It has been pretty quiet here lately. Stuff is happening. Not a lot of fishing stuff but stuff none the less.

My wife Sarah and I are… or should I say, were, cabin shopping up in the Grayling, MI area. We have been working with Lance Weyeneth who is a buyer’s broker for the area. Lance knows the area very well and has the tools, sensitivity, patience, and knowledge to put you in the right place to suit your needs. The patience part is and was the key for us. I have had a few face to face conversations with him (and lots of email) over the years based on property searches. He remembers every one of those over the six years we have been talking with him regarding our search. Yeah, six years… Seems like a long time to find a cabin right? Well, I’m in the auto biz, we’ve had set backs, it all adds up to the six years. Like I said, the man has patience.

Anyway, my wife and I went up to look at a place with Lance. I didn’t take any gear as we were going to spend the weekend in Traverse City and make the trek back and forth fro Grayling. We ditched Traverse for Gates Lodge after a night because they had a killer deal on rooms and had one for us. It was closer to the place we were looking at and in a place we would rather spend time in so we bailed on Traverse. Thanks to the Park Hotel for letting us out of our second night there.

Again, no gear and it was 80 degrees… What to do? Borrow gear from the shop? Coulda…

In comes the awesome wife with yet another awesome idea.

Awesome wife Sarah- “Don’t they have guides here?”

Me- “Ummmmm… Yeah, they do.”

Sarah- ” Do they use those cool long boats?”

Me- ” Yep”

Super awesome wife Sarah- “Why don’t we just get a guide tomorrow? I would love to float down the river in one of those long boats as long as its okay with the guide if I go and they have stuff you can borrow.”

Me- “Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm… Good idea! I’ll check with josh and see if anyone is available tomorrow.”

As luck would have it, they had someone… and as if it was possible, my wife buried the hook even deeper in to my jaw. Seriously… Yes, I’m bragging about my amazing wife. Wouldn’t you?

The fishing wasn’t stellar but hard to complain on a sunny, 80 degree day in March in Northern MI.

We floated with Matt V from the Lodge and we had a great time. Matt was happy to grab flies out of the trees that I loved to throw flies into and we caught a few nice little wild browns and moved a few nicer ones. Not bad for a sunny day in March. He and Sarah spent a good part of the day chatting about dogs and what not. Great guy to spend a day with.

Here I am struggling to fish streamers sitting down in AuSable riverboat

After the trust was established. Standing... And happier. The bruises on the backs of my legs from the seat disagree but what do they know? Riverboats need a leaning brace.

Yep. A fish.

Last but not least, this will be the Hatchless pad up there. Can't wait to get the keys.

I have been told already that having a place up there doesn’t allow you as much fishing time. I will say that this is probably true. That’s not the point of buying a place up there. The point is that we will always have access to a place that will always give us the chance to fish at the right time.

No Amount of planning can put you in the right spot at the right time. Period. Every year we plan a trip towards the end of trout season on the Trophy Water of the Au Sable. Every Year for the last five plus years we have planned to be there and have been there at the right time (legally), right at the end of the season. And this year just like the past years we would put flies in all the right places… again. This year, the first year of the new regulations, was going to be different. Its the first year that we could be there later. We could be there after Sept 30th. We could and would be there when the big trout would be on the prowl and in their pre-spawn mode. Feeding on and attacking anything that gets in their zone, their territory. This year the big trout were going to be reckless and stupid and eat flies no matter where the flies were placed. That was the plan until the weather gods came in and said “nope”, this is not your year. The weather gods decided that for our trip, the five days that we spent up north, the weather would be more than perfect… for every other thing that did not include fishing big streamers for big browns.The week before and the week after were perfectly miserable for everything else. Our week was perfect. Perfect for everything but trout fishing.

As any band of dedicated streamer fisherman would, we made adjustments. We took every one of those bright, sunny, warm and not so great days to fish for big trout days as an opportunity to hone our skills. We changed flies every ten minutes, came up with names for those punk ass browns that should have eaten the fly that they just took a swipe at, and drank more beer than we have ever consumed in a single weekend during this yearly trip. We made the best of a bad fishing weekend and turned in to a great drinking weekend. We spent the weekend doing target practice. We tried to put flies in all the spots you might never have thought of and rowed back to get them when they got wrapped in trees. We put flies in those oddball shallow water spots and caught fish. Small fish but hey, inches in the boat are inches in the boat right?

