solopaddler

You can work up a mighty thirst fishing in the blazing hot sun all day. Looking forward to getting out with you later this month bud.

Rumours of a fresh run of fish on a north Huron tributary had me scrambling to get my shift covered on Wednesday. I worked 2pm Tuesday 'till 5am Wed morning and with gear already packed in the car I left straight from work bleary eyed with coffee in hand. I had asked a couple of friends to join, but getting a day off midweek is difficult for most. As it turned out I ran into several friends up there anyway. When there's a hot bite word spreads. Arriving in the parking lot around 8 there were already a lot of cars there. Undaunted I rigged up and made my way to the river. Immediately I ran into my friend Dave (Wallacio on the board). He had just blown a hot fish and seemed pumped. I slipped downstream to find some room and ran into Robb Marquette and a friend of his. Robb makes the Riverkeeper/Frogwater float reels which I'm currently fishing. As it turned out Robb's presence was a very happy coincidence for me as you'll see later.. Rumours were bang on and after slipping downstream into a favoured zone I hit a number of bright acrobatic steelhead. Robb took this shot for me, he was a little wobbly with the camera. Robb and his buddy both hooked into a couple of fish just downstream from me as well: Seeing the action, Dave, wiley dog that he is, slipped downstream and was soon into one as well: While we were fishing a massive hatch of stoneflies started. They were fluttering everywhere, landing on our necks and arms and generally being a pita. Dave quickly saw an opportunity and switched from roe to a black stone. Success was immediate: Dave hit a couple more fish before he had to leave for a work related meeting. Before going he kindly handed me one of his magic flies Thanks buddy! I had mentioned to Robb that my reel wasn't quite as smooth as it should be. Worn out from overuse was my excuse . At the end of the day in the parking lot he asked if he could have a look at it. In short order he disassembled it, cleaned it, removed my old bearings and replaced them with two new ones. Sweet! Robb is a great guy to deal with folks. The fact that he makes his reels right here in Ontario in small batches 100% by hand makes them a good choice for anyone who's in the market. Obviously it was a day to remember. Perfect weather, chrome bright fish and good friends. It just doesn't get any better. Cheers, Mike

My God this statement is wrong on so many levels it's ridiculous. Somewhere there's a village that's being deprived of it's idiot. I'd be happy to elaborate if you're interested in knowing why you're so wrong.

Hmmm..if I had to choose between the Nitro and her I'd pick the girl. Earplugs are dirt cheap y'know.

Yech carp!

Well I wouldn't go quite that far LOL! He definitely would have been even more frustrated that's for sure though.. Mike I think it's a generational thing. Sometimes you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Far better off not even trying.. My only regret on this trip was not letting my dad pull a plug or two through some of the holes. They were hitting so well on roe (I hit 40 plus fish) that I couldn't bring myself to do it. It definitely would have been his best shot..

Absolutely I would never subject my dad to a centrepin. I had him rigged with an 111/2' rod and a Stradic MGFB 2500.

I've owned 2 CRV's and currently an Accord. I've never paid higher premiums ever. Beyond reliability the reason I like Honda is resale. In my experience nothing even comes close.. If you do in fact pay slightly higher premiums for a Civic you'll recoup the loss 10 times over with lower maintenance costs and the high resale.

Thanks for reminding me. Friday you're buying!

Definitely illegal. People have a tendency to break the law now and again.

Y'know Raf there's a largely unknown esox bite happening in the north channel at the moment. The prey is huge numbers of pen reared escaped rainbows. I actually have heard of guys rigging the damn things.

Find out exactly how long they want to be on the road. Also, ask them if they want to travel every day or stay several nights at fewer places. Superiors north shore is an absolute no brainer. A few more details and I'll pm you a couple of possible itineraries.

There's much that I could say here, but I think I'll take the high road.

I'm guessing you know exactly who I was referring too. What I didn't mention in the report....the greasy little weasle was trying to smooth things over at the ramp at the end of the day. Not impressed with him in the slightest.

Some good info there for those who fish weed walleye.

Yep. I've been using them for well over 25 years. Great, great bait for steelhead when they're fussy. I used to seine my own out of a local pond back in the day. Probably use them more for resident stream trout under a tiny quill, absolutely lethal. MONUMEPIC, I like it. Good luck when you go buddy, I'm sure you're itching.

Living where you do Michigan is a no brainer dude. You should definitely look into it!

That's a great price. If you're offering this up I'd say this guys problems are solved.

