Michigan Fishing for Two Days

Got a short notice chance to go and visit my buddy in Michigan and try to get on some steelhead.  I went a few years back with him, but it was late in the season and we got skunked.  Michigan is a pretty amazing place for outdoorsmen, millions of acres to hunt and thousands of lakes and rivers to fish - make it heaven for those looking to get out in the country and enjoy the outdoors.  Central Michigan is pretty flat, but that lends to lots of rivers and lakes and tons of farm lands.  You can't go a couple miles without seeing some type of road kill, or turkeys, deer or cows in fields along the roads.

I flew in late at about 10:30pm on Thursday from Denver to Grand Rapids, got my rental and drove 1.25 hours to Canadian Lakes.  My buddy was up we chatted for a bit and then went to bed.  Up at 6am on Friday and out the door by 7am.  Michigan is on the western border of the Eastern time zone, so it was till pitch black until about 8am.  We pulled into a public section of the Pere  Marquette rigged and geared up and were hiking into the river.  The PM is world known and a very fishy river - however the fish numbers are much lower per mile than the average western trout river.  

We fished egg patterns and snagged up on deadfall in the river about 15 times that day.  On the PM you can only fish 1 hook and it can't be pegged - it has to be an egg fly on the hook.  Losing one fly is a quick change out - tying on only one more rig.  I did manage a bunch of small dinks - both rainbows and browns.  My buddy Scott did manage a hen at around 10am - it was a strong fight - and he managed to keep the fish out of the log jams and brush.  

We fished the rest of the day - I hooked a few more dinks, but nothing big.  Scott and I both had a bigger 15-16 fish on, but they came off.  We called it a day around 4pm and drove back to his place after a stop at a deli.  We played his golf simulator for an hour or so, had some beers and then went to bed.

Up Friday at 6am and out the door again at 7am.  We were meeting a guide on the Muskegon River.  The Muskegon is a very big river that is dam controlled and the water is pretty regulated in temps at around 38-40 degrees this time of year.  We are a little early for spawn, but the guide was hoping that the "freshies" would be in because of some of the rain we had in previous days.  They have jet boats there - basically aluminim john boats with intake propellers that suck water in and out like a jetski.  We blasted about a mile up to the dam and the guide showed us how to fish it with an indicator.  I am familar with indicator fishing - haven't done it that last 25 years in Colorado.  In Michigan they don't sindicator fish (much) - they use a slinky chuck and duck rig.  (If you don't know what chucking and ducking is, look it up on Youtube).  They use a 3 or 4 split shot rig that can slide up and down on  the line and allows you to fish any depth - you set when you are bouncing along the bottom and feel resistance.  It's like euro-nymphing, but yet nothing like euro-nymphing.

The day was amazing - the weather held out except for about 15 minutes of rain.  The sun stayed in, which made the fish less spooky on the reds.  The weather did drop from 57 degrees at 7am to about 40 and windy by the end of the day.  We caught TONS of brown trout - lots of them had fattened up and were in the 15-17 inch range.  I caught a nice fat rainbow, and did manage to catch a 15# sucker - but that story we won't talk about.

The river is variable lengths and you will float usually the edges of the river near structure (or peoples docks on the river) - which are usually trees on the non-housed side of the river.  Our guide set us up with 11 foot rigs with two pegged eggs (sound familiar) - I've never fished 11 foot rigs - sometimes you are dragging over 2 feet of water and then dropping into 20 foot pools.  The fish did hit the rigs and it worked well - obviously not in 2 feet of water, but there are lots of redds that are cleared off right in front of deep plunge pools - so your eggs would fly over the redds and dump into the deep pools that were loaded with fish waiting to eat the eggs.  

Scott caught two steelies on the day - one smaller one right off and another later in the day.  Late in the day he hooked a monster, but the fish immediately charged for a submerged log and got off.

Some browns:

I didn't get many pictures as I was videoing most of it - you can check out the YouTube video here:

Yes, I finally caught a steelhead - we were floating tight structure and the guide told me to flip between two downed trees and I immediately came tight - he pulled the boat out into deeper water and we floated with the fish on the egg probably another 500 feet into deeper water and he landed it.  Pretty amazing river fish - long and lean and strong.  Not like those obese fat fish who sit on the couch and play video games all day and eat Cheetos fish from stillwaters.  I'm not great at judging size - but I would say he was maybe 4-5lbs and 25 inches.

The guide chilled out the rest of the day after a tough beginning - after he saw we had the hang of it he'd stop barking orders.  He made us a steak lunch on an island with potatoes and veggies - which was pretty cool.  We were done around 5:30 - we hit Newaygo Brewing, then the Red Anchor Inn for dinner.  We were home by 8pm and watch the Bruins lose to the Red Wings.

I got up around 8:30 on Sunday and we taking indicator fishing - I think Scott is hooked!  I left around 10am and was on my flight back home by 12:40 - landed at 1pm MST and at my house by 2:30pm.

What an amazing long weekend - and thanks Scott for hosting me!  I will say this - we aren't getting any younger.  Scott and I have talked about doing this trip for more than a decade - and we finally did it.  All I can think about is - why didn't we do it sooner?  Those buddies you keep talking about fishing with but can never seem to find the time to fish with - stop waiting and get out!!