Silver Bullet Fishing

Written by Nick Cassidy

I should have known that it wasn’t going to be my day when after eating an early breakfast at Denny’s and waiting for our guide to pick us up a bum approached me and tried to start a fight.  Apparently, when a homeless guy is on his last cigarette and doesn’t have a light and asks you for one, you are not supposed to say, “Sorry man, I don’t smoke”  He kept staring at me, so I said, “I don’t have a lighter. Wish I could help you”   Apparently those seem to be the words that set off a hobo.  He started shouting profanities in his slurred drunken stooper, and then said “Since you can’t help me out with a lighter how about some money…like $100?”  It was definitely a different approach and one which he was probably sent down from the big leagues of pan handling to perfect in front of Denny’s before he is sent back up to Duvall Street where the big money is.   After I shared a few words of my own with him and tried to critique his approach, he went on to the next bystander and opened with the same line.  

Our guide Ryan picked us shortly after and took us up to the marina on Stock Island about 6 miles north of Key West.  This trip had been postponed for 3 days due to the excessive winds and this day seemed like it would be calm enough to get out on some flats.  I had expressed interest in hooking a tarpon, so we immediately headed for some mangroves.  At our first stop we spotted some tarpon in a cove and Ryan poled us close.  He told me that I might only have one shot at these fish.  Once we got close enough we couldn’t see any fish.  We just waited for a couple of minutes and then two tarpon appeared from underneath the mangroves.  I made a perfect cast and stripped the fly slow.  One tarpon came up and nosed the fly and turned away.  With my next strip, the other tarpon engulfed the fly.  I set the hook as hard as I could and the tarpon leaped out of the water and started to run.  With his next jump the hook popped out and the fish was gone.    Apparently, I made one mistake…with tarpon you do not set the hook with your rod.  You have to keep the rod pointed at the fish and pull the line to set the hook which will set the hook deeper.   We waited for about 15 minutes to see if any other tarpon would appear, but had no luck.  We went to several other mangrove spots but didn’t see a fish.  The tide was so high that most of the tarpon were in the mangroves.  With a lower tide they would be concentrated on the edges.   After burning about an hour searching for tarpon we decided to head for the flats and search out some bonefish.  As soon as we hit a promising sandbar the wind picked up…way up.  With winds pushing 30 mph and a strong tide going out, fishing the flats with a fly was basically impossible.   Ryan explained that our best option at this point would be to chum for bones and use spinning gear, at which time Andrea and I both could fish.  Since I wanted to see her fish and I didn’t want to cast in 3o mph winds, I put up the fly rod having made only one cast. 

This was when the day got really interesting.  We were fishing with spinning rods, tipped with a jig and shrimp.  Ryan told us that for some reason whenever a couple comes out on the boat and has to spin fish the woman always catches more fish.   Within the first 5 minutes of her line going in the water Andrea had a fish on.  After a couple of minutes of her drag squeeling she landed a nice shark (I can’t remember what kind).  By this time I had my line in the water.  Then I had to reel it in again because Andrea had another fish…an even bigger shark.   After I finished my camera duty for the second time in the matter of 10 minutes, I threw my line out again.  Then all of a sudden I heard the drag squeeling again.  She had another shark on.  This is when she started apologizing for being a “Fish Hog”.   We had a few minutes of inactivity and then Ryan suggested moving.  The next two spots we tried didn’t produce fish in the first 10 minutes so we kept moving.  Then we stopped at an area where Ryan said he had good success as of late.  Sure enough, as soon as Andrea’s jig hit the bottom her rod was bent and her drag was squeeling.  She continually apologized for catching all of the fish while posing for another picture with her catch.  After the shark’s release we both rebaited.  This time Andrea told me to stand in her “lucky spot” and to “Try holding the rod at more of an angle like me”.   Obviously I didn’t have the right angle because in less than 5 minutes she had on a real drag squeeler.  This time she turned to me as the fish was running, holding the rod with one hand, and said “Why don’t you reel this one in so you can see how it feels?”   She might as well have just kicked me in the junk.  Anyway, after a few minutes of fighting the fish she landed a beautiful bonefish.   Andrea continued to apologize as we threw the lines back in the water.  Within 10 minutes she was at it again, hooking into another large shark.   After she landed the fish, I tried to cast in her spot and then tilted the rod at a little more of an angle as Andrea had suggested a few fish ago.  Unfortunately, time was running out, the wind was picking up, and a storm was moving in, so we decided to pull in the lines and head for shore.  We tried to stop at one mangrove spot, but by this time the tide had dropped so much we couldn’t get close enough.  The day ended with Andrea landing 6 fish to my 0.   She had a great time, but kept complaining all the way back to our hotel about how sore her arm was from fighting fish all day.   Despite only getting one cast with a fly rod, it was a good day on the water and maybe one that will get Andrea into the sport a little more.  She did say she would love to go out again, but maybe next time I should reel in a few of her fish so her arms wouldn’t get as tired.

Written by Nick Cassidy

I knew that I wouldn’t do much fishing this trip, but figured I would at least be able to find a few chances to go after a tarpon or bonefish.   We got in at about noon yesterday and were greeted by monsoon rains and high winds.  We went to our hotel to hang out for a bit and once the rain stopped we ventured out for a bite to eat at Sloppy Joes with hopes of listening to local musician Terry Cassidy (I am serious!).  Unfortunately, Terry was sick so we had to settle for his back-ups.

  We watched the sunset on the west side of the island and then walked around for a few hours until we hit Mallory Square.  That is when I heard some splashing off the docks.  Tarpon were everywhere and were feeding aggressively.  Unfortunately, it was already 10:30 pm and I didn’t have a fishing license.