For many years it was my dad who took me under his wing. Countless fishing and camping trips have made for a lifetime of memories. Amazingly though my dad has never been into steelhead fishing and has in fact never caught a steelhead in his entire life. With the shoe firmly on the other foot now it was my turn to take my dad by the hand and show him something he's never experienced before. My hope was we'd get him into his first ever steelhead. Regardless I knew it'd be a fun trip for as far as I'm concerned the Muskegon is the closest thing we have here in the great lakes to a west coast steelhead experience. It's a large powerful river and it's almost exclusively a boat fishery. Something that's not all that common in the midwest. Attemptig to make the trip extra special for my dad, I found and booked a private cottage for rent about 6km downstream from the dam at Croton. This booking proved to be incredibly fortuitus. The owner Shawn is an avid steelheader and an aspiring centrepin angler. When he found out I was a centrepin fisherman from Ontario he asked if we'd like to fish with him in his driftboat the first day, in exchange for some casting and fishing tips. Obviously that wasn't a problem! For the second full day I had booked a trip and paid a $100 deposit to fish with a very well known Muskegon guide on his larger more comfortable jetboat. I figured it would be money well spent as this particular guide is known as the "floatfishing/centrepin guru" of the Muskegon. Not that I would need any help, but I figured it'd good for my dad. We were scheduled to fish with this guy on Friday. I attempted to reach him multiple times since the previous Sunday leaving many messages with zero response from him. I wasn't too impressed believe me. Here we were on the eve of our departure last Wed evening and we had no idea whether we'd be fishing on Fri or not. Told my dad we'd go down regardless and fish with Shawn and he didn't mind. At 9pm Wed evening I finally got a call back from our guide. He apologised profusely and we firmed up logistics for Friday morning. Thank goodness I thought, and went to bed relieved... Up at 2am to meet my dad I quickly checked my emails. My guide had sent me a message shortly before midnight: "Very sorry something corporate came up and I can't take you out on Friday. I'll do my best to find someone else for you" Needless to say I wasn't too thrilled! In any case we were both pretty stoked regardless of the situation and made fantastic time on the drive over. We arrived at Shawn's cottage around 10am Thurs and were suitably impressed. It's not the ritz, but it's comfortable and clean and has a commanding view of the river from the back deck. In short order we made our aquaintance with Shawn, dropped our bags in the cottage, had a quick bite and were headed down the road to the boat launch following him. After we completed the vehicle shuttle we headed back to the launch only to be greeted by an incredible sight. The Muskegon is also filled with gigantic walleye on their annual spawning run from lake Michigan this time of year. The Michigan DNR were set up at the launch with 2 huge pens to hold the ripe walleye collected from their electroshocking boat. Other tech's waited at the ready to strip the egg laden females: Some of those fish were pigs! I commented that there must be an awesome fishery for them in the lake. Apparantly not though. I was told that once they return to the big lake they're like ghosts, impossible to target and almost never caught. No doubt they're like our big Quinte walleye once they hit lake Ontario, roaming the water column in search of baitfish. If there's any diehard walleye guys out there looking for a hot new bite, here ya go, (if you can figure it out. ) Now, on to the steelhead.... Shawn has a Clackacraft pretty much identical to the one I've previously fished the Muskegon in: Not overly roomy but perfectly adequate for three guys. We quickly launched and pushed off downstream with Shawn on the oars: The first thing I noticed was the river was at least 3 feet lower than I'd ever seen it before in the spring. Obviously we'd have to adapt to the lower water and seek new holding water. That first afternoon I honestly didn't do a ton of fishing myself. With both Shawn and my dad under my wing I spent most of my time coaching and assisting with rigging. I did hook and lose 2 huge chromers back to back though. Both were in the high 30" range easily and cartwheeled madly all over the river before they smoked me. My dad was having his troubles and after I hooked a 3rd fish I handed him my rod to give him a feel for the strength of these fish: 'Course he lost it (first time ever applying drag with his fingers which also happened to be fully gloved.) Still he was pumped by the experience... Shawn is an excellent angler in his own right and a quick study. He picked up the casting immediately and already knew about mending and keeping your line off the water. For him it was simply a matter of time. His first fish was actually a giant walleye (yes they do hit roe bags on occasion ). His second was a gorgeous 10lb chrome bullet that ran up and down the river jumping multiple times before being subdued. Here I am at the ready with the net: And here's Shawn with the fish. Can you tell he's happy? With the lower water it afforded an opportunity to get out and fish from shore in numerous spots that