Preparing for Michigan Steel

Going to make the long drive out to Michigan for steelhead in November for a week.  Flew out last year for a couple of days and had a great trip so I'm heading back again this year except this time by car.  I hope to hit the Salmon or Catt in NY on the way depending on the conditions.  Would be a shame to pass those places without making a few casts if they are looking good.  Will fish the Muskegon again and spend some time on the PM too which I've never fished.

I cleaned up the bench and put away the random saltwater and bass/pike fly tying stuff that was scattered about.  I do still owe a few people some saltwater flies that I'll have to get to soon.  I did an inventory of my steelhead materials and made a list of stuff I can't live without.  Will have to make a trip to the shop to stock up.  I'm sure I have enough flies to get me through much more than a week of fishing but I can never have too many flies.  Going to give a few more traditional spey patterns a swing this year.  Last year the hot flies were variations of the aquatic nuisance.  Got to have more of them ready to go.

I need to swap over some lines and go through all the connections and make sure I have the right sink tips while trying to resist the urge to buy a new rod/reel, line, etc.  Seems like a lot to do in 2 weeks but will be just part of the fun of going on a trip.

Where did the summer go?

I slacked on updating the blog this summer.  It sure was a busy one and I ended up spending a lot of time with the family mostly camping, hiking, fishing and just playing around home.  I took a few fish pictures here and there but nothing all that exceptional.

I did more bass fishing than I have in quite a few summers.  They always seem to cooperate and come out to play when I have the time.  Went after the largemouths with deerhair poppers and chased smallmouth on the rivers.  The hot, dry summer seemed to be to their liking.  Had a close encounter with a very large smallmouth on a gurgler just five minutes from home.  In between catching little guys, a pig took the fly, dove downward taking line then came back up and exploded on the surface.  The hook pulled free once the fish splashed down.  Hard saying how big the fish was.  Just as well I didn't land it so in my mind it can be as big as I want.  I'll remember this fish as well as any this year.

The striper fishing was better than the last few years but it was hard to gauge how much better.  Fishing from shore was a struggle and after the early season just catching a couple fish seemed like a good day.  The average size of the fish was amazing although I didn't land any exceptional ones.  The lack of smaller fish was concerning.  Local anglers continue to argue about the state of the fishery but I'm betting on some dark times to come.  I kept going back to some of my favorite spots just to prove to myself that fish were still there but most of the time I was proven wrong.  I mostly attribute the better fishing this summer to the improved weather.

I didn't do much trout fishing.  The water got awfully warm and low and I wasn't able to travel to some of the areas that were less affected by the weather.  I did see someone close to home catch a legitimate 20"+ brown last night while walking along the river.  I'll be checking this spot out a little more until winter comes.

After having so much fun pike fishing this spring I wasn't sure I was going to get the chance to fish some more this year.  Lately we have been hit with the remnants of hurricanes frequently making the ocean dangerous to fish so Coops and I decided to spend a weekend chasing the pike around.  Even better I got to try out some pike flies I tied early summer that I thought would be sitting in a box unused until spring.  They fished beautifully.  We had to work for the pike but Coops ended up catching the best specimen of the season for us.

The bass fishing was pretty good too and provided some nice action both for some fattie large and smallmouths.

I'm not done for fishing for the year but have to say good bye to summer and hello to my favorite fishing season the fall.

Stripers

Stripers seem to be transitioning over into their summer patterns in the area. Water temps are up and we have had a couple of weeks of hot, humid weather. I haven't made any terribly long excursions into the salt lately but have been sneaking out for a couple hours here and there. I was still catching fish every time out until last night where I pulled a skunk for the first time since the first day of the season for me. It was still a beautiful evening to be out.

I still haven't seen any great action outside around the structure but reports have been coming of people finding some fish out there and offshore too. I've mostly stuck to the beaches close to the rivers and estuaries. One night last week I saw some pretty good surface activity as it got dark. Normally I don't see much sustained surface feeding this time of year so it was encouraging. There is still lots of small bait including herring and sand eels around. A couple of times last night the terns were in a frenzy picking off the small bait trapped against a sandbar or shoreline. I didn't see a single fish though in all the activity.

Lately the most consistent fly I've been using is this size 2 guitar minnow which I have a lot of confidence in for matching the small bait we have around right now. Initially it might just look like a half & half clouser minnow but there has been a lot of fine tuning and tweaking of the pattern to improve it. I'll go to this fly over any normal 1/2 and 1/2 and sometimes those little subtle differences make all the difference.