I didn’t fret too much because I had a charter trip planned for today, but with the high winds it was postponed.  AJ and I decided to rent a car and drive to mile marker 37 and Bahia Honda State Park.  I heard there were a few flats there that offer decent fishing and it has what was voted “Best Beach In the US” (at least it was in 1992).  This time, armed with a fishing licence I took a walk and found some promising water.

I went back to the car and before I even got out my stuff I realized that I left my leader material in my bag back at the hotel room.  Instead of driving back 7 miles to the bait shop I decided to go over to the docks and see if anyone had a 10 foot piece of mono they could give me.  At first no one was there, but I found one of the “Discard your Line Here” bins and decided to see if I could find something there that would work for a leader.  There was nothing in there longer than a foot, but then a guy came in with and started prepping his boat.  He was kind enough to cut me off a 30 ft section of mono and then I was back to finding my fish.

I drove back down to the flats where I planned on fishing and started getting my stuff around and that is when I noticed that I couldn’t find my fly rod.  After searching the car I decided to call back to the car rental company in Key West to see if I somehow left it there.  After I asked Bob at Tropical Rentals if he found a black tube with a fly rod in it, he said “Yup, you left it layin’ on the counter.   I bet it is tough fishin’ without it.  Have you tried attaching your reel to a long stick?” 

Anyway, I scrapped fishing for the rest of the day and got some sun on the beach with Andrea.  Honestly, it was probably too windy to fish, especially with my limited casting ability.  Maybe I will find those Tarpon again tonight.  I am supposed to go out fishing on Sunday with a guide, but only if the weather improves.

Written by Dave Kern

On Sunday afternoon (6/20) Joe, Sam and I took a quick trip to the Manistee after reports of the possibility of a Hex drop.  We left at about 2:30 and were fishing before 6:00.    We each hooked a number of small browns and brooks prior to dusk throwing both streamers and caddis dries.  

At 10:00 a light Hex drop occurred and a moderate feed began.  Joe hooked, landed and released a 16+” brown – his largest stream trout to-date.   It turned out to be an extremely enjoyable trip – and we may try one more night if Buck decides he’s up to it.  Pictures Here

Read Nick’s fishing report immediately below.  I think its time to re-fit the fly reels:

Written by Nick Cassidy

I am a little late with this fishing report, but late is better than never.   Andrea and I made the trip up to Traverse City for the Memorial Day Weekend and were lucky to have our families join us.  We rented a house right on the East Arm of Grand Traverse Bay.   I packed my 5wt travel rod with hopes of hitting some local trout streams,  but we never had to venture out of sight of the house for some drag squeeling action and a ton of fun.

   In the morning we saw a few carp cruising the shallows so I rigged a spinning rod with a silver spider and a tiny chunk of orange twister tail.  After hooking several, I decided to go back and get my fly rod.  Nick Pennington (now called High Pockets by Dave) did the same.  Nick rigged up with a brown wooly bugger with rubber legs and after a few minutes he hooked and landed a big carp.  I followed suit shorlty after.  I began to gain a new appreciation for for these monsters.  They are very spooky, but if you spot them with their tail up they will hit.  Several times I would see them feeding and slowly strip a bugger in front of them and watch them suck in the fly.  Then the fight was on!  I have never had so many fish take me into my backing.  One fish I had to run out as far as I could so it didn’t line me.   The only thing that would have made this type of fishing more fun would have been a bow and arrow or a fly rod with a little more backbone than a 5 wt. 

We also made a few side trips to the Elk River in Elk Rapids, which was only about 5 miles north of our rental house.  We caught several smallmouth, a few trout, and High Pockets caught a big carp. 

I am heading out for a float down the Etowah River for some stripers tonight.  This beginning to get personal.  I have made about a dozen trips for stripers in the rivers near my house and have only ever hooked one.  Maybe tonight is the night.  I will be taking a fly rod and a spinning rod.

Written by Joe Robbins

May 29th marked 41 consecutive years that Eric Kochenderfer and myself have been on the waters of Cedar Lake for the bass fishing season opener. The string was in jeopardy of being broken this year with Eric’s daughter Melissa being an expectant mother. The big event could have occurred at any moment, but obviously baby realized the gravity of the situation and waited to make the grand entrance and the tradition lives on. However, I would like to add that I couldn’t think of a better way for a tradition to have to come to an end. 

The weather was perfect, sunny and warm with a slight breeze, the water was clear and the bass were hungry. We boated about a dozen and a half fish with many more that threw the hook. Size wise, nothing in the keeper range but on ultra light equipment such as we were using, even a nine incher is a good tussle. The only exception to the bass we caught was a lone 8 inch bluegill that Eric pulled in; what a beauty!

Postscript: 

As mentioned in my initial report, this year our tradition on Cedar Lake was in danger of coming to an end due to the impending arrival of a mystery guest. A mystery no more, Lincoln Paul Taylor came into the world this morning. Weighed in at better than 8 pounds. No catch and release this time, congrats to the new parents.

Written by Steve Kern

On May 1, Nate and I drove to Newaygo to the cabin my brother-in-law Al White has on the Muskegon River. Al was there with two of his boys Kenny and Greg. We split up into two boats, Al and I in one, and the boys in the other. It wasn’t too long and Al spotted some steelhead on a bed. We anchored the boat and crawled out. Al went after the steelhead with his 7 wt rod and I went to fish some runs for native trout with my 5 wt. I think on my 12th cast I landed a nice 12 inch brown.

 I caught a few smaller ones before we moved on to look some more. We managed to find a few steelhead, but frequently we spooked them or Al got tired of me hitting him in the head with the weight and egg hook. Sorry Al. But we were having a great time.   Al did manage to foul hook and land a huge male, which we let go.

