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.

I like to give credit where credit is due. These guys deserve very bit of credit they get from us when it comes to a few days of hard streamer fishing and just general “bro-ness”. Jamie and his guys are a hoot to hang out with. Guaranteed fun is one of the many things they offer. We booked two days and begged for a third. In hind sight, we probably could have gotten the third had we not bailed out in the morning for another river. But… they were booked and the second river was our plan and how were we to know that the clients that had the next day booked would only fish a few hours and then call it a day? Weiners… Maybe we should have counted on it based on the fact that it was low 20′s and some dudes… well… you never know. We had a plan and we stuck to it. Oh well.

The first day of the two was with Jamie Rouse. Jamie is the head guide of the group of three. A short conversation with him on the phone pre-trip was all it took to know that I picked the right guy(s). Jamie doesn’t put guides on his roster that aren’t streamer addicts. They will fish other methods if you want but they are all true streamer dudes at heart. The other BIG plus is that these guys all know how to fish high water where a lot of the other guide services in the region don’t and won’t. They study and know the generation schedules and they know when and where to be on the 30+ miles of trout water this river has to offer and they can put you on fish even during those high water periods. High water and streamer fishing… hmmmmm… Isn’t that the dream anyway? We had high water during our trip and quickly learned the importance of being in the right place at the right time based on the generation schedule. It can seriously be a matter of minutes/hundreds of yards that changes the streamer bite on any given stretch of water. With these guys, having the boats that they have, their knowledge, and those boats make all the difference.

Our day with Jamie was an absolute blast. He picked us up at our cabin (which I highly recommend), Tupelo was playing on the Ipod in the van when we got in, and we launched right there at the lodge’s ramp which was too short a drive to get a song stuck in my head. Hard to start it off better than that. Right off the launch we were moving fish on almost every cast. A few good fish were seen, the action was consistent, and we stuck enough stocker bows to keep it interesting for us. Jamie was not happy with the lack of brown trout hook ups (they were showing but not eating) so after a bit we jumped ramps and headed up river to the dam. Jamie and his guys work hard to keep you on the bite and won’t take you off it. Shortly after we got settled in to fishing at the dam I had a follow from an absolute pig of a brown. By “pig” I mean the biggest brown trout I have ever seen. I actually thought the fucker was a catfish at first based on the width of the jaw and the huge white lips. I even asked “is that a catfish?” as the thing was following my streamer to the boat. I was stunned. Frozen. Seriously, what a dipshit… a catfish… duh. Nope, not a catfish, it was a 30″+ brown. It turned, flexed, and bailed. I think I pooped and then spent the next half hour discussing with Jamie how I lost that fish. I dunno, maybe it was because I fucking hate catfish and I didn’t want to catch another one let alone one that big. That works for me but I’m thinking Jamie would say different. Randy had a similar experience and Jamie actually hugged him after the fish bailed on the fly and the whole ordeal was over. It all lasts about a lifetime in memory but maybe 5 seconds real time. What else can you do for five seconds that burns your brain the way a monster brown does? His was even bigger too. Poor bastard. How does he sleep at night? How often is it that you get to see two 30″+ browns in one day? That river… with these guys… expect it. They know the deal. We caught a few good ones and missed a ton. When that water comes up it is combat fishing at its best. Its a very athletic game of, cast to the bank at the soft spot, strip five times, miss a fish that was somewhere in the 18-24″ range, repeat. The kind of fishing that might turn you in to a jock if you did it daily. Fucking amazing. Period. Jamie was awesome and worked his ass off. He’s an amanzingly  patient teacher too. Even when you don’t listen or can’t keep one of his flies on for more than 3 minutes at a time. To Jamie, sorry man, I just need to get it done on my own shit. Which, we did.

The second day was with Tony Simmons. The shot is of Tony, already pounding a Red Bull because he probably knew he had a long day coming with us in the boat. Tony is one of Jamie’s guys who is just as much fun to spend a day with as Jamie. Again, one of the hardest working guides in the biz. We Started the day with Tony on the lower river and kept pushing our way downstream to stay “in front of the water” which keeps you on the bite. Simple theory really but one that surely takes years of practice to get right. These guys have it right. With Tony we jumped the flow until we about ran out of trout water. We caught a bunch of mid teeners and Randy turned a few mid 20′s before the bite slowed. We headed back upstream when Tony was concerned about having enough gas to get back. It wasn’t that we didn’t have enough gas at the start it was that we had to keep running down ahead of the morning’s generation to keep on the bite. Which we did until we ran out of time/gas/trout water and jumped ramps back upstream to the dam to catch the afternoon release.  We talked politics on the ride up. Dangerous territory… However, we all agreed and were even asked to run for congress by one of the wade fisherman at the dam. Great story when you can throw the Arkansas accent into the whole thing. Funny shit and we surely had at least one vote if any one of us actually decided to run. Anyway, same story as before, a few good fish, a few great fish missed. BUT… there was a pig hooked and Randy got it on video. She hit the net which makes it a score on the C&R books sooooooo…. Tony guessed it at 10-15#’s. I’ll take that on a brown any day. Here’s the breakdown:

