In the breakers..

A week later and another monday fishing opp. The weather is right to give the beach a try. Storms have proven themselves to me as a good time to be there.

Some crazy breakers rolling in but it isn't long before I see some green shadows sharking by. Nothing like a visual to boost your confidence. Occasionally conditions would shift slightly, bigger waves or showers pelting the surface racing in towards me off the horizon, and at times both together. This would bring a pod or two of fish in everytime, riding in on a bruiser wave followed by confusion of the shallows. Even though I was never touched by a fish it was such a great time.. my state of mind is completely refreshed. I wish now I'd concentrated on getting a decent shot first instead of attempting to hookup. Once in particular, a pod of eleven fish almost collided with me. When I turned quick during the retrieve it spooked them and they sheared off towards open water throwing some acceleration spray, darting and diving. There was one, an oversized hen Chinook of solid light rust color that lifted her head and shoulders from the surface for an instant making eye contact with me at no more than six feet.. It was what I call a 'moment' ..something totally undefined.. but still very real and tangible.

Things were getting even more extreme, an occasional big one would slam hard enough to drive you back a step or two.. enough for today. Stopping on some lower river pools found them stacked with freshies, much as I'd mentally predicted. Coho were rolling and porpoising as I walked down. Best time to attempt a dry I've had yet. Stalking the gin clear bend I crouched down in the sparse grass cover and tied on a small Bomber. Working out a cast I touched it down at the head of the pool just above some holding there and immediately began a slow strip. This excited them in a big way and over the course of the next few casts several fish moved to the fly chasing and boiling on it, but no takers. I re-tied with a quite small Comet and swung it in front of them executing short smooth strips a few times with absloutley no interest shown. By then it was starting to get dark. Not connecting with a fish didn't bother me in the least.. I'd gotten what I came for out in the lake earlier.




A small pod I saw coming while walking in and crouched down for a shot.








Stalked an outside bend for shot.

The amount of rain has been pretty substantial lately. I took a wet afternoon on 09-19 to scout / fish some local water. I've played on this section my entire life chasing trout, deer, grouse, girls and following big game hounds or beagles up & down both banks. This is some pretty remote area in comparison to other sections of same river. Finding your way in to a specific pool or run on foot can be quite a task.. and if you stay well into dark fishing the spinner fall getting out can become a real adventure. 'bushwhacking' is how we call it.. not many care for it's flavor. Thankfully.



Anyway, I was amazed at the amount of fruits and feed in evidence! High bush cranberries, crab apples, thorn apples, wild grapes and dog wood berries all in abundance. Sure enough before long I jumped out a nice adult bird drinking from a small rivulet created by a fresh beaver dam. Later in the day three more went out as I worked downstream casting a run. Promising..

Fishing started off quite slow until it started to rain again. This kicked off a nice emergence of mayflies, some epherons and approx #16 mahoganys. This really jump started the trout and I took a couple smaller ones. Finally I made the target pool and made a good call reading the water, fishing an inside slack seam with depth. The fishpounced on my streamer pretty hard and pulled strong. Once he broke surface I thought it looked a bit different and sure enough it was a nice Brook trout, one of the better ones I've taken in quite a while. That reel is 3 3/4" diameter and I guessed length at 13.5 - 14" ..full bright spawning colors, very pleasing.





The pool spills nice into a long boulder broken run that looked decent so down it I went.. early in I had a smashing grab but came up empty. Midway down I got picked off and landed a decent Brown to finish out a well spent afternoon.

Email Ghosts

I tend to run a lot of searches. My email accounts, various forum boards, Ebay, Google.. the list goes on. It can be quite interesting what turns up unexpected.. much like cleaning my room as a child, I'm easily sidetracked [big smiles]

I'm going to go ahead and post a couple.. I hope you enjoy them too. First up is an excerpt from good fishing friend John H from 05-16-2009, fishing the Upper Manistee River.

Pic of John during some night time mousin.