Meanwhile in the boys boat, there was more success. Nate managed to hook several fish, but they soon broke off in the brush. Later his cousins hooked a couple and handed the rod off to Nate to land. So Nate did land a couple nice steelhead. Greg landed another one as well so the boys ended up with three for the day. We had a great time learning more about steelheading.

Pictures Here

Written by Dave Johnson

Brother Dan and I fished from 5:00 p.m. till 8:00 p.m on April 18 out of AuGres. We trolled using crawler harness and body baits. Tried just about everything in the box and it was very slow.

We caught 1 walleye around 20 inches and that was in the channel on the way out to the mouth.  Earlier in the day my brother caught 5 walleye over 20 inches about 2 miles out in 20′ of water drifting with crawler harnesses so I guess the fish quit biting when the wind shifted later in the afternoon.

Via Joe Robbins:

2010 Trout Stream Regulations

There is a new trout stream designation this year – its titled GR, or Gear Restricted.   Click here and read the heading for the description of this new stream type.  Page 6 (Kalkaska County) list the regulations for the Manistee above the C.C.C. Bridge.

Written by Nick Cassidy

For spring break this year Andrea vetoed my request for a Michigan Steelhead trip for a cruise through the Eastern Caribbean which included stops in the Dominican Republic, The US and British Virgin Islands, and the Bahamas.  I packed my 6 piece 5wt fly rod just in case I got a chance to chase some fish while AJ was lying on the beach.  While I had the rod with me in the Dominican, there wasn’t much time for fishing.  Most of our time was spent driving ATVs through villages, visiting schools, and giving school supplies and baseball equipment to the kids. 

 Our next stop was on St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.  We took a tour of the island and then ended up at a nice sandy beach.  There appeared to be a few coral reefs a few yards off the shore, but upon snorkeling over the black area I noticed that it was a solid school of baitfish.  Every once in a while I would see the bait fish part and then schools of huge tarpon (80+ pounds) would swim through.

  After seeing a few pods of 10-15 tarpon I decided to go back to shore and grab my fly rod.  I walked down passed the beach and climbed over some rocks to another black cloud of baitfish.  I could clearly see a f  ew very large tarpon cruising through the baitfish, most of which were within casting distance from shore.   However, with a strong headwind, large rocks in my backcast, and weighted flies the casting was very difficult.  I ended up placing a few flies right in front of a few of the monsters, but nothing was interested.  I had one barracuda chase my fly and swipe at it a few times, but I failed to hook up.  The only solid hook set I had on this trip was into my back.  A gust of wind caught my fly and I ended up snagging myself right in the middle of the back.  Luckily I was able to pull the hook out fairly easily.

  After about an hour of flailing at the tarpon I decided to head back to the beach.  Even if I did get one to take my fly, the best case scenario would have been a lost fly.  Worst case scenario would have been another broken rod or the loss of all of my fly line and backing.  A 5wt rod which struggles with a stocky trout would not have held up to a fish the size of a 5th grader. 

Our last stop was on Stirrup Caye, a small island in the Bahamas which is privately owned by the Norwegian Cruise Line.  I met another guy on the cruise who packed his fly rod and planned on fishing the backside of the island.  We hit the flats just after noon and began walking across to a large sandbar.  The area was much like Saginaw Bay.  You could walk for miles and it would only be knee deep.  The major difference was that the water was crystal clear, there weren’t carp rotting in the shallows, and there was a major tide which started coming in at about 1:30.

  We fould one deep hole near shore where we each landed a few small barracuda and I landed a nice size (maybe 2 pound) fish.  I am not sure what it was but it fought great.  Occassionaly we saw a few large fish cruising in the shallows, which we both believed to be bonefish.  Despite getting several casts close to them, we could get one to strike.  I ended up switching to a gold streamer called a Rolex which is commonly used for trout up in Tennessee.  While walking through the flats I spotted a bonefish cruising.  I through a perfect cast.  After a few guick retrieves, the fish turned and picked up the fly.  I had a solid hook set.  However, I had a lot of extra line out which got tangled around my reel handle when it started to run.  By the time I tightened down to free the line, the fish snapped my 10 pound test.  While short lived, it was one of the most exciting hook ups in my fishing career.  I would love to make another trip back to the Caribbean, only the next time it will be with a flats boat and no less than an 8wt rod.  I ended up landing 5 or so small fish, nothing of any significance, but a great experience nonetheless.

The 2010 edition of the the Tour de Thumb began with a great breakfast in Sebewaing, slowed down due to a van breakdown in Caseville and finally picked up with some great fishing at Grindstone.  This year’s excursion was populated by Eddie Williams, the Licavoli boys:  Frank, Tommy, Sam and Sam II; the Kern guys: Harry, Mike and Dave; Joe Robbins, Dale Manley and Nick Pennington.

We fished in Caseville for a couple of hours while the van was repaired with only a couple of small perch and some nice smallmouth caught.  Later we drove to Grindstone, where casting for steelies and browns we couldn’t keep the huge smallmouth off our hooks.  Nick was the expert, hooking and landing about a dozen fish.  Sam II and Tommy drove to Rock Falls and reminisce of days past surf casting for steelhead and browns.  Unfortunately the boys caught none on this day.

This trip marked the 33rd consecutive trip for Sam and it was probably the most beautiful day of the thirty-three.  The temperatures hit the low 80′s for the day and not a drop of rain could be found.  Compare this day to last year’s trip.

POSSESSION LIMITS – WALLEYES

The possession limits for walleyes has been changed from five in possession to ten for the 2010 year.  Click here for the story.

DEAN KITCHEN ENVY

I watched a couple of Dean’s YouTubes and thought, “Hey, I’ve got one too!”

TROUT APPAREL

Your one stop Trout T-shirt shop.

Check out this site for a video of ice fishing on Lake Superior this year.
http://www.youtube.com/user/JigHeadsTV#p/u/1/2pa_keWYMMc&promo1

I’m not a paranoid guy, but  I’m getting more nervous every day.   This is from ESPN:

“The Obama administration will accept no more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing the nation’s oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.”