Tony: “Make a bunch of casts around this dock. These guys huck fish guts in the water all the time. Pigs lurk here!”

Us: Casting in front of said dock… and behind… Plunk… Right place… sluggish hook up and… “FISH ON! Good fish!”

The rest would be in the in the video below but I can’t get it to load so deal and trust the fish tale… Tony was pretty bummed that the fish never saw the boat. Personally, I didn’t care. I was actually still busy being amazed that we didn’t lose it in the motor when it ran me all the way around the boat from back to front. A quick boat spin with the oar via Tony saved the motor foul. The loss was all because of one hook getting hung in the net and then one getting straightened by the fish. A fish in the net is a catch. Count it.

Here’s a few of the pics that Jamie and Randy took:

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.

First thing we heard in the van was some Tupelo… brought back some very good memories.

But just to “put it all out there”. Here is our letter to the editor.

Dear AK,
We will spend the next few days reading every post you have ever written in all of your many blogs. If after that time we wish we had your life, we will drive our sorry asses to MI and personally kiss your ass. If we don’t wish we were you after reading your dribble? Well, we get to decide that outcome as well. Maybe we all get in a boat and just go fishing. As for now, focus on the fishing, we hear shit is real tight up there right now and isn’t that what all this is about anyway?

If entertainment is what you’re after, maybe you’re barking up the wrong tree. Try internet porn. We hear there is some really good stuff out there these days. Surely you can find a site that’ll suit YOUR needs.

Hatchless Disclaimer – we don’t expect anyone to read our blog because we already know it sucks. We just like to hear ourselves talk. Tight lines and shit.

Yeah, he’s a scientologolist or whatever but fuck it…

The greatest thing about turning 40 for me is that in just a few weeks I’ll be fishing the Little Red in AR with Jamie Rouse (not sure what’s up with his main site but check here if the first link is a dud) who was recently featured in the latest of Southern Culture on the Fly. I found Jamie via the lodge that we are staying at and it would seem that my instincts led me in the right direction. After a short talk with Jamie I was sold on the fact that he is afflicted.  I’m heading that way with my best friend who lives in Dallas now. Another guy that refuses to indi fish even if he is being outfished by the nympher next door. He turns 40 this year too so we have to at least hit double 20″ browns or the trip has to be done over. Part of me hopes that the do over happens so the rest of the Hatchless dudes can join us next time.

We have one day with with Jamie and one with one of his other guides that is also a streamer junkie. Should be a killer trip. It was nice to get an endorsement on Jamie from a fellow Au Sable streamer guy, Kelly Neuman, and then yet another endorsement a week after we booked with Jamie via SCOTF.

Kelly is guiding on the White for the first few weeks in Feb and is well worth looking up because he has a killer deal going down there. Also on the White this time of year from MI are the guys from OAS in Grayling, MI doing time down there chasing hogs. Find them at Daily’s Ozark Fly Fisher. The Michigan guys know the deal when it comes to tuggin’ streamers!

We fucking love you all. Have a Happy New Year too!

You couldn’t have begged for better weather… for early fall color viewing. I mean really. We had perfect weather for anything you would hope to do on an early October weekend in Northern Michigan except target big, hungry, and horny pre-spawn browns on the Au Sable. It was sunny and 70 degrees every day we were there. Absolutely gorgeous weather to sit in a boat, cast your arm off, and consume many beers.

We did turn a fair amount of big fish which is always fun. Especially after a hot summer that had many concerned about a possible fish kill. The words we heard were that we turned more good fish than many of the other anglers that weekend. Nice to hear but boating a few of those that took more than a peek would have been nice. A fair number of teens were put in the boat but when you’re hunting the big stuff, small teeners don’t get in photos like they should hence the lack of fish pics in this post. Everyone caught fish but not everyone got a pic. Redundant is… well… redundant.

Here’s the trip pics.

