. There have been some sightings of Salmon and summer run Steelhead still coming in on a few rivers.

My wife Debi and I went on vacation last month down to the Smokey Mountains. We started our vacation going to King’s Island Amusement Park for a day. Then we drove the rest of the way into Tennessee. There we fished for Striped Bass and Trout. We meet Jay Clementi, a Orvis Endorced guide from the Nashville area. Jay is not only a guide he is also working in Nashville Tenn. as a singer song writer. He gave us a CD of some his work before we left. He is really quite good. The next morning Jay was there to take us fishing at 5 a.m. and we were ready for a day on the river with someone else doing the work for a change. Jay took us to a tail water river that fed the Cumberland River. We started off with a 8 wt. rod, large arbor reel with a depth charge line with a chartreuse clouser tied to the end of the line. We worked deep slower water with lots of structure for the Stripers. After casting and stripping that streamer rig around for a while it was a nice change to go to a 4 wt. with a nymphing rig (something I’m a little more familiar with casting and much lighter). I wound up catching a couple good size Stripers a 6.5 lb and a 9 lb.(small for Stripers they reach 50lb +). We also caught over a dozen Trout, Browns and Rainbows. The largest Trout that day was a 15” Rainbow.

The second day we met Jay for a day at a private ranch with a trout creek. The ranch is just in the beginning stages of renovation. Jay mentioned we were the first customers to visit the ranch. They have some beautiful plans for the ranch. Not only are they providing great fishing opportunities but offer hunts as well for Deer, Turkey, Quail, Pheasant. After talking fishing and eating lunch with the owners I can’t wait to come back after they get this place off the ground. The creek was smaller but loaded with fish. There were more bait fish than I’ve ever seen on a stream in one place. The Trout were just stocked a few months ago at 13" and some are already in the 18"-20" range. Stream improvements along with a few feeders helped speed up the process. This creek is almost all spring fed. and is a well known Trout stream with large Trout. Its nice to see a state that lets the property owners help the stream without all the red tape. We caught well over a dozen Trout, the largest still around 15".

After leaving the ranch we stopped by a private Trout pond and caught some larger fish. Now up to this point, my wife Debi, was a real good sport even with the 5 a.m. start the day before and the 90 degree + temperatures. So we set a time limit for the pond fishing. Of course that was violated and then it was the oldest trick in the book... just 3 more casts honey!! (like a big kid). I caught a 8 lb. Rainbow, a 5 lb. Brown, a 3 lb. Brookie, and a 3 lb Atlantic Salmon all in about a half hour. This isn’t like real fishing but it was fun to do once. I would really like to spend some time on some Trout lakes up in the Rockies or the U.P of Michigan that sounds like fun too!

The rest of the trip was spent in Gatlinburg Tenn. We checked out some caves and some water falls. We are already planning a trip back there for next year. That trip will include our son Adam. There were so many things for us to do there as a family.

As soon as I came back to the lodge Hex’s were in full swing along with trips set up for the next week or two. We caught a few nice fish nothing broke the 20" mark this year . A lot of guys that generally catch a fish or two over 20" on a hex failed to do so this year. Of course there are people out there that did but it wasn’t the guy’s that do it year after year. It just seamed a little tougher to get the big boys this year.

The last week or so I have been able to spend some time out in Lake Michigan with Sean McDonald and friends catching some Kings Salmon, Lake Trout and a few Steelhead. We saw some great sunsets and caught a lot of fish. I have been eating a bunch of grilled Salmon & Trout. Along with some great smoked fish from John Matson at the M-37 Meat Shack doing the smoking. Sean was in the Gander Mountain Classic fishing tournament this past weekend in Ludington and had first place in his hands(One fish away). He had a great time and won a few bucks. Thanks Sean and congratulations on second place. Good luck at the one in Manistee this weekend.

MDOT is doing the banks on M-37 this week along with fixing up the storm drain off M-37 . They are also paving my approaches as well. There are also plans to pave the M-37 access as well. This is all in order to help stop erosion on the banks and help to keep sand out of the river. All I can say is don’t stop there we need to cheer them on all the way down the river system! We have couple access sites that need to be put in and several sites that need to be rebuilt before the peak season hits. In less than a month the SALMON will be here and so will need for these sites to be in good or great condition. What is the Huron Manistee National Forest Service doing on their sites?? I haven’t heard a word out of them in a while on river issues or projects they need to take on. They have been stomping out a lot of fires this summer that’s for sure. They needed this rain more than anyone.

The Cast For Conservation winner this year was a customer that has been staying with us for the past few years, Dick Walle and his fishing partner Jerry Rucker with their guide John Fryer. This fishing team has won the last 3 out of 4 years. They have a good system and a great time, it works for them. The neat thing is, it doesn't seem to matter which guide they get or which stretch of river they pull out of the hat. The CFC is the #1 fund raiser for the Pere Marquette Watershed Council this year they had 16 teams participate.

This weekend is the Trout-A-Rama here in Baldwin. This is one of the best weekends for family fun. My wife and son were up here for the festival last year, they had a great time. It was the first Trout-A-Rama for them. My son isn’t going to be up here this year. He is spending the summer with his Grandma in Missouri. He calls Mom And Dad a few times a day to check on his Dog “Bear”. A Christmas Puppy Black Lab which I’m training this summer almost daily on land & water retrieves. I have also been put in charge of taking care of my sons Bearded Dragon “Spike” whom eats 6-10 crickets a day from BBT along with a few meal worms. Spike is a very cool lizard and Mom is taking care of Bob the Ball Python.

Well I hope I didn’t bore you all to tears.
Keep our lands & water clean
Tightlines
Clint

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