Click Here to read the full story.

The article goes on to say:

…………..”Every angler needs to be aware because if it’s not happening in your backyard today or tomorrow, it will be eventually.  “We have one of the largest voting blocks in the country and we need to use it. We must not sit idly by.”

More on this issue today from National Review Online:

…….” those groups [radical enviromental groups] have one big thing in common: the conviction that green ideology trumps ordinary human freedoms. And, as this task force seems poised to prove, the Obama administration is all too willing to turn that conviction into national policy.

Click Here to read the National Review article.

Sam and Frank seem to have a thing for catching small perch.  A couple of years ago Frank caught a teeny perch in Caseville Harbor, and last Monday Sam snared the little critter pictured above.  Both of these little fish seem impossible to catch on hook and line, but the Licavoli brothers did just that. I guess it must speak to their tremendous fishing skills.  Now we have to settle a dispute, “Which is the smallest perch?”

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How to Clean a Perch in Ten Seconds

Written by Dave Kern

Sam and I decided to take a quick ice fishing trip to the eastern shore of the Thumb to celebrate President’s Day.  After a check at Geiger Road where the reports were  “no fish”, we decided to drive further north and try Wildfowl Bay at the Mud Creek boat ramp.

 At about 1:30 and at five hundred and fifty five paces out from the parking lot  (Sam steps, not mine) we drilled holes and the spring bobbers immediately began indicating light hits.    We couldn’t hook a fish so Sam decided to bury his face in the hole and investigate.  He announced that there were numerous perch below, but these fish  were only about double the size of our minnows.  In fact, they were so small that they were unable to inhale the bait.

  Finally,  Sam snared a big 3 inch perch – hooked in the mouth I might add - and thus, we avoided a skunk.  Due to commitments we left for home at 3:00 with only 3 tiny fish caught between us.

Because of recent birthdays Sam and I purchased our first senior coffees at McDonald’s on our trip  home.  The fishing was non-productive, but our first seventy-five cent cups of coffee made our day.

Pictures Here

We are pleased to announce the 2009 Silver Bullet Award winners.   A few of the awards might be considered and honor, other awards are to be avoided.  Your prize?  You win our undying gratitude.   Congratulations to all.

2009 CLUB AWARD (Worst Net Job):   Jan Snyder

2009 WET WADER AWARD:  Josh Biggart

2009 LIKELY TO PUT ON WADERS AND FISH AWARD:  Joe Robbins

BEST FISHING TRIP OF 2009:  Alaska – Nick and Sammy

BEST NET JOB OF 2009:  Terry Cassidy – Unopposed

2009 DU FRATZ AWARD:  Mike “Uncle Buck” Kern

2009 FISH TAIL AWARD:  Sammy Licavoli II

2009 MOST IMPROVED FISHERMAN: Nick Pennington

2009 BEST PICTURE:  Erin Biggart – Cole’s First Fish

2009 SILVER BULLET FISHERMAN OF THE YEAR:  Dick Hazel

Your award certificates are in the mail.

Its time to step up and sign Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox’s petition to try to get the Chicago diversion closed.  Mr. Cox is leading the charge to prevent the Asian Carp from entering the Great Lakes eco-system.  To-date, the Obama Administration has been rather un-cooperative with this effort.    Click here to sign the petition. 

  The wording of the petition is as follows:

We the undersigned, call on the Congress and President of the United States of America to immediately require the U.S. Army Corps to close the locks connecting Chicago’s carp infested waterways with the Great Lakes to prevent Asian carp from entering Lake Michigan and the other Great Lakes

Written by Nick Cassidy

I can’t believe AJ even had to ask what I wanted to do for my 30th birthday.  We ended up getting a cabin near Helen, GA which was only a short distance from the year-round section of the Chattahoochee River.  The four guys who made it up early in the day (me, Eric, Rob, and Dan) took the canoes from Sautee Creek and floated through to Hwy 255.  That stretch of river was beautiful with a mostly gravel bottom, several small rapids, and several large fish.

 Since we were fishing from canoes, most of the fishing was done with spinning rods.  I did hook and lose two trout on flies, but all trout were caught on spinners.  Everyone landed 3-4 fish, with the smallest trout around 14 inches and the largest around 18-20 inches.  We kept a few fish for the grill but threw most of them back.

  After about 2 hours of fishing we ran into a property owner who caught me urinating on his property.  He was understanding, and gave me information on the cabin he had to rent.  He also informed us that we had only made it about 1/4 of the way through our float.  With limited daylight, we packed up the rods and canoed out at which time we passed over countless holes and runs that would have held trout.  Eric and Rob got their canoe pinned in the rocks and as Dan and I decided to pull off and wait for them, Dan stepped out and snapped off the tip of my rod.   While breaking another rod was frustrating, it was a great few hours on the river.  I plan on making another trip up there soon.   I will send pictures tonight.

After hearing about my broken rod, Dave made a few comments on the number of rods I have had over the years.  Here is a “break” down of all of my fly rods to date- 

Now that some suggestions have been made, its time to vote for the Best (and Worst) of 2009.  Let the voting begin!

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For a suggestion to the next poll question you may wish to Click Here

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For a clue to the next poll question,  Click Here 

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Click on the links below to view the pictures that are nominated for the Best Picture Poll

Number 1    Number 2    Number 3   Number 4

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Written by Dave Johnson

Wish I was fishing in Canada like the Photo shows.

Dan and I took the Quad out of Linwood Beach Marina at 3:00 p.m. We ended up 2.5 miles out due east in about 14 feet of water.  The ice was 7 to 8 inches thick.  As soon as I dropped my line in the water, a very large walleye swam up to my lure, bumped it with his nose, then swalloed the lure.  I set the hook and thought I finally had my first walleye of the new ice fishing season but as luck would have it, lost him at the hole. 

