Road Trip! 70's and sipp'n trout 2/13-2/16

perfect eastern brown 

 beautiful stretch with baetis eating fish

Greg with a WOW! rainbow

Just got back from a breath of fresh air.  Greg and I went down to TN to mix some business with pleasure. We had a couple great afternoons on the S. Holston River near Bristol TN.  If you have never fished this river make a point to.  The fish get hatches year-round and when there is an emergence you can be sure they will be sipp'n them.  We ran into both baetis(size 18-20) and gray midges(size 20-22).  When the fish weren't eating them on the surface the were subsurface.  Fished an A.B. Blacktail baetis and A.B. gray midge pupa to catch them subsurface.  It was so nice to be there when there was a shot of warm weather.   The fishing was made that much better by the warm sun hitting the river as we fished.  Didn't catch any monsters but a lot of solid,  beautiful  wild browns, and colored rainbows

                                                  

                                                                 golden hues on a warm sunny day

Muskegon River Trout - Feb. 2

hand painted winter trout

Well, at this point I feel my blogs on the Mo.  are starting to sound redundant, but I've yet to get sick of good days on the water.  The winter fishing is just about as good and predictable as an angler could hope.  It is not without its challenges but all in all it is usually, and has been lately, very good.  As I've mentioned before, finding the fish is the most difficult part of winter fishing but once you've become familiar with a couple spots you've got it made.  Part of finding the fish is also a positive outlook that at any time you are going to hit the mother load.  You can spend an hour or two combing a likely area and start fishing sloppy just when you've waded up to a killer spot and never know it because your drift stinks right when you need it most... But alas! This blog is different.

17" jack steelie caught on #18 mo. scud

I fished down from Pine and caught a 17" steelie along with about 31 trout.  All the fish came on a Muskegon scud and the steelie ate a size 18!  The fish were in typical winter lies but also in a few peculiar areas.  About 10 or so of the fish came out of 1-1.5 ft water.  I thought I would just make a couple casts to the shallows and was shocked at how many fish were feeding there.  The water was shallow and slow right off of a couple gravel bars.  Water just dark enough to make to fish comfortable.  It was a spot I just thought I would try and it was a nice surprise.  Caught more rainbows than browns.

Muskegon River- Jan 21,22,23

Sasquatch spotted entering woods

I had already planned to fish with my good friend and old roommate "Beaver", so when I read the forecast for the weekend I just sighed.  The weather predicted daytime highs that would not even break the 20 degree mark but he was coming and we were determined to get some fishing in. Mark has done a couple tours over in Iraq so we were due some catching up and guy time.  On friday he was supposed to get in around noon but was delayed so I decided to hit the river for a bit until he got in.  Fished down at 72nd and did pretty good considering the cold.  It gave me hope for the weekend.  Saturday and Sunday were no better for weather but we were dressed well and neither of us

"white noise" we love on the river

got cold enough to call it early.  Saturday we hit the San Juan area and the fishing was quite good.  Mark was working out the kinks since he hadn't fished for a while, but managed a few fish.  The weather changed about every hour and it was beautiful on the river.  On sunday I got up, made a pot of joe and walked outside to look at the air temperature.  The thermometer read well below 0 degrees.  I later saw the high for the day was about 12.  The wind was calm for most of the day and    

hold-overs do exist

again the fishing was good.  We ended up with around 20 fish brought to the net.  I was real surprised at our success just from the temp. standpoint.  I never took a water temp. but it couldn't have been much higher than 33.  It always amazes me how good winter trout can be.  Being out in the elements all day under such harsh conditions gives yo a great feeling when you get back home and remember the day.  It makes you feel like you've really done something.