Fish or Die Trailer
Not sure I’m man enough for the skin eating parasite . But some amazing footage.
Not sure I’m man enough for the skin eating parasite . But some amazing footage.
Each spring, the river floods, and at some point I have a few days off. It is not that steelhead can’t be caught on those days. Fly fishing, however, requires that the fish see the fly and if I don’t feel that this minimum requirement can be met, cancellations are the likely result. Steelhead are of course a great gamefish. They are my favorite fish. I also have a tremendous respect for steelhead and other salmonids as they migrate. They really do amazing things as they traverse rivers big and small. When I had some cancellations last week, I visited several small streams and witnessed these marvels of nature working their way up river.
Steelhead take advantage of small creeks when they are flooded. As soon as this tiny, tiny creek became high enough for travel, up came the fish in droves.
In any creek, steelhead take advantage of breaks in the current. In fishing terms, these are snags. Steelhead love structure just like any other fish. They need the structure for protection in small places but they also need the break in current that these provide.
In this stream, a series of tiny water falls existed. I did not see the steelhead leaping over them, but they had definitely been clearing them, most likely at night.
The fact that there was little water in the stream was not an issue to these fish at all. I saw some fish temporarily stranded as they worked their way through the shallows.
Steelhead are a precious commodity, this year more than ever. The Great Lakes fisheries are in a period of change, with the decline in baitfish populations and the subsequent increased pressure on other species, such as steelhead. Now more than ever, they need a little respect. This means protecting the fish while they are in the rivers, and protecting them on the small scale even as we fish and handle them. They deserve it!
Jim Dexter from the DNR explains a little of the life cycle and the exciting new strain of GLM in thornapple lake in Midwest Michigan.
I have no affiliation with the people who make a certain product, but I have to say that some of their stuff is brilliant. The product that I am speaking of is ice dub, and between ice dub and the various colors of flashabou, I could guide every day with little else than thread and hook (though I do like some feathers and fur too:)). During the months of January-March, I rely very heavily on one color family of ice dub. The colors are olive, peacock-eye, peacock, and black peacock. These colors seem to imitate the same things to the fish. It could be that the sheen on this color scheme is just plain appealing to fish (it is an attractor color). On the other hand, it could be that many of the bait fish in the river take on a peacockish tint during the winter months.
When I started looking underwater in the winter, I was surprised at just how many creatures had a bluish/green tint in the winter months. The darter above is just one example of this color scheme in nature during the winter and spring. Crayfish, scuds, gobies, and other fish also have this peacock overtone to their colors.
Whether it is just naturally attractive, or whether it is due to the colors occurring in nature, or some combination of the two, I am not entirely certain. At the end of the day, these colors of ice dub just work great for catching predator fish.
Through the first half of the year, flies with this color scheme can be fished in several different ways. They can be swung on sink tips through flat runs during the winter months for steelhead. Another option is to fish the soft edges of the stream for resident trout with smaller olive or peacock based flies. I really enjoy swinging wet flies for trout and this is a great extension of wet fly fishing through the winter months. Yet another option is to tie weighted sculpins and fish them below an indicator for trout. Often times a nymph pattern is fished on a dropper between the indicator and the weighted sculpin.
This post mentions the months of January through May. However, as a guide, these colors are in my box year around, no matter what species I am guiding for. Give this color family a shot on your local stream. I am pretty sure that it will work!
Thanks for reading this!
If you haven’t heard their is a new invasive species in the Michigan waters, the Mud Snail. In the past two days two new articles have been written about stopping the spread of the Mud Snail. Links are below. Please wash your waders, wading boots, boats and trailers if you plan on fishing different waters this spring and summer.
Best quote of this short film for me was ” I’m a guide, because I like guiding”. Great short film by Noble Labs
Through The Guides from The Noble Lab on Vimeo.
Each year, in February and March, salmon fry pop out of the gravel and quicky grow to be an inch in length. They feed on anything, including the remnants of their ancestors. As this process begins, they become a food source for everything else in our rivers, including all manner of fish, birds, etc. Steelhead feed heavily on salmon fry, and there are things about these fry that make them vulnerable to a predator like a steelhead.