About 15 minutes later, another very large walleye swam into the area and starred at both of our lures, bumped mine and swam around Dans then just took off.  Don’t know a big fish like that can just not be hungry?

We safely made it back to shore around 6:00 p.m. Must say that the ice was OK for most of the ride but we are going to give it another week before we venture out again.

2009 is history, and now it’s Silver Bullet Fishing Award time.  We need nominees for the Club Award, as well as suggestions for other “Best of 2009″ awards (Best Trip, Best Trip etc.).    All suggestions and comments will are appreciated,  and feel free to make nominations as well for the suggested “Best Of” categories.

Editor’s Note:  On Jan. 3, 2010 Sam, Josh, Mike, Joe and I took a trip to Caseville to ice fish for lakers.  A series of emails were sent on Monday to suggest the author of  the fishing report.  Joe was nominated and unanimously elected to write the report.  I think his last email sort of sums up his acceptance as well as the day of fishing.  That last email of Joe’s will have to do as the official report:

Hiya Fellas,

Written by Joe Robbins

 Just wanted to cast my vote for who writes the fishing report. I did have a great view of all the hot and heavy action from the van (a warm and toasty van) and it is true that I do have an occasional spare moment from time to time; however the key word we are dealing with here is FISHING. 

 Joe

 P.S. Did I mention how nice and warm it was in the van and all the while no one caught a fish?

1/2-1/3/10

Written by Nick Cassidy

I spoke with my friend Rob the other day and we decided to make plans to head to the moutains for a night of camping and two days of fishing.  Neither of us had looked at the weather forecast, and once we did we both were waiting for the other to call and wimp out.  The temperatures were supposed to get down into the low teens at night and a high in the upper 20s.  Since we were both too proud to cancel the trip we arrived at the Chattooga River at 11:00am on Jan. 2nd and started the two mile hike in.

  All of the puddles were frozen over and the wind was biting.  We made it back to a nice campsite, threw our gear down and hit the stream.  No fish were caught in the first few hours as they showed no interest in our wooly buggers and most of our time was spent breaking the ice of our fly rods, messing with line tangles due to high winds, and heading back to warm by the fire.  We got a fire going and started to rotisserie a rabbit that I had shot in Michigan.  We went down to the river again and this time tied some dropper nymphs off the bugger and added an indicator.  I ended up landing a small rainbow on the nymph and then headed back to the fire to turn the rabbit and warm up. 

This would be the process for the next several hours as we could only fish for about an hour at a time before our hands and feet were frozen.  We took a long break to eat the rabbit and then hiked a few hundred yards upstream where Rob caught 3 nice rainbows (the biggest around 14) and I landed a beautiful 14″ brown, all on #18 lighting bugs.  We headed back to camp and got the fire blazing, cooked some venison steaks and then stayed close to the fire until we crawled into our cold sleeping bags around 10pm.  Andrea said the windchill was down to 7 in Cumming, so I have to imagine that it was near 0 up there.

  When we woke up in the morning our drinking water was frozen solid and so were our wading boots…we actually had to put them on in the river to soften them up. After fishing for a few minutes we decided to pack up our gear and hike out.  The hike thawed us out a bit, but I ran into one more problem when we made it to the truck.  The laces on my wading boots were frozen so solid that I could not get my boots off.   I will share with you later my survival trick for getting off frozen boots…not pretty but effective.  This was definitely an adventerous trip.  The fishing wasn’t great, but it is was fun nonetheless.  Plus, since I made it out I got to post the first fishing report of 2010.

PICTURES HERE

Written by Nick Cassidy

It has been a great year for fishing and I hate to see it end.   With my last few trips being exceptionally successful, I am more excited than ever to plan a trip some place new.  The wife always says, “But you just went fishing”.  The problem is that when I have a great trip there is more of an urge to get back on the river than before.   I have also come to realize that the fish are just a small part of this hobby.  The planning and preperation that goes into getting a trip together is something that I have really come to appreciate and enjoy.  Experiencing the scenery and unparrelled beauty of the rivers and wilderness which hold trout is something that I have realized that I simply can’t live without.

  And the most rewarding part of fishing is being able to spend it with family and friends who share the same passion.  My dad netting a jumping salmon in mid air ,  being able to fish at midnight in Alaska with a good friend, hiking into a remote trout stream with my wife and friends, freezing my ass off at 3am with my father-in-law in TN while chasing big browns, and watching Nick P. hook up on a nice male salmon on a fly rod are all memories that I am glad to take from this great year of fishing. 

  The year is not over yet, and I hope to be able to get a nice pike through the ice over Christmas break.  Next year there will be just as many trout to be caught and memories to be made.  I have compiled a list of places to fish and I hope to knock a few of these off next year, despite my time being limited due to Grad. School.  Feel free to add your dream trips through the comment sections.  Here are my top places to fish the next few years (most are repeats, but there are few newbies). 

1. Missouri River,  Montana -still one of my favorite trips of all time and hopefully can be a possibility in 2011

2.  Norfork and White Rivers in Arkansas -haven’t been back in a few years, but this may be my biggest trip this summer

3.   North Carolina (Cherokee and Tuckasegee River)- Trophy trout only a few hours from my house.  I plan on taking a few long weekends up there this year.

4.  Canada for Trophy Brook Trout- Never done it and something I am dying to try

5.  Yosemite NP and some of the Northern California Rivers- could be a combo trip including wine country and an RV that says RENT ME on the side.

6. Wind River Range, WY-  Described to me by a friend.  Doubt it is a possibility in the next few years, but the possibility of hiking into some of the most beautiful terrain for trophy rainbows, cutts, and goldens is something that puts it on my calendar.

