5/24/11 Muskegon River Trout

  

Fishing was excellent today and the guys I was with a pleasure to serve.  Both Gavin and John, old friends, are excellent fly-fishermen and really enjoy their time on the river together. Those two ingredients made for an enjoyable fish-filled day.  The Muskegon has really been flexing its muscles lately, showing what it has up its sleeve....a lot of big fish!  We nymph fished in the areas that were active with spawning suckers and had  our eyes opened to the quality of fish that lurk in its mysterious depths.    

5/19,21,22 Muskegon River Trout

Spent three days with two fun guys, Mike and Steve.  Both are good anglers and were willing to adapt to whatever means were necessary to get into fish.  We fished it all streamers, nymphs, and dries.  Catching fish on all three techniques.  Nymph fishing accounted for the majority of the fish caught and they were able to get a good number of hold-overs in the boat.  Caddis are beginning to show up quite regularly in the afternoon and fish are starting to respond to them.  Green caddis(#18) are the predominate species that is hatching.  Always remember that on a good caddis fishery like the MO fish will feed on the emerging pupae most regular.  Carry both floating pupae and unweighted pupae.  Also, don't be shy in giving your pupae patterns some movement slightly before it reaches a targeted fish.  Caddis are very active emergers, you have to imitate the fly as well as its movement to consistently catch caddis eating fish; especially the bigger ones.

5/8/11 - Fishing on Mother's Day

Fishing on Mother's Day is usually taboo but today we broke the rules.  Of course it's okay if you bring mama(in this case "hot") along for the afternoon.  We spent a couple hours late this afternoon at Heather's request chasing down steelhead.  She hasn't had a chance to land one this season so we got out and wrangled a few to the boat.  The day was superb as the skies were blue, the water clearing, and the river in general starting to look like itself again.  A day to be grateful to the Creator, thankful for family and the women that bind us together.

4/22/11 - Muskegon River

Chris and David joined me for a tough yet rewarding day on the MO. Weather was good until after lunch but they were able to capitalize on some nice fish before the winds and rain came. Hats off to a couple of guys that made the most out of a challenging day.

4/21/11 - Muskegon River

The plan for the day was to investigate a few new areas for steelhead.  What we didn't expect was to have a run in with a hefty brown.  Fishing below a steelhead spawning area Trevor was in for a surprise.  He had been fishing a leech pattern tied by his big brother and was met on the swing by a big tug.  A couple jumps later, a few dances around the boat, and an adrenaline shot, we netted this fine fish.  Measured 26" and weighed 4.5 lbs.  Wow!  It took a couple hours for Trevor to come down from that one.  We caught some steelies as well but they were peasants among this king.

4/15/11 - Muskegon River Steelhead

Brian w/ a reel scalding buck!

Not quite what you would call the ideal day to catch your first steelhead, but Brian Pulled it off. With the wind blowing as hard as it was it made it very difficult to detect strikes and we had many that got noticed just a bit too late. After lunch we regrouped and Brian, undaunted by the gale forces, was able to push thru and land two very nice steelies. As we pulled up anchor for the day he still had a bit of an adrenaline buzz. Perfect ending.

look what the wind blew in

4/14/11 - Muskegon River Steelhead

Good times!

Trevor, this guy just makes you smile(nice fish too)

Fishing with friends, both new and old, is one of the best things about fly-fishing.  If not the most.  Spent the day probing some water on the Muskegon that I haven't fished for a while with good friend Trevor and new friend Tom.  We covered a lot of water, caught a few fish, and had a great time.  We did hit a few known good spots and got into some nice fish but didn't find any new secret spots.  Still waiting for a water temperature spike to move in some more fish.