7/12/2011- Muskegon river trout

With water temps starting to rise we started nymphing in the faster stretches of the the upper river.  Fish fed well all afternoon providing consistent action.  No real monsters were landed(although John"had" one on) but fish were lively and several holdovers were caught.  Best nymphs for the day were sow bugs, scuds, and various hare's ear like patterns(including Gavin's hot spot nymph).  Had a sporadic hatch of caddis late in the evening which brought a few fish caught on dries to the boat finishing out the day nicely.

Past Few Weeks - June 20-July 6

trico caught brown

Raleigh with a nice hold-over caught on a dry

Well, I have been a bit off on my blogging.  It isn't that I haven't been fishing or that it hasn't been good at times.  Fishing for the past few weeks has actually been pretty steady.  Cinn. caddis continue to emerge daily and the fish have been responding well on the days when emergences are strong enough to get some interest.  Spending most of the non-hatch time fishing nymphs in fast water areas; best producers have been pheasant tails, scuds, sows, and cinn. caddis pupa.  One very interesting phenomena occurring as well has been the daily influx of spiny fleas coming out of the dam.  Fish feeding on them become very selective.  I have not found a suitable pattern to imitate them as of yet but am not giving up.  I plan on doing a little subsurface exploration today in an attempt to figure it out.  Baetis(size 20,22) have been emerging late afternoon and trout have been taken on rusty spinners in the late afternoon/evening.  Trico's(size 20,22) have also started their appearance on the river and fish are now eating them.  The river is down right beautiful right now and it is a great time to get out.

Mighty MO rainbow

Rob w/ a fat brownie that sipped a caddis