Todd up front and Bart on the sticks with a great hat that may have helped him earn the coveted "Most improved oarsman of the year" award.

All Texans in the back of the bus please. Steers? Or queers? Its up for debate.

That hat really ties the room together.

Todd figured out that if he really squeezed his butt he could cast further.

Wadsworth... the only pic from the weekend of the man, the myth, the fucking LEGEND!

WTF do you say about this? Ummmm... that's a lovely "dock" you have there? No motor and clearly going nowhere. Fucking awesome. Next time I pass this barge, if there isn't a thong hung on the rail, one that was once worn by a woman, I'm gonna blow it up.

Here's Randy being glad this Ditch Pig was a mini and not tied on a cheap hook with a big ass barb.

Wow! Are you comfortable? Can I Get you anything?

Cooling off a bit. Like I said, it was warm... even for a Texan. I still haven't figured out out why some of us still INSIST on wearing waders in the boat.

I can't remember what was going on here but they seem to think its funny.

The morning commute.

One of Mike's from Friday.

Just plain nice.

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

This year I was the proud recipient of a few new sticks that are worth writing about. The first one I purchased I believe I mentioned earlier this year with the promise of a review. Naturally, since that one was purchased first, I will go chronologically and start there.

Early this spring I decided I needed a 7wt. for throwing the bigger streamers. I have been fishing a TFO TiCR 6wt. for a few years and the bigger stuff was getting a bit cumbersome to throw with it. The 6 is a custom built stick that a friend put together for me and I think I mentioned in an earlier post how I feel about it. It still love it and I will still use it but I think it has to be re-purposed based on the performance of the new rod I picked up this spring. Being that I’m not a millionaire I decided that my highest price point was going to be around $250-300. After doing the shopping/research thing I settled on a new company, Rise, based on the simple fact that they seemed to have their sights set on the big picture (conservation) rather than their bottom line. That, coupled with the extra tip the rod came with, and some good pre-purchase communication (Amanda, one of the owners, is a VERY patient person… I can get a bit long in the tooth…) was the ultimate selling factor.

As for the rod, I love the damn thing. I started the season throwing a 200g SA Streamer Express which it loved but begged for a bit more. Its not that this rod is too stiff (like most of the others in this price point) and wouldn’t load at short distances because it does that very well but it just felt like I could easily plus up in line weight by 50-100 grains and still have no issue throwing the big stuff. Quite frankly, I have been wanting to bump up to a 250 grain sink tip and with the new rod I was able to do that with no problem. I switched to a Rio Streamer Tip 250 at the end of the season and the rod performs even better with that line. I did however fish the rod for the better part of the season with the 200 and was very happy with it but I will say the 250 is better. My first trip out with it scored me the biggest wild brown I have caught to date. While I realize that the rod probably didn’t make the fish happen, the fact that I was able to throw big flies all day without effort most likely did play a part in the catching of said fish. With the new rod I was able to spend a day chucking 6″+ streamers with ease at considerable distances with accuracy. For that it scores high in my book.

As I mentioned before (or maybe I didn’t), the Rise Level Series 7 wt. that I purchased came with an extra tip. This fall I broke a tip on this rod. Don’t stop reading here and shit can the rod thinking that its weak or something. The breakage was no fault of the rod. The tip broke because I either slammed it with some big honkin’ lead eyed streamer on a shitty cast, AND/OR… it was mishandled in a fly rescue mission from some low hanging, big trout harboring, fly eating tree, or it was a combination of both. Anyway, after the tip broke, I made a quick switch to the extra tip and kept fishing as if nothing had happened AND finished out the week throwing the same heavy ass flies with the spare tip on what has become my new favorite streamer stick.  From what I hear, Rise has been getting some push back from anglers on the strength of their tips based on the fact that they are giving you a spare. Seriously? There are so many things that I could say about that to those that are making that claim. None of those things are pointed in the direction of the rod maker. I will respectfully restrain myself and say quite simply this; I LOVED the fact that all I had to do is reach behind me in the boat and grab that extra tip and make the exchange. I did not and could not blame the rod for the fact that I was changing the tip. All I could think to do was praise the fact that I had the tip to change to. If not, I would have been pretty bummed for 4 more days of intense streamer chucking. Again, the tip replacement will be a breeze when I send it back and I can still fish out the year without having to wait for the new tip. When I contacted Rise about the broken tip I was told that they would happily replace it when I was ready to put the rod down for the year.

Bottom line, I will totally back this rod. Buy one. You won’t be let down.