were previously underwater. For my dads sake we did just that. It allowed him a chance to stretch and warm up, and gave me a chance to instruct him in a more intimate manner. Lord knows I tried and my dad did as well but it just didn't happen for him. He didn't mind though and after a while insisted I show him how it's done. I managed one small steelhead, rolled and lost 2 others and caught about half a dozen small resident trout. Here's the one and only small steelhead caught while on shore: A little bit later in the boat I finished off the day with a small chrome hen which seemed to be suffering from a pronounced hairlip. On a funny note as we were drifting downstream who do we float by but none other than my guide who had bailed on me for Friday 'cause a "corporate thing" came up. I recognized him. He had no clue who I was. As we're drifting past he asks how's it going, etc, etc.. I stare at him blankly then say "So, you've got a corporate thing that came up for Friday? Not the way to run a business buddy ". It took him like maybe 10 seconds for it to sink in who I was then he got real uncomfortable. About 20 minutes later we floated by some other guide downstream. Apparantly my guide had called him and said when we're drifting by him to tell me all is well for Friday and he's got someone else lined up for me tomorrow. "Whatever" says I. Shawn thought the whole thing was funny. Best part is we hit it off pretty good and now I have a friend with a cabin and a driftboat on the Muskegon. We pulled off the river around 6:30pm and parted ways with Shawn promising to stay in touch. Heading back to the cabin we poured a couple of drinks, fired up the bbq and kicked back. We don't often get the chance to spend time alone anymore so from that perspective the trip was already a success. As far as the fishing goes I knew it would be hard for my dad. A few years back he severed 4 fingers on his left hand. They were successfully reattached, but he has a big problem with cold now and has to wear full fingered gloves. With the overnight low dipping down to -9 I knew it'd be tough for him the next morning, but he was game and that's all that counts. As predicted the next morning was bitterly cold with a brisk N/E wind making it even worse. We were a little apprehensive as to exactly who would be taking us out and what he'd be like. In the end it all worked out. Our guide Jim was a young very keen 20 year old with his own jetboat and a budding passion for centrepin fishing. Honestly he was a great kid and it couldn't have worked out better for everyone. My dad and I got to fish with a pleasant accomodating young man who worked his butt off to assist my dad all day long. The young guy got himself a free clinic on how to catch fish on a pin from me. The lad has been fishing the MO for years and working part time for the guide I originally booked for a while now. Ultimately my poor old dad was just too hamstrung with the cold to fish effectively despite both Jim's and my own help. Still he enjoyed the day. As Jim said at the end of the day though it was the most steelhead he's ever seen hooked in a single outing. He figured I put 20 in the boat and easily lost another 20 after some long acrobatic fights. So 'twas a good day for me. With the low glasswater clear water I was forced to keep things subtle with long light fluoro leads, tiny hooks and abnormally small baits. Tiny roe bags the size of my little fingernail in white and peach, small black and brown stoneflies as well as black maribou jigs all accounted for fish. Here's a few I managed to best: Highlight of the day for Jim, (actually he sid it was the highlight of his year LOL!), was a massive resident brown trout I caught. The Muskegon also has a thriving population of resident rainbows and browns, with the very odd brown reaching eye popping proportions. Jim is also a dyed in the wool fly bum and once steelhead season draws to a close he chases the big browns with his fly rod. He was just telling me that a huge old brown lived in this pool when my float went down. It was as fat as a hog and on the boga weighed 91/2lb's. That was actually the last fish I put in the boat and an absolutely perfect capper to a memorable day. My dad wasn't down about his lack of success in the slightest. Staying warm was his full time priority and as he said he enjoyed watching his boy do well. We talked about it on the way home and it seems he's up for another shot at it. This time some walk and wade fising on a smaller more intimate stream later next month that'll be teeming with suicidal dropbacks. I figure his odds will be better then. All in all a successful trip and once again I'll be marking the days 'till I can make it back. Cheers, Mike

Depending on which date you choose I'd love to join you guys.

I tend to agree with your statement..... Here's a 34" inch very fat fish I caught on the Muskegon last week. We put it on the boga just for fun and she was just under 13lb's:

Exactly.

The best steelhead fishing is long over by the time the inland season opens in late April. This year will be even worse on our so called "opener" because of the early spring. To answer your question yes it's definitely worth it to try right now. Based on your question and comments you'd be best hiring a guide for a day though.

Clofchik already touched on it, but the parks main source of revenue (as it has always been) is logging.