International Waters

Our northern boundary limit of Michigan is the International bridge, which spans the St. Maries river.



Directly beneath it is the area refered to as "The Rapids" a short [over one mile] river section draining Lake Superior into Lake Huron.. subject to Ontario's rule. Mid June through fall there are landlocked Atlantics present that can achieve mid to upper teens with an average of 4 - 8 lb fish. Also big resident Rainbows year round and Pacific Salmon throughout late summer & fall. Lake Run Rainbows [Steelhead] early winter through June.. even an occasional Lake Trout. Very inimidating place to fish.. Extreme tough wading and winds.

Not long after arriving home from New Brunswick I got an email from a friend in Suttons Bay planning a run-n-gun trip. In short, we spent 1.5 days on the Sault Rapids. Went very well, certainly no complaints. Eric, another fishbum like us, took a gorgeous 5 - 6 lb Rainbow in the early evening first afternoon in. I'm still not sure whether it's a resident fish [it is after one fashion or another] or one that simply never returned to the depths of Huron after spawning this spring, but if so she was fat healthy and sassy already. She shows a lot of specs even below the lateral line making me wonder. Odd thing is that I took a nice bright 2+ lb'r from same pool.. fact that they were holding there together adds to the specualtion.



I hooked a nice 7 -8 lb Atlantic first thing Fri a.m. which jumped high on the set then tore up the pool. We were connected for good amount of time, it ripped back down stream surging and head shaking coming unbuttoned. Good enough for me. Eric Was hooked up briefly to a nice Atlantic that tangled him in flyline when it came loose, tension has got to be unreal in that heavy water with a hard charging fish on. He had another [big one] charge up and slash at his fly in the surface film just a couple minutes later. After the a.m. things died.. tough going in clear sunny conditions.

The wind can be pretty brutal there, keeps a guy constantly searching for some cast that might go out. Theres some downright scary wading to be done and can be seriously intimidating at times. Eric is quite an aggressive wader, also subtly less height & weight than me so not as many worries stumbling along behind him [John is 6'5"!] He's also very physically fit just retiring from Iron Man and similar type racing this year and is normally ahead of me. Some areas the depth is well over your wader height [soft flows] but you can carefully pick your way along by stepping on tops of the big boulders. One slip though.. There are others where courage can put you out and on top of a boulder that may or may not be submerged for a great to tentative casting station dependant on the rock & angle, level of traction, and amount of current pouring over it. A slip from a couple of these spots would have meant BIGTIME problems.. not so much with having to swim the pool but more with significant rapids below. I was elated to fish 1.5 days and get out of there still dry. Staff & my carbide snowmobile studded soles were the only things that allowed that level of risk. I would not do it in cold water without a C 02 inflatable PFD, if at all.



For some context, the small red circle to the left on concrete berm is a man. Red circle in the center is a boulder I sat upon between fishing runs either side. It's a long perilous wade back from there! [click to upsize pic]