7.  Bristol Bay Region, AK-  Best fishing I have ever seen , but the cost makes it difficult to make this trip more than once a decade, but I can’t stop dreaming about it.  Next time I go it will be a 10-14 day float and I will still use Brightwater Alaska.

8.  Michigan for Salmon- an annual tradition and something I plan for a year in advance

9.  Isle Royale-  Hiking, canoeing, brook trout and pike.  Anyone want to join me for this one?

10.  Michigan for spring steelhead- I have a week off the start of April every year, but Andrea usually likes to spend our spring break somewhere warmer than northern Michigan. 

11.  Tennessee for Trophy Browns- I have alreay made reservations for next year.

November 24 – 29

Written by Dave Kern

Rhonda and I met Andrea and Nick near Bristol Tennessee for a Thanksgiving vacation.  We rented a cabin in the hills that bordered the South Holston River, a tail water river that holds brown trout – large brown trout.   Our fishing location was about a mile below the large earthen dam that holds back water to create the South Holston Reservoir.   Our fishing time was limited to hours when electric generation was not  occurring at the dam or during the hours when our wives consented to our fishing (which they were great about).   During this week the fishing hours were primarily between midnight and 5 a.m, with a couple of afternoon sessions as well.   The temps ranged from daytime highs of the mid-50′s to nightime lows of 30 degrees.

The trout on the South Holston migrate on a spawning run from Boone Reservoir some thirty miles downstream where most of the larger fish are located during the hot summers.  When the river is fishible the water depths are 2-3 ft and the river has a rocky stream bed.  Our tactic was to use 8 wt. rods with imitation egg flies and a very small split.   The key was to drift the egg patterns  with short casts and attempt a hook set on the light hits.  During daylight hours one could spot fish and cast to them.

Nick proved to be the expert fisherman on this trip by hooking and landing nine large browns.  Most of the fish ranged from 18 inches to 25 inches which are big fish by my standards.  However, on Thanksgiving morning at about 2:30 a.m. Nick hooked what appeared to be another large fish.  As the battle continued it became apparent that this was a very large trout.  After a 20 minute fight and 100 yards downstream he tailed the fish.  It measured 32 inches with a 18 inch girth.  A real monster indeed!  Your humble writer hooked a couple of respectable fish but failed to land a trout of any consequence.  You might enjoy viewing some pictures by clicking here.  The fishing experience was extraordinary and the number of large brown trout was truly unbelievable.

We also took a couple of side trips to sight-see.  One trip was to view America’s largest home, the Biltmore Estate in Asheville N.C.   I highly recommend this tour.    However our most comical trip was a little tour of a privately owned cave complex called the Appalachian Caves.    We learned all about “look-a-likes” and tape worms and bats with white mouth disease.  Hey, you can look it up – or ask Nick for a reenactment.

It was a great trip and I would certainly look forward to doing this again.

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Written by Nick Cassidy

Clayton Santiago called on Wednesday and informed me that he and his wife Ashley were going to hike in to our favorite camping/fishing spot on the Chattooga River for a few nights of camping and fishing.  Ashley had never done a hike-in camping trip and neither had Andrea, so I thought it would be the perfect weekend to do it.

 We left our house at 3:30 and immediately got stuck in traffic.  I wanted to start hiking at about 5:15 so we would be in the campsite before dark.  Unfortunately, we pulled into the parking lot at 6:00, which meant a 3 mile hike with packs in the dark.  It was cool enough where the hike wasn’t too difficult.  We made it back to camp at about 6:40, started a fire, had a few swigs of water, and set up the tents.  We stayed up talking, cooking, and drinking by the campfire until about 3:00am.  Before going to bed we heard a crash in the brush close to camp and then the large animal took off splashing across the river.  We believe that the animal was bear as it sounded too big and created too much of a disturbance for a deer.

 The temperature dipped to around 30 degrees, but with a small tent, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, and a dog who likes to cuddle, we stayed nice and toasty warm (Well, Andrea probably won’t totally agree with the toasty warm).  We woke up around 9am and made a fire and coffee.  We all warmed up around the fire and cooked cheddarwurst while Clayton and I got ready for fishing.

 We both started off near camp dredging the bottom of a deep fast run.  After about 10 minutes I lost patience and walked down river a couple hundred yards to a bend that I like to fish.   By this time the temperature was rapidly climbing and probably was already close to 60 degrees.  I started throwing a yellow wooly bugger, which I have named the corn-bugger and on my second cast into the deep bend I hooked and landed a 14” rainbow.  After fishing for about 15 minutes and only landing one more fish, I switched to a #10 Olive Wooly Bugger and started tearing them up.  At one point I landed fish on 3 consecutive casts, and probably hooked 6 in 10 casts.  Clayton managed to get a couple, but by the time he joined me down in that bend the action started to die down.  I ended up landing around 15 or more trout with most of them between 12-15”. 

We only fished for about 3 hours before going back to check on the girls at camp.  After cooking up some lunch, we broke down camp and hiked out.  Clayton and Ashley soon followed behind.  The girls were real troopers.  It is a tough hike back to this spot, it was cold , and for the first time they had to carry a heavy pack on a hike, but they both did it without complaining and I think they began to realize why we look forward to these types of trips.

Written by Nick Cassidy

If it wasn’t for yesterday being my best day of fishing ever, it would have been today.  Unbelievable!   While waiting for breakfast I grabbed my rod and began walking the bank of the river.  Within a hundred yards of camp I found a nice pod of sockeyes and hooked one on my first cast landing it after a short fight.  I ended up landing three more chum from the same spot before breakfast without putting on my waders.  I referred to this spot as my “sniper hole”.  As soon as I would see a fish move in I would drift a Sockeye Green through and would have a hook-up.  It was the easiest fishing I had ever seen, except for the fact that I got a little to close to an Arctic Tern’s nest a few times causing it to dive bomb my hat.

