This past week...

Starting from last Monday, Hit the Huron up for a few hours, no luck for me, heard of a couple having been caught here and there. Lots of shad in the system right now, went back last Thursday, had one fish on and had my spawn bag crushed 2 times.

Saturday I headed up to Glennie, hunted a piece of property Sunday morning with no luck, hung up a stand on a different piece of property, opted out of the evening hunt in order to go fishing with my cousin Kevin and friend Ryan. Hit the mouth of the Tawas for a bit with no luck and an apparant slow bite for everyone else. After that we went and fished the south pier at the mouth of the AuSable for a couple hours, the wind was whippin and waves were crashin, packed it up and headed back to the Tawas for a bit, I had a couple hits with no takers, did see a few walleye caught though. Hunted Sunday morning during the pouring rain, seen nothing but a rabbit. Decided to hit one of my favorite lower AuSable spots for Monday evening. Still some fresher looking kings swimming around and even more not so fresh lookin ones. Kevin hooked up with one nice male and missed a few more while throwing a T-stick. Other than that I only had a couple hits while targetting steel.

Might get back up to the west side this upcoming weekend, really hoping to do so atleast, have some wedding stuff I need to look into while in the area and would really like to get back out on the Manistee with Craig again to get into some chromers.

First day back at work yesterday... The man, the legend... Gordie Howe came through again, had the opportunity to talk fishing with him for a few (for those who don't know, Mr. Hockey is an avid fisherman) He had just came back from North West Washington where he and some friends and family were up fishing the King Salmon run, he pretty much bragged about how big they were out there compared to the fish we have here, talking about pulling in fish between 35 and 50lbs. If I had been thinking I would've slipped him one of my business cards and told him to call me next time he wants to do some fishing here...

Anyways, might get out this week again on the Huron but doubtful, really hoping for a trip up to the west side. Good luck and Tight lines!

17 days and a wake up until DEER CAMP 2009!

Report from 10/7-10/10

Headed up early wednesday morning, arrived at the property in Mesick around noon, unloaded all un-neccesary gear and head for the river. Started off at Sawdust hole, walk fished most of the way down to Tunk hole just to get away from people, seen to steelhead swimming but couldn't hook up with any. Had a couple hookups with some kings while targetting steel so the fights didn't last long before they broke the 6lb test p-line. I switched over to throwin plugs, casting them and sweeping through an active redd. That method produced a couple hook-ups as well, with one being landed, nice hen about 16lbs. She was a little too white-tailed for my liking so she went back in to finish her business. Called it quits on Wed around 3:30 went back to camp and bowhunted the evening, didn't see a thing while in the woods though.

Thursday started off with me fishing near the baot ramp at Tippy for a little while before Craig showed up with the drift boat. We got started off in a couple spots just down from the dam. The a couple salmon hook ups were had before Craig landed this beautiful full color brownie, went right about 20".

After a few more salmon hookups I switched over to throwing hardware for them again. We drifted down to the bottom of Tunk hole where I took this good hen that went 20lbs.

After a couple more king hookups and seeing one steely caught just up from tunk we headed back up stream towards where we first started off. We weren't there long before Craig laid into and landed this early fall chromer. Definately a beautiful fish!

After that we fished for a little while longer before calling it quits for the day. An awesome full day float where some good fish and some good memories were made. Went back to camp and hunted the evening with Gary, niether of us seen anything.

Friday morning put me below Homestead dam on the Betsie, got there early when it was still relatively uncrowded, and made my way down to one of my favorite spots. I started off throwing flies, a nuke egg about 2.5' above a size 8 stone fly nymph. First I took a beautiful bright silver small hen king, she had to be only 6-8lbs, too pretty to keep, So I let her go in hopes she was lost this year and will make her way back next year with some size. After that I took out this nice hen, bout the same size as the one from the day before, but was nice bringing in on the fly.

After that the bite seemed to slow down so I went to thrownin hardware again, ended up pulling this nice male off the redd on the first cast with a silver and black jr thunderstick, a little beat up, but good enough for the smoker.

After that I fished for a little while longer with hardware before hanging it up for the day, I watched a nice king throat my t-stick 3 times before I hooked up with an even nicer king, this thing crushed it and the fight was on! I had it on for about 7 minutes and ended up a hundred yards down stream, this fish had to go 35+! people seen it and were getting out of my way, I heard things like "don't lose that fish!" "get out of his way" and "holy shit" as I went. I got the fish up closer to me to shore to try and beach it, but it took off for another run, before I could loosen the drag it was gone! It didn't bend open the swivel, it didn't break my knot or my line, this thing broke the swivel in half! I reeled in my line and found the barrel end of the swivel still attached, stared in amazement before I retied and made a couple stops on my way out to the truck after that. Once again I made my way back to camp and hunted the evening to not see a single thing other than red squirrels.

Fished for a little bit for steel Saturday morning but with no luck. I packed it up early and headed for a low traffic area of the Betsie in hopes of getting away from the continually growing crowds. Stopped at an unmentionable spot on the Betsie, managed to hook up with one king that ended up shaking off right near the shore. Also seen some steel there, hooked up and landed one 24" chromer that was promptly released for a future fight once he gains a little more weight.

The weather turned to crap once I got back to camp so I ended up taking care of some stuff I needed to get done, packed up and headed home. So here I am until next time I can get out for myself or get some clients lined up for walk-in steel head fishing.

The salmon action is definately slowing down on the two rivers I fished and the steel action is at it's very beginning, should be GAME ON! in 2-3 weeks.

Good luck and Tight lines!

Archery Opener

Archery opener started off colder than a well digger's ass, the fog didn't seem to lift until after 9 am which coincided with the ice finally dissipating from my tree stand. After that the deer began their morning moves. Seen around 9 or 10 deer total, nothing close enough to my stand though. Matt made a horrible miss on a nice mature doe that came in with the like. Also seen one 4pt making his way through the field closely following a doe, which I thought was a little early to be seeing.

The evening hunt turned out to be even less productive with nothing but yearlings, fawns(still with spots) and turkeys running around. My two bonuses of the day were when a fawn spotted me and became very curious as to what the heck I was, he came within a couple yards a few times trying to get me to move. Pretty much occupied both his and my time for the better part of an hour. The other bonus came when the turkeys that had been hanging around most of the day began trying to locate one another to re-group before dark. So when they started cluckin and chirping I did as well, ended up having 3 of them coming right up to me in my ground blind before they realized I wasn't one of the fellow turkeys they were trying to locate. All in all an excellent hunt. I won't get out again until this upcoming Wednesday probably when I head up to Mesick until Friday night, I'll be making some bow hunting and fishing reports from up there, once I'm there, hopefully successful ones at that.

good luck and tight lines!