Last Day Chasing Muskie

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 sunrise on muskie waters

My 2013 Muskie chase has come to an end as of today, but had one of the best sun rises of the year.  Brings to mind the old sailors saying.  Red Sky in the morning, sailors take warning.  As the last day brought with it 20-30 mph winds that chased us off a little early.  Now back to my home waters and the steelhead chase begins in full swing.  It’s truly a mix bag of emotions though.  While Muskie absorb you in every way and almost eat at your sole, I do love my leaping, jumping, cartwheeling, quick-running, dime silver friends that I will be coming home too.  I will miss the muskie waters and look forward to the chase in 2014.  During the winter thoughts and patterns will be developed and new techniques will come to mind. If any of this muskie stuff interests you I am booking additional muskie fly fishing guide days in 2014.  Feel free to contact me direct at jray@mangledfly.com

Thank you to all that joined me this fall season!

 

2013 Fall Steelhead season is under way!

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David S. pictured below with a great example of what my life will be obsessed with over the next 5 months.  Fall fish look in great shape so far, they are big and they are mean.  Can’t wait to stretch out some line and get the two-hander firing once again.

David is also wearing the Mangled Fly Hoodie, great way to keep warm on those cold morning starts.  One of the best Hoodies I have found, and personally I wear a hoodie almost everyday on the river.

So close I can taste it.

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If you follow the blog and or if you know me personally you know fall is one of my favorite times.  Being busy chasing the muskie has caused a little bit of jealousy on my part of my fellow guides finding some of the early steelhead back home on the Manistee.  But I will be back home shortly chasing the fish that I love.  At this time I have a cancellation on Oct 8th if anybody is interested.  Contact me via email or text my cell.

2013 week 1 Muskie Adventure

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Well not really a week but 12 days of Muskie 2013 just came to an end, still have 3 more days planned and can’t wait to get back.  Wanted to throw up a quick pic, and give a couple highlights to the first part of the adventure.

    • First trip was 2 days with two new muskie anglers and we popped the muskie cherry on day one.  With each angler landing muskie, as I reported in a previous post we found the first tiger muskie on that trip.
    • First muskie on topwater was accomplished going into the next week.  Have this also on video and will be editing this with Erik Rambo.  Muskie video highlights from a couple days filming above and below the surface will be coming shortly.  Look for more on that soon.
    • Had a chance to guide two women for the first time for Muskie, with a bunch of rain falling the day before river came up and seemed like most fish changed there feeding lines, but we did land a Muskie that day along with a half dozen pike.  Ann M. picture to the (lower right) with her first ever Muskie on a fly.

 

  • Jay Hickey (below) first time Muskie angler with his first and also my biggest fish of the trip, was an end to the first part.  Great fish Jay!

Inland Oceans Book Now Available

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One of the greatest most unexplored fly fishing frontiers finally has a book that will help more people tap into a great resource.  Jerry Darkes is the author, of this well written, full of information, fly patterns, stories and maps to help anglers get into fishing the great lakes.  With endless miles of shoreline full of browns, coho, chinook, smallmouth, carp, and muskie.  It’s almost impossible to hit all the ports, harbors, and river mouths in a lifetime.  This book will help narrow in the hotspots if you have a desire to fish this great resource.

Buy this at your local fly shop first, but if they won’t get it for you, here is a quick link.

fly fishing the great lakes

Got one! King Salmon on a Streamer

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Went hunting this morning with my Scott S4s  9010/2, Wet Cell Tip 350 Grain from SA, and a well tied Russ Maddin Flash Deceiver.  And Scored.  Fished this morning with Russ Maddin and Alex Lafkas, thanks for all the laughs boyz.  Check out Alex’s webpage for additional fishing information and reports.

Have to be honest was happy to hook this guy, and not one of the 30+ pounders I have been hearing about.  Heard of a 39 pound King landed yesterday in Charleviox, Mi.

Jon Ray with King Salmon

During the day

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Not all cool things happen during the night in June.  Day time glory caught on film.  Have more filming of what happened here.  This is only a screen shot.  But some really cool daytime things are happening that we are going to expand upon.

brown trout eating damsel fly

June Brown Trout

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It is the season of the big bug, with Hex grabbing so much of the attention anglers really do over look the early June season.  As Iyso’s, stones, and now the “new” Manistee river Gray Drake.  As I was talking to Ed McCoy last night, when do you ever remember seeing so many Gray Drakes?  Will be fun to watch over the next couple years, how this hatch and spinner fall effects our June fishing.  Especially the early season, it has been a day saver some nights this year.  Not that we didn’t have Gray’s before, but we do not remember in our short guide careers having this many, and for this long.  I’m so glad that I had McCoy’s Gray Drake Spinner from Orvis this year.  It is still undefeated haven’t been refused by a fish yet.

Kean O. below with a stonefly eating michigan brown trout.

michigan brown trout

Lamprey match the hatch

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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.

IMG_7066 IMG_7097

 

A Tight Loop Spring Edition – Carp Article

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John Stefanciw (chewy) and I did a Grand Traverse Bay carp article for A Tight Loop, you can check it out on page 12 of the latest edition of this midwestern online magazine.  Late May and early June are prime time for these brutes on a fly.  100% visual experience.  More coming soon about carp on a fly, working on a fly tying video and soon will be posting an article on the Hawkins Fly Fishing site.

traverse city carp