Thank you to everybody that follows Mangled Fly Media blog, Happy New Year. Have some exciting things that I plan to post, and show in 2013. Thank you for a great year. Picture below was caught yesterday and did not think about until just now, but this LRB was the last fish caught in 2012 by MFM.
Happy New Year!
Smallmouth and Musky Favorite!
The Titan Taper has been a standard line in my boat for a couple years, and now that it’s coming out in a new color, I have a list of waters that are going to get the Titan treatment. Thank you SA!
This heavily weight forward fly line has been so good in the boat and from shore. If you are fishing large wind resistant flies, like bass poppers or 6-10″ Musky Flies this line works awesome. With it’s thin running line and textured surface you will be able to deliver your flies to the furthest target. The Titan now comes in sunset / willow which features a willow head to sneak up on wary fish and sunset running line to sight the direction of your cast.
The new Titan is available in 6-10 weight which is perfect for midwest waters.
Thank you to the SA Extreme Intermediate Skagit more and more people are enjoying streamer fishing for steelhead. The line has changed the way I teach and as we all know the end result is the pull. When you get the pull you build the confidence. When you land more fish more people want to try. Thank you SA. Pictured is Becky A. with her first steelhead from the Big Manistee, she was streamer fishing in mid December.
I’m not one that plays too often with photoshop to distort or alter my pictures too often. But playing with the Saturation of a photo taking out or highlighting colors is another form of art. Here is Dan C. with his first steelhead caught on a streamer. In Lightroom I zapped out all the colors except blue to hight light the bright sunny winter day and his blue patagonia jacket. My picture of the day as another steelhead comes to the big ugly streamer pattern.
Still have a whole bunch of confidence for the big ugly flies to work in the cold weather, as the season progresses the cold water will so down the response to the swung fly, but currently things are still rocking. As I was witness to a fish “almost” taking one of my spey outfits. Thank goodness we had a tight grip on the rod. Thinking about investing in a bungee cord type of device to secure the rod to the caster. Look for it online or at your local fly shop. Gotta love that pull when the tug like that! Get out and cast before liquid turns to solid.
With the start of December we are starting to get into the big bad winter bucks. The time of year where we have a chance at some of the biggest steelhead of the year. Winter bucks will start to display red checks and strips, and with hopefully some winter back drop. Photo’s can just jump out. With a hazy,wet, damp, blur your lens kind of day yesterday, this photo turned out best if we made it black and white. Winston from Ontario, Canada with a great fish that ran us all over the river.
Had a chance to test out some new equipment this past week with Capt. Brad Petzke of Rivers North Guide Service and watched/filmed him as he hooked in to this beautiful wild Lake Superior Steelhead. 
Erik Rambo shot a video of a cool release shot of a steelhead swimming away along the sand in the lower river. This video was shot this week in the high sun so we had good light and low clear water provides for a perfect effect. Took the video and converted it to a jpeg and found this shot that is hard to get with just a camera. Thank you Erik.
Was just sent this article about the future of Musky in Michigan. Have my fingers crossed that some new regulations and different tactics by the DNR will lead to exciting new fishing in our inland lakes.
Article by the DNR about what they have been up too regarding Musky!
So I know in my hearts of hearts that as the water temps cool, I’ll only have a couple more chances at the leaping, cartwheeling, summersaulting, jumping, kicking your butt steelhead leaps that I try to burn into the images of film (DSLR). But here is one from the week that turned out okay. Had a chance at true glory but had the wrong ISO and AF for the moment, and all I captured was blur.
Grand Traverse Bay Smallmouth Bass