PSA – Beginning Monday February 27 our new shop hours will be 7am – 6pm daily! (Still 9-5 this weekend.)
Not much “new” to tell on the river front. There are plenty of fish scattered throughout the system and it continues to be a nice mix of fall, winter and new spring arrivals, but a fair number of those longer residents are already playing the spring game when conditions and/or traffic allow.
The bite window can last all day or just part(s) of it depending on conditions as well. New fish continue to arrive downriver, but no major blast that I’m aware of recently and that’s a good thing. At this point a continuous trickle of new fish is probably preferable, but bigger waves will most certainly arrive with and when we have higher water levels per usual.
The “Reel” (Screen recording of one, buttons do not work, just hit play.) below is from my last day out on Monday with Kam and our friend Adam; we had a pretty solid bite all day as did the other folks we stopped and hung out with. (Great seeing all you guys! We gotta try and mix in more of that for sure! ;^)
We had a great starting water temp (As shown) in this top-secret location ? of 39.6 degrees and a very nice level of 29.9″ on the M37 PMTU gauge. Water temp was up to 40.5 degrees on the afternoon and the level remained steady throughout the day.
Egg flies were king in the usual size/color assortments, but I had several fish take smaller stoneflies and a white PM Wiggler did a number as well. A few great fish were lost to the tight woody confines of our river as well as an absolute pig that I farmed off using a rookie move, but enough came to hand along with some nice brown trout to call it a good one for sure!
The major contributing factor to that was the low starting water temp of around 37.3 degrees, but once it hit a little over 38 degrees (Almost 39 at take out.) things got better. Level was nice and steady with a nice slight stain all day. Both Steelhead that came to hand were on eggs I believe, but I wouldn’t know for certain as we only hooked one that got away in our boat… ;^)
Kam was out yesterday with another friend of ours Joe and it was a very solid bite again with some great numbers to hand using floating line and indicator rigs with egg patterns, but this cold snap now probably has things slowed down until those warmer temperatures do their thing over the weekend and the fish have a chance to acclimate a bit. (Below is just a couple of theirs.)
I’m out on a trip tomorrow but have some really great dates available yet as do our other guides. My open dates as of now are: February 26, 27 & 28 March 1, 2, 3, 5, 12, 19 and the 27th and 28th just opened. April is 9, 21, 23… Give the shop a call to grab any of these or to check our other guides availability as well as motel rooms. (231) 745-3529
We are still taking applications at the shop for sales staff if you or someone you know may be interested and the guys are working hard to make sure we have everything on hand and in order to better serve you! Here’s to a great season and let’s all have fun out there… Looking forward to seeing many of you on the river, in the shop, around the motel or, even better, in one of our boats!
That’s all I’ve got time for right now, but I’ll try and post again soon!
Let’s Gooooo! -Steve-
