Hey guys, John just posted a new report on Wednesday if you missed it, but it’s been a minute for me as well so I’ll share a little too! First and foremost, a huge thanks to everyone that took a little time out of their daily lives to help us and river out with the annual cleanup! As always, not as many as we hoped, but a fair turnout of many familiar faces as well as a few new ones and we most certainly made a difference!
We wound up having at least one boat go thru every section from M37 all the way to Walhalla and while that is not nearly enough to get it all done with not enough hours in the day most came away with a pretty substantial amount of rubbish and gear. Steve from Barski and his son Steve joined me and worked hard getting as much as we could…
Dennis, who hasn’t missed a cleanup in I don’t know how many years, came up on Thursday night to fish on Friday ahead of time and was rewarded with some of his saved-up fish Karma before having to head back home for a family emergency very early on Saturday.
Many don’t know this, but this year started a few new rules and regulations for inland guides in Michigan from the DNR. One of those new regulations is that we have to report the body/section of water fished, hours fished, how many clients, number of fish by species landed and if they were kept or released…
I’ve never been much of a numbers guy figuring that the only thing that really matters is if you’re having a good time or not and learning something new, but this new regulation is forcing me to do otherwise and just for fun, I’ve even taken it a little further a few recent days out of curiosity.
As it happens, I already possess a half dozen click counters from some years back and a few fun Salmon clients so those have proven to be a great way of keeping track of fish accurately for my DNR reports. On the day above with Dennis I decided to use an additional one strictly for fish that we either rolled and got a good look at or even hooked and got off. Quite the eye opener on a pretty active day!
My main methods have continued to be either streamers or spinning rods with hard baits (or both) and I have yet to target any rising fish, but there have been some opportunities and the hatches are picking up speed! As John mentioned “look for BWO’s, hennies, sulphurs and gray drakes not too far out.”
Again, as John already mentioned, so far, the rains have been perfect! We’ve had just enough to keep the water level up a little and retain a nice stain, but not so much to make it muddy or effect the dry fly visibility…
Don’t go expecting these clicker pics is in every report by any means… I will likely stick to just a couple of them for a boat total by species as I did in April strictly for the DNR report and post just a few of our fish pics, but I had the right people in my boat for a few days to have some fun with it. The last thing I want to do is promote the numbers game or competition; that almost always takes that fun out of it…
We have a guide or guides available for most of the summer if you’re looking to get out on what’s shaping up to be a great trout season! Fly, spin or a mixture of both are available and we welcome all anglers regardless of age or experience level. The river is a fantastic place to clear your mind…
Shop hours are currently 8am – 6pm daily. We are still looking for some additional shop employees, so if you or someone you know might be interested please give us a call…231-745-3529.
Speaking of the shop, it is loaded up with inventory that we’d love to get rid of so if you get a chance, please stop by or give us a call for your fly, spin or bait fishing needs! As always, we can’t thank you enough for your support past, present or future. We love what we do and you all make it possible…
Wishing you the best of luck! Be safe, be well, and above all, just get out and have some fun!
Steve