Often times, water is high in the spring. When water levels become high, the fry are pushed to the edges of the river. Any run that holds steelhead near the edge of the river in these conditions will be a great place to look for a steelhead on a fry pattern.
Notice from the picture above the prominence of the eye in the salmon fry. Your fly must exhibit this trait if it is going to be effective. This is especially true if you are fishing the fry pattern as a nymph. The slow nymphing presentation will make the fish picky about whether the fly has this one prominent feature.
Fry patterns can also be morphed into good swung fly patterns. Because they are prone to be towards the surface of the river, a small swung fly that is the shape of the fry, but not necessarily the same color, works great throughout the spring. A small black and copper leech, for example, the size and shape of a fry, is deadly during the spring. Often times it pays to swing small and colorful flies in the spring.
This is a typical night of tying for me at this time of the year; fry patterns in one form or another are always on the menu. You can tie the thorax of these patterns any color, but pink always seems to work the best. Typically, some of the holographic colors of flash work well on sunny days, as they make the fly twinkle in the current.
As the salmon fry head downriver and grow to a larger size, the process is repeated as steelhead and sucker fry emerge later in the spring. These are on the menu of steelhead, brown trout, and every other predator too.
Thanks for reading this post! Get out on the river and enjoy spring-like fishing conditions!
Spring has sprung and it’s time for spring steelhead. Few reports and articles you should check out if your interested in chasing Spring Steelhead.
Having been to many of these places in Michigan this is a great look into the beauty of the Mitten state.
Burst Into Northern Michigan from Chris Zuker on Vimeo.
It’s been over a decade since Bob Linsenman and Kelly Galloup’s “Modern Streamers for Trophy Trout” really took the idea of targeting big trout with big flies to the mainstream. Since then there have been tremendous advances – in gear, in fly design, in knowledge, and in the number of anglers hucking big meal to entice the river monsters out from under the log.
Now a new book from Pennsylvania’s George Daniel has added to the must-read list for the streamer angler. In “Strip-Set: Fly-Fishing Techniques, Tactics, Patterns for Streamers” Mr. Daniel takes all of these advances, mixes them with some insights from some of today’s top streamer purists, and delivers a tool to take your streamer fishing to the next level.
Interestingly, the title topic – strip setting – is mentioned only briefly. As a recent convert to the muskie game, I understand the advantage of the strip set. But it also makes a ton of sense when pursuing trout. Trout-setting only moves the fly away from the fish, adds slack in the line, and generally lowers your odds of a solid hook-up. By contrast, a strip set creates immediate, positive contact. Makes perfect sense! This is but one example of the pragmatic, direct insight that Daniel presents in the book. Can’t wait for this Spring’s big trout hunt! Missed hooksets have been my nemesis in the past.
For years a couple of my friends who are knowledgeable anglers have extolled to “fish the fly, not the line”. In principle, that sounds simple. But what does it MEAN? And how do you actually accomplish that goal? George Daniel delivers that answers at a level that totally changed my thinking and strategy. The book includes extensive discussions of line types – floating, sink-tip, and full-sinking – as well as when to deploy each type.
Another interesting area is his extensive discussion of floating lines. Here in Michigan, we seldom fish streamers on a floating line. It’s generally a sink-tip or intermediate line match to current, depth, etc. At first I thought this to be just a quirk due to the fact the he spends most of his time fishing his native Pennsylvania (though it is clear from his book that he LOVES fishing Michigan) where the waters are typically not as deep. But before long I realized that he was really taking my knowledge to the next level – in some situations, even in deep water, there are significant advantages floating lines offer. This is a recurring theme in this book. There are a lot of tactics that can impact your success; consider them all carefully!
These are but a few of the excellent topics covered in this solid book on the streamer game. Mr. Daniel writes in an engaging style, covers concepts thoroughly but not too extensively, and really addresses the gamut of issues, challenges, and conditions the streamer angler may encounter.
This week I had the opportunity to meet and tie with George Daniel. His personality really reflected the book – straightforward, but with plenty of friendliness and no need for excessive flash. Speaking of flash; his patterns seem incredibly sparse alongside what we’re used to seeing here in Michigan.
I’m eager to put my new knowledge, skills, and insights to work on my next streamer trip! If you’re a streamer angler, put this book on your “must have” list. You won’t be disappointed!
-Sean-