 We had oatmeal and coffee for breakfast.  After we cleaned up, hit the bushes, and loaded the rafts we were on our way down the river for another long day of floating.  Throughout the day we found several nice pods of salmon and were constantly fighting fish.  The fish were much fresher the further we would get down stream and fought twice as hard as they had in the previous days.  I ended up burning out the drag on my 7wt reel on a fresh sockeye that took me deep into my backing.  That fish probably took me a good twenty minutes to bring to hand.  Sammy and I had several doubles, including one double which tied our fly lines in a knot.  Somehow we were able to unwrap our lines without losing either fish.  We kept two fresh sockeye for dinner.  

Around lunch we floated around a bend and found Bill and Dave casting into a deep, fast  run.  Justin was nowhere to be seen.  Chuck then said, “I bet he is spotting.”  About that time we heard him making baboon sounds while shaking the tree.  Justin was about 30 feet up a tree (still in his waders) spotting kings for Bill and Dave.  Bill and Dave and each landed a king and within a few minutes Dave hooked and landed another.  I asked him what he was using and his reply was a black wooly bugger with a pink head.  I tied one on and within 5 minutes I hooked a big king.  I made several comments while fighting the fish about how lethargic it was.  When I got it close to shore I made the comment that it was about the same size as Dave’s last king.  Once I landed the fish and saw the net scar on its side, I realized that I hooked and landed the exact same king Dave had caught only minutes earlier.  It had hit the exact same fly within 5 minutes!  Within an hour of fishing that run Dave hooked 4 and landed 3, I hooked 3 and landed 2, Bill hooked 2 and landed 1, and Sammy hooked 1.  What was amazing was how aggressively the kings were striking the Wooly Buggers when they were stripped in front of their noses.  I had one almost rip the rod out of my hands.  While we would have enjoyed fishing the kings for the rest of the day we needed to cover some river. 

For the rest of the day we almost exclusively fished for rainbows, stopping occasionally to throw to pods of salmon.  The rainbow fishing was amazing.  Sammy and I each landed six and probably lost twice that many.  Most of the fish were 16”+ with a few pushing 20”.  The hot flies were still the pink wooly buggers, battle creeks, and pink bunny flies.  Sammy and I managed to lose everyone of these flies by the end of the day.  It turned out to be a long day of floating.  We saw a power boat running up the river and shortly after saw a naked Swede taking a bath in the river.  These were the first signs of human life we had seen in almost a week.  We reached the confluence of the Mulchutna River at about 9:00 and set up camp.   We jumped in the river to wash off a few days of stink.  While the bathing scene wasn’t nearly as shocking as the naked Swede we saw a few hours earlier, but it sure felt great.  Surprisingly, the water wasn’t nearly as cold as expected.  Fresh sockeye, rice, and vegetables were on the table not long after.  We sat around the camp fire and talked about a great week of fishing and told jokes and shared stories.  We made plans for the next day, which were that we would clean out our tents, pack up camp, and float an hour down the river to our take out point where we would make breakfast and breakdown the rafts.  That night I just kept thinking about the trip and how it exceeded my expectations.  Chuck and Justin were the best guides we could have asked for.  Their stories, humor, and knowledge of the river made the trip.  Bill and Dave were a great pair to have on the trip.  It was a true mans week.  If someone had a tally board for cuss words they would have ran out of space by day two, which happened to be the same day we ran out of alcohol. 

In the morning we got up and floated to our takeout.  The lone fish of Day 7 was a sucker caught on an egg fly by Sammy…a real rarity in Alaskan fly fishing.  We got to the main river of the Mulchutna and broke down the rafts and made coffee and cereal.  Not long after a plane dropped in on the main river.  It was the DNR and they stopped to check our licenses.  About an hour later our float planes arrived.  Bill, Dave, and Sammy loaded in one plane.  Chuck, Justin, and I took the other which followed the path of the river all the way up to its headwaters and over the mountain pass back to Illiamna.  The entire length of the river I could see red salmon in the river.  I could see gravel runs which we had fished and bends where we had camped.  We saw a Grizzly bear and two cubs.  We passed over the lake where we had landed a week earlier.  The skinny river where we fished exclusively for grayling 6 days ago was now peppered with sockeye and chum.  In my head I started planning my next trip.  I had always said that I wouldn’t repeat fishing trips because there are so many places in the world to fish.  However, when you find a place like this you really don’t need to go anywhere else.  

 Notes from Day 6:

Weather- Mid 70s, Bright and sunny.  Slight breeze.

 Fish-  Sockeye, Chums, Kings, Rainbows, and a few Grayling

 Hot Flies-   Kings-  Black and Pink Wooly Buggers ,   Sockeye and Chum-  Sockeye greens, stinky pinks, and battle creeks,    Rainbows- Pink bunny leeches, pink wooly buggers, battle creeks, and polar shrimp. 

 True Lies-

Nick- 1 grayling, 6 rainbows, 5 sockeye, 7 chum, 2 kings

Sam- 6 rainbows, 4 sockeye, 1 king

Dave- 5 rainbows, 4 sockeye, 2 chum, 4 kings

Bill-  2 rainbows, 5 sockeye, 1 chum, 1 king

Written by Nick

 3:00 am Thursday morning sure came fast.  I met Dave, Nick, and Terry at the Kern residence and after a quick BS session we hit the road.  The drive was great.  Dave and I were able to catch up and solve most of the world’s problems.