"I came up last night and stopped on the upper. At first, I thought I was going to hosed with the weather. Light rain fell for a minute or two. Luckily, the weather cooperated and I started to see some bugs. I guess there were black quills, the larger mayfly sipiloplection basilae (which is a about the size of brown drake), hennys , mahagonny's and bwo's. Time was going by and no fish were feeding. Finally, one nice rise. It was just below the *****, below the log pile and in front of a small sticker. I'm sure you know exactly where I'm talking about. Anyway, the fish fed two more times and wasn't interested in my henny comparadun. I tied on a henny spinner and after a handful of casts, wham! Game on.

I should first say I was using a 4wt with 4x suppleflex with my sage reel which has turned out to be my go to reel now. I love it. The fish immediately took off and found the main seam and started up river like it was chrome. I thought to myself this might be interesting. Then the fish stopped, shook it's head several times and stayed planted mid river. I thought this could be easy and maybe the fish is a healthy 18". Well, just as I started put a little muscle in it, the fish responded with a long run downstream with me following. I was literally running mid seam in high water after this sucker without regard for all the shit on the bottom and the water being up and that section is loaded with a lot debris and troughs. The fish made it into the shoot briefly and for some unknown reason came back up stream. Finally! I thought wrong. The fish promptly wrapped itself around some major wood and there I was thinking to myself this can't be happening. At this point I knew this special fish and really wanted to land it. I could feel the fish still on, but in the back of my head I was thinking I was fighting a log and the fish pulled a drive-by and lost the hook. I worked as delicately as possible to get the fish free, but figured I was hosed. Then, after a minute of so and just seconds before breaking it off, it freed itself and shot downstream into the shoot with me high-stepping all the way. I figured I was going to get wet...thankfully I'm tall 'casue I had about an 1" to spare. The minute or so the fish was tangled gave it time to re-energize and I didn't think was going to be able to land it. At this point, my hand was getting pretty sore. The Winston doesn't provide much leverage especially with reel with no drag and fighting a large fish in a pretty respectable flow.

I finally managed to get the fish to shore and net it. It didn't fit into my net! It twice jumped out with me both times catching it mid air. After all that, I laid it on the shore and admired my catch. I though I was going to be longer...it was 23"... but I have never caught a fish as heavy. That was the thickest river brown I've ever seen let alone caught. Unfortunately, my camera was in my truck that was less than 100 yds which I was looking directly at with utter contempt. Oh well. No pic can replicate the fun that was had. Once I got the fish on shore, I quickly got the hook out and put him back in the water. I revived the fish for 2-3 minutes as I knew it was really tired. I wish I could have brought it in quicker, but that wasn't going to happen with him wrapping up in the wood. It swam away with lots of energy and I feel confident it's going to be fine.

Three more fish were rising, two dandies and one nice one. I went to the biggest fish and he wouldn't come up. The smaller fish, just up was making some noise, so I cast to it and wham. That was a quick battle and a nice 18" or so was in the bag. I went up to the last fish rising and got two really late refusals. If I'm right, the last fish is bigger than the 23" I caught. Right where the shoot starts, there is a birch clump and beaver work river right. In that stuff is a dandy. I've never been able to get it, but not for a lack of trying.

The light got low and the fish shut down. Just one of the those nights that keeps me coming back and makes me take those am trips back home."

j

A 'Dry' week..

This summers time on the Miramichi was a bit different from past seasons. The river had recieved an incredible run of fish earlier but was now falling off hard, much like the water levels. Fish were around though, just a bit 'finicky'. Within the first couple days it was evident the fish had enormous preference for the Bomber.

Erl R came up from Maine with Mike, a great guy and experienced fisherman. He fished hard the entire first day with small bugs and wets.. with never a pull. Being a quick study he wanted to give the Bomber a try. Late morning he recieved his first rise and hooked it. The fish was played for what seemed to me a considerable amount of time on a Sage Xi2 8wt by a guy with A LOT of salt water fish fighting experience. Midway in I heard someone say that it was running hard up stream. I knew right then that it was likley a BIG fish. Eventually they subdued the beast and according to length conversion [43.5 inch] it would make 23.5 lbs easily. It was as big a fish as I've seen landed on the pool since I've been spending time on it. [pic to be edited in later]

He had a fantastic friday eve with two very nice Salmon on Bombers from up high on the south bank. One was a sweet kyped Cockfish that was full of attitude.. a very nice fish.



































