May 2013

New Bug 2 Tails

May 30, 2013/in Bugs that Fish Eat, fly patterns, Trout Fishing/by Jon Ray

So from time to time you see a bug on the water, and at certain time of year it stands out. It separates it’s self from every other bug on the water. When this happens it must be funny to be the birds in the trees, watching me chase after the bug in my Clackacraft. Rowing as fast as I can forward, backwards, and side to side. Making the boat spin and dart the best I can to get the angle to grab this bug. What fishing guides do to learn more about their craft and the environment they fish in.

Now if you have ever fished with me for dries I’m a simple match the size and match the color kind of guy. My first questions about bugs on the water always is, are the fish eating them? But the mystery bug below if it can come out in enough numbers will for sure have fish looking up. So with my limited knowledge I always ask Ann Miller author of the best Hatch Guide book I know of for the Midwest.

Current word is still out, feel free to add your input. The reason for the problem is the 2 tail dilemma. Will have it figured out shortly but just wanted to post the pic. Trout fishing has been real good, still have one day open in June the 5th if you want to get out for a prime Iyso period. Shoot me an email.

I like the reflective nature of this picture. Had to shoot at 640 ISO because of how late in the evening this was so thus the grainy nature of the image. Plus no tripod in the boat.

Gray Drake

May 26, 2013/in Bugs that Fish Eat, Trout Fishing/by Jon Ray

A gray drake on it’s last leg. With the next couple days coming back to normal, look in the evening sky for this great bug. Also if you havn’t already picked up your gray drake spinners pick up a hand full of Ed McCoy’s Gray Drake Spinner.

Brown Trout Feeding Video

May 26, 2013/in Bugs that Fish Eat, manistee river, Trout Fishing, Videos/by Jon Ray

Here is a little lesson for you to learn. You know those patterns that you fished last year that you put back in your box. Make sure to check the hook closely. As this trout taught us, after we hooked him, he made quick work of us and lost him, because the hook did not make it. This guide standby pattern had rusted out through the winter and was too weak to land a nice trout eating sulphurs.

slow_mo_trout

Jaws

May 17, 2013/in Uncategorized/by Jon Ray

Jaws of a Pike. Had a chance to fun fish for pike on an inland lake, captured this picture with a GoPro3 and took a screen shot of the video. Hard to see but the fly is totally sucked into the jaws of this Alpha predator.

13 or 15 chestnut lamprey lost count

May 16, 2013/in Uncategorized/by Jon Ray

I have never seen this before, a couple weeks ago I set my record , and today I broke the record for most lamprey on a fish, with what I thought was 15 lamprey but only see 13 in the picture. We will say 13 as the official mark.

Baltimore Oriole

May 15, 2013/in Birds and Turtles, Bugs that Fish Eat, Picture of the Day/by Jon Ray

One of favorite birds of the early summer has soon up, the Baltimore Oriole. This means as I talked before in a previous blog that sulphurs are going to hatch soon. Mother nature has certain relationships and this over the years has proven true. But until I see my first sulphur (guessing this weekend) I’ll just enjoy by bright orange friends.

Goshawk Video

May 13, 2013/2 Comments/in Birds and Turtles, Videos/by Jon Ray

If you follow the site you know I enjoy taking pictures of birds of prey, this Goshawk video is amazing. Imagine this bird chasing it’s prey down through the woods, thank goodness this bird has not grown any larger to chase down humans.

Lamprey match the hatch

May 6, 2013/3 Comments/in Bugs that Fish Eat, Jon Ray, manistee river, michigan trout fishing, Trout Fishing/by Jon Ray

With the official start of lamprey season (chestnut lamprey), the biggest match the hatch we have here in Michigan for our streamer program. Not that there is really a season for lamprey, but I just happened to notice they the crawled out of the mud this week. Some people have told me trout don’t eat lamprey. Okay. If they don’t eat them, I’m fine with that, but they sure don’t like them. Pictured below is a trout we caught this weekend on an imitation lamprey streamer pattern. This trout had 11 different lamprey attached to him and out of anger destroyed my simple fur and feather pattern.

May Dry Fly Video

May 2, 2013/in fly patterns, Trout Fishing, Videos/by Jon Ray

Worked with Chuck Hawkins yesterday and taped a couple video’s that we just posted on our Hawkins Youtube channel. Did work separating audio from video and inserting photo’s inside the video to display detail. Working with audio is not an easy as it sounds, but enjoy the video and hope it helps bring to light how good May dry fly fishing can be.