I will say with pride that, based on the other folks we talked to, we turned and stabbed more 16″+ fish than what we heard from anyone for the weekend. All in all, between two boats in five days, we did see well over a dozen 20″+ fish move to a fly. Of those I can say with confidence that over half were in the 24″ class. I wouldn’t say that if I didn’t know for a fact that five of those were my own. I got the skunk for the first two days but turned good fish on both those days. The trip wasn’t a total skunk. We did boat a few teeners. We didn’t spend a ton of time taking pics of those fish but they were there. They ate something and we were happy to have it happen.

The pics are here but if you come here often, you have already seen them.

Lo Fi Fly - funny fucks
Shooting Head – it has boobs, need I say more.
Frontside Fly – Sweeds make pretty videos
Gink and Gasoline – nice dudes

I’m not going to pretend to know anything about this river. I do enjoy watching this sort of destruction. Awesome.

Best of all. I’m glad to see that the smoke monster from LOST found a new gig. One that really makes a difference. Pause the video at about the 25 second mark and see Smokey in action!

Anyway, being the whiny bitch that I am, I also don’t like to have the anchor “kerplunked” in the water when approaching a pool that may hold fish. I suspect that from the fishes perspective you may as well just do a cannonball off the boat. It would probably end in the same result. So here’s the basics:

Anchor: Kersploosh!

Me (to Mike): Hey plunky. Splash that anchor again and I’m gonna hop over this brace and punch you in the face!

Mike (to me): I was trying to get you wet.

Me (to Mike, head shaking): Yeah? Well next time try rubbing the inside of my thigh.

We got skunked that day as we have every other day we have fished that river for steel.

Check back. This post could be added to in the future.

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Sorry Chum, had to beat you to it on this one. Killer Vespa… literally. Via: Bring a Trailer

Musky Country: Zero 2 Hero Trailer from RT on Vimeo.

We will be all over the esox this summer.

There is a bit of an explanation to go along with it. Its sort of an intro to what Randy and I’s relationship is all about. Call it what you want. “Bromance”…. whatever… I wouldn’t trade it for much of anything.

Several years ago, my buddy Randy who I grew up with moved to Dallas, TX. It was a great move for him and his wife. I can’t imagine how they could possibly be in a better position. They are blessed with a beautiful daughter and a pretty damned good life and I’m happy for them all for it. Initially I was afraid that the distance would do what it does to many friends and we would shortly part ways. Fortunately for me (and I say me because I can’t imagine what my life would be like without Randy in it) I managed to get him hooked on fly fishing either soon after he moved or right before. I can’t remember what the timing was on that but either way it was, or may have been, the greatest thing I have ever done because since then we have gotten to fish together every year. I’m not sure that if it wasn’t for the fly fishing we would still be close but the fact that it is makes it even better. It seems for what ever reason, guys need a thing. I can’t and won’t attempt to explain why. It just is. Randy and I have been pals since we were about 3 years old. We’ve been through a lot. We shared his trap line when we were in junior high which as far as I can remember was the first outdoors thing we did. His older brother was a big hunter so it was only natural for him to get involved and I was just along for the ride I guess. I’ve probably seen him thump more critters on the head for their fur than either of us would probably ever admit to but that’s what we did back than and well… you can’t change the past and it wasn’t all that bad. In hindsight, we probably saved more folks from having to clean up a tipped over garbage can than we’d ever have known and coons and muskrat aren’t exactly wild steelhead so… After that we started racing BMX and from there it was skate and snow. Sort of in the middle of all that it was competitive sailing. I think that without question the sailing was the real dope. If you have ever done it, you would get the bond. If not, I’m sorry and if the option is there, give it a shot. There really is no greater connection between self satisfaction and pure “if I fuck this up we could all be hurt” teamwork. Its a beautiful thing when its done right. When you win, when it all comes together for a team sailing together, even if its only two of you, its a high that I feel is almost unobtainable any other way. Its you and your team verses the wind and its many directions, verses a fleet of how ever many. I guess in the context of this blog, the closest thing that I could say to the feeling is “guiding” your newest fly fishing “student” to their first fish on a fly that they tied themselves. And honestly, that doesn’t even come close. I don’t do it any more because when you get close with a team and that team is forced to split, no other team is good enough. It just won’t ever scratch that itch. The self satisfaction aspect is why I tie flies. The teamwork aspect is why I love to fish from a drift boat.