Charles and Frankey Storey with a nice heavy Salmon.



















Had my best fish minutes of noon on a bright ~ slow a.m. Was fishing Charles 1107 BIIx on a long line down through and into slack softish lower water. I had a boil on the fly WAY down as I began stripping in which was repeated on next swing just as stripping began. Two cast right through same lie produced nothing on a straight swing.. Still standing in same tracks next cast came in the zone and I put some life in it with smooth even strips and WHAM solid assertive take. They seemed to want some sort of animation to the presentation. I took a couple grilse and moved other fish by casting straight out around submerged rocks and smooth short stripping a bug while working down at a brisk pace.



















Bright one on the Bomber. [Dickie Storey & I]



















Other high lights; Finding the Curtis fly shop downtown Blackville, a very nice place. Only a short hop downstream from our Blissfield camp.


Meeting Jerry Doaks Son Mathew, a very pleasant positive change of shop atmosphere.

The time was gone in a surreal haze..

Trout time..

My fishing so far has been tough! Had a grande fish to cast over a few nights ago. He was in a very tough slackwater lie tight to the bank under a bush. When my cast shot in and momentarily entangled the bush, then dropped to the surface like a dandelion seed drifting perfectly over him [with me holding my breath] and no take, I thought I might not get this fish which dissapointingly proved true. He was a good one.

Finally got into my first decent trout last eve, which started off tough because the repellant was forgotten. Not good. I had killed five to six mosqitos with one light swat many times when the no-seeums made the scene. I can't take those and was considering leaving when I thought I heard an oar clunk. 10 minutes later a guide I know from Traverse City rounded the bend and saved my evening. His client had taken a 24" Brown on the strip earlier.. quite a feat anytime let alone in the bright sun conditions. Fish were tough, random rises, and I'm pretty sure weren't taking from the surface. Cast sparingly over a nice trout for close to an hour that was head and tailing only 25' quartering upstream. As time went by the water became blanketed with smallish rusty spinners [Sulphers, I assume] Earlier I had a #12 biot spinner tied on as there were some big Quill Gordons in the air. Changed to a #16 and was losing faith in it when he finally rose on it. I was taken by surprise and swung on him like you were setting on a Muskie boatside! I waited a bit while cursing myself for such a rookie reaction.. he never rose again. I eased downstream as it was getting dark and lucked into a pod of fish working the spinners. One was right under the leading edge of a half submerged sweeper. Using the old shoot the cast in deep then draw it out to the line you need he was on with third shot. This rod is new to me, an 8' 2wt Redington DFR 3pc breaking my postal scales at a whopping 2 ounce flat. Very nice quick little rod, feels powerfull with fast reaction but bends nice with a fish on. The fish turned out to be smaller than I thought he might be but I was still well pleased.. lucky to even land him with all the wood he was in and tore around initially. When he moved out from that he went upstream hard tearing line off ..very cool.. but a mistake on his part, he was landed soon after. Picture of health, a good solid well fed fish of 15" - 16"

The good folks at our secretary of state had bungled my mail in licence plate renewal. I'd been waiting for tabs to arrive for weeks. Finally an envelope from them which stated [in a hand written perturbed script] I'd given them the wrong card info.. which was 100% matched / accurate. They didn't bother to return my only proof of insurance. Oh well, i'd be driving 1/2 way to a good fishing stretch to reach a branch office.

Tied a nice black sculpin with an orange throat and gold flash for the occasion. New to me System 8 reel and a 5wt Wulff Ambush line I'd traded a forum board member for over winter.. Wired the reel on my light 10' 6wt [3.4 ounce] Scott STS and left.




This section is what I consider 'early' so was not very optimistic for Steel but often there are some good Browns waking up and willing to play. Midway into the morning I feel the familier pickup and lift into good solid weight. The reel sang loudly on a hard run downstream.. no Brown trout here. Getting on the bank and changing my angle convinced it to run back upstream. Two jumps and a little short line work brought it bankside.




My luck held with the branch office stop on the way home, first good luck I've had there in a long time.

A breath of fresh air

Winter has not been kind this season.. Granted, there were a few days around the holiday week that were pretty nice.. but with my only sister [from Spokane] and only niece [Seattle] back on the home farm for a few days I passed on the fishing. Normally we recieve some sort of thaw in January but New Years day was the end of anything even resembling one. I should have, and even could have, went early on new January 1 but it was real easy to convince myself staying home might be a better option. It was a mistake.. Peeking at the flow charts later glared in my face just how much.. conditions appeared to be perfect. This little trib has fished best in December by far over the many years I've been on it. Oh well.. opportunities missed.

The next fishable day was Feb 05 and off I went with high expectations. There were no tracks in evidence on the old road.. a good sign.




I access the river from a remote county road service pull out and snowshoe in. I'd actually gotten over 3 miles from home and remembered I hadn't put in the shoes. Almost went on without them.. that would have been a BIG mistake. Most efficient few minutes I spent all day was returning to get them. The water was quite low with big wind blown drifts and plenty of shelf ice along the banks. Fishing went fairly well until the banks began caving in and icebergs started flowing thickly. The first few times a crack or crash rang out I jumped pretty good, they come out of nowhere amidst otherwise total silence. Fished hard over about 5 hours, took a nice 19+" resident Brown not to far in then nothing for a long time.




Last run, and one of the best, I had a good grab in the gut and some light little nips /nibbles down in the tail.. just the sort that reverberated rainbow up the line, through the blank, and into your hand. No go though.. I changed flies and went back to the head of the gut where the good grab came with no further interest. On the long walk out in the dusk I reflected on how lucky I was to encounter the Brown.

Feb 23 is the next good chance for fishing. While it's still cold outside I tie a grey skulpin streamer. I'm somewhat superstitious and fresh tied flies seem to possess good charm. Go over some tackle and I'm off. What a grand day, it's got a totally different feel to it than a couple weeks ago had. Second pool I fish reveals a startling phenonema I've never witnessed to this degree before. The banks / shelf ice had all settled and with bright sunlight thawed snow creating perfect rows of miniture ice sickles, each one an exact replication of it's left and right hand neighbor.. A lense couldn't possibly capture the wonder and awe they presented.. row after row.. all the banks within eyesight up and down, hundreds of feet. They reminded me of piano keys or possibly some sort of ornate brick a brack lace. Anyway, it was quite stunning. Had I been there in the early a.m. the suns position would have offered a much better shot.








Unlike the last outing there was life evidenced both visual and audio. A solitary Eagle soared through not that far off and the Crows were brash and brassy.. early signs of spring. One of the coolest things was a small flock of Bufflehead ducks that came upstream like rockets, in tight formation just inches off the surface. I stood immobile and when they reached me, timed to a micro second, the flight split each side blistering by @ Mach III.. their wing primarys making a tearing sound as they carved air with maneuvers.. I felt the breeze on my face.

Casting is going well, the slight wind is over my right shoulder and quartering downstream.. the fresh grey skulpin is swimming well.. Perfect. Just reaching the prime of the pool I fire one of those casts that for some reason you just know is the one.. sure enough just as it starts the turn I feel the pickup. Dropping the rod tip with it for what seems an unbearably long time I then give a good lift into.. solid shaking weight. About the time I decide it doesn't feel that heavy it comes up and never slows, shooting airborne, a bright silver missle of approximate 4.5 lbs. Back down in, a couple headshakes then running at me hard.. the line never tightened up again. Resting the pool for 10 - 15 minutes was easy, looking around at the piano keys and shooting a few more pics.. heard the spring song of an unrecognised bird but could never get an eye on him. I re-started just above where the fish took. On about the fourth swing below that marked spot the pickup replays itself, once again I lift into solid life.. only this time the connection remains. This fish never jumped, he might have at one time but I didn't encourage him. A nice Bulldog built Buck still cocky and full of attitude.





I finish my day out with one more good grab that came up empty. The fish would not comeback.. I was fine with that. The sun was dropping below the tree line as I fished the last pool. My guides really started freezing up then. They had been slowly closing all day, even with the direct sunlight, but only needed cleared occasionally. The problem was solved when I struck wood and broke off my fly. There was still good amount of daylight left but rather than push it I reeled up and went out.. it was more than enough to put the soul at ease.