I know this pic may be a bit tired on this site but it just happens to be a pic of Randy and I and it was a stellar trip that year so here it is again. It also speaks to the above mentioned and it may be in the new Hyde catalog so that makes it super cool and worth the re-post.

Randy has been gracious enough to make several trips up here to come fishing with us guys. I really owe him a trip south to see the places he has discovered since he has gotten in to fly fishing. He has been to some cool spots. For me when he comes up its is the trip of the year. Not to discount any other trip because whenever, with whoever, its a treat, but for me to get to fish with the person that is most like my brother (damn I wish my brother would put down the golf clubs for a weekend and come fish with me!) is always going to be a great time.

This year  (short the lack of catching from the last post) was no exception. Standard procedure is that Randy and I will spend about 5 days up North and whoever makes it, for however long is always welcome. We’ve pretty much slimmed it down to whoever commits first to a total of 6. This year’s group was just that. Six guys, beginer to experienced, all staying here at this nice little hand built log cabin that a friend owns.

The place is about as much as you’d ever need on a fishing trip in the north woods. 80 acres to roam, a wood stove, a place to cook, a place to poop (and shower with hot water if you need to), and a few dry beds. It was built by Randy and his buddies several years ago and has been sold since then to another friend who, despite the empty gun casings, empty shotgun shells, and clay bird schrapnel from a few years back has agreed to let us in again. In our defense, we highly doubt that we were the culprits of the aforementioned but we don’t own the place so its not our place to say so much. That kind of thing isn’t really why we’re up there but whatever…

Randy and I got up there late on a Wed night and did the standard drink beer, shoot the shit, and go to bed for what we hoped would be an early day on the water. It wasn’t an early day but we did get up to clouds, fog, and a generally shitty forecast which we were pleased to hear. We hit the carry out for beer and Sparks then the fly shop for a spot and this for a weather report; “you guys be careful out there. They’re calling for rain.” Yeah… great… “like 2″ per hour hour rain.” Okay… We’ll believe it when we see it. An hour and a half later we beached the boat, hauled it up on shore as best we could due to the weight of the water, and bailed (with Sparks cans with the tops cut off) more water out of the boat than I would ever have thought possible for just a short burst of rain. I think if it weren’t for the “seemanship” (heheheh… he said seman…) we had learned from the sailing days we may have been in trouble. Really though, two world class sailors looking in a drift boat and saying, “hmmmmm… maybe we should stop and get this water out of the boat. I think its really effecting our performance.” Real pros… We probably should’ve stopped earlier but I had just moved the biggest fish I’ve ever seen in that stretch.  Or ever really so why stop? Nobody died or even came close so it was nothing more than a lesson in me getting a hand pump bailer which I have now so lesson learned. We didn’t catch much of anything but it was a good time.

“What the fuuuuuuuuuuckkkk…. Where are all the feeesh?!?!?”

The next day was breeze. BIG BREEZE! 40 mph gusts so we opted to fish the North Branch and go visit a buddy in Lewiston. The North Branch was great. We caught a handful of little brookies and a few decent browns.

We split up on some islands and in the process Randy caught a 16″ brookie (no pic of course) and I a 16″ brown (also no pic). Pretty good day on the North and a good visit with Scott in Lewiston. Scott has MS and a growers permit but got robbed of all his “meds” a few days earlier. They ripped the plants right out of the ground and made off with his entire stash. Normally I’d say that you had it coming for showing it to anyone. In this case, the guy truly could use it for his condition. Whoever did it should be more than kicked in the nuts.

The rest of the night… relax, eat some weird club sandwich pizza and wait for others to show.

And they did. With Four Locos in hand they came and kept our tired asses up on a count that they were fueled by crack infused alcohol disquised in a harmless looking can. I’m all for a Sparks in the morning but that Loco shit is outta hand. Whatever… again, nobody died and our livers did their job for another day.

The next day’s float went like this:

Big fish moved on one boat, big fish moved on the other boat, another big fish moved, big fish chased a streamer to the boat and then in figure eights at the boat, big fish chased and broke water over the fly……… not one ate. It is nice to see those guys but couldn’t at least one of them ate something? One other boat that was right behind us while we were having lunch did catch a 25″ fish and it was a guy we know so that’s good but…

Oh well. There is always this year. Which by the way opens April 1st and doesn’t close anymore! Thanks to all those that spoke up the new MI trout regs!

In closing I leave you with these last pics.

Don’t they look tasty? 

Click the link to find out.

photo from: chicagobreakingnews.com