We reached the Betsie around 6:00 am and within 15 minutes we were in the river.  I found a nice gravel bed and waited for the sun to come up.  As soon as I could make out some fish I started working the bed.  I began casting a Mickey Finn and had decent success.  After 20 minutes I caught (foul hooked) my first salmon.  Now, I’ve fished for salmon in the past, but not like this.  The difference between a heavy duty trolling rod and an 8 wt. fly rod is huge…I loved it!  I stuck with the Mickey Finn and hook several more.  Meanwhile up river, Nick was making some headway.  He was using Billy’s Krystal Eggs, Orange Yarn Eggs, and PM Specials, and caught several fish.  Dave and Terry also found a few, which Dave caught with Terry manning the net.  Terry didn’t have much luck with a rod but earned a 2 year exemption from the club award due to an amazing mid-air full flip salmon catch.

We pulled out of the river around 9:30 am and headed for some breakfast.  After some delicious food from Rosie’s we checked into the Mountain Valley Motel and caught some rest.  A few hours later we head back to the river for some afternoon fishing.  The salmon seemed to be quite line shy (as they were most of the trip), but Nick, Dave, and I hooked/caught several more.  We ended the first day around 6 or 7 pm and retreated to the local bar for some burgers, beer, and the ball game.

Day 2 was much like the first.  We reached the river early and found our spots.  Nick once again got into the fish and caught a nice 20+ pounder.  I struggled but managed to hook a few.  We fished until 9 or 10 am and headed back to Rosie’s for another great breakfast.  In the evening the manager of the Mountain Valley Motel took us to his buddy’s private land were we had a good stretch of the river all to ourselves.  With some great coaching from Nick, I fair hooked and landed a nice male (see photo above).  After a few hours of fishing we headed to the Copemish Lounge for some “all you can eat” fish and a few beers.  Later that evening Steve met us at the motel and was eager for the next morning of fishing.

Saturday we woke up around 4:30 am to ensure a decent spot on the river.  I didn’t land any salmon but caught a nice rainbow that was feeding on some eggs.  We fished for several hours then packed up, grabbed a quick bite, said our goodbyes, and headed for home. 

I want to thank Dave for inviting me, Terry for a wonderful nickname, and Nick for an awesome learning experience.  I had a great time and more importantly enjoyed the company. 

 Final Tally:

Nick Cassidy:            12 salmon

Dave Kern:                 4 salmon

Nick Pennington:       3 salmon, 1 Rainbow

Notes:

Weather:  Cool in the mornings with mid to high 60′s during the day.

River:  Cold with low water levels.

Hot Flies:  Mickey Finn, Billy’s Krystal Eggs, Orange Yarn Eggs, PM Specials, Misc Eggs(pink, orange, peach), and Dave’s Mystery Red Streamer.

Click Here for Pictures

Both Nick and Sammy broke flyrods again this year while salmon fishing.  What’s the current number of broken flyrods on salmon boys?   ‘Bout time you both finally listen to this old Millington guy and buy one of these:

Nick (the non-Swoopy Nick)  sent a link to the DNR’s bi-weekly reports.  I agree with Nick’s comment that,  ”Its an interesting read”.

Written by Nick Cassidy

I woke up around 5:30 am with the sound of Salmon splashing in the river.  By the time I got dressed and put on my waders I was on the river by 6:00 and had my first hookup by 6:05.   I started off using a Pink Eve and landed a few chum and then landed my first King (about 20 lbs).   After a few minutes of no action I switched over to a Battle Creek and again began catching Chum.  I landed at least 10 salmon before breakfast.  Bill and Dave both joined me on the river and each landed a few fish. 

 Sam was back breaking down camp (repayment for me setting it up the night before).  We took a break from fishing to enjoy some coffee and French toast.  Once the gear was loaded we fished the run for a few more minutes, with each of us hooking up a few more times.    Chuck suggested we switch up rafts today, so Sam and I joined him for the day’s float.  Just around the first bend Chuck spotted a nice pod of fish in front of a deep gravel run.  Sam and I waded up  stream to fish the run.  I caught a chum, a rainbow, and a dolly and lost a few more salmon.  Sammy also had a few hookups.

  Chuck started throwing a Billy’s Krystal Egg and landed a nice Dolly in the Gravel Run below the run Sammy and I were fishing.  We didn’t fish the run for long before we began floating again.  While floating Sam was throwing a Battle Creek and I was throwing a Pink Bunny Leech.  We were both getting strikes and were constantly hooking fish…landing them was another issue.  We had several fish jump out of the water several feet in the air.  One was hooked, jumped out of the water, spit the hook, and still almost landed in the boat.  Of the small percentage of fish we landed, we were hard pressed to get a decent picture before dropping the fish.  Sammy landed the most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen…bright pink stripe, leopard spots, bright red gill plate, but before a picture could be taken the trophy jumped out of his hands.  We landed several rainbows between 18-20” and the biggest one we landed was 22”.  We each lost several that were in the 20+ range. 

 When we found pods of salmon we kept switching up flies, but the best producers were the Battle Creek, Orange Sockeye, Green Sockeye, Pink Eve, Gold Comet, and green comet.   Just before lunch we found a nice pod of sockeye and chum.  Sammy and I each landed a few, but it obviously wasn’t enough because Chuck broke out his rod and landed a few himself.  We kept a few fresh sockeye for dinner.  For lunch we met up with the other raft to enjoy left over French toast, cheese, and apples.  We covered 7 river miles in our float and entered back into some braided stretches that reminded us of some small Michigan trout streams.  The rainbow action continued and Sammy really got hot the last few hours of our float. 

 We stopped to set up camp fairly late.  Our tent was set up right under a bald eagle’s nest with bear and moose tracks crossing everywhere.   Sammy volunteered to cook the fish, which turned out to be the best tasting salmon I have ever enjoyed.  However, the way Licavoli’s flail the olive oil covered spatula around we knew we would have bears head through camp.  Around 5am I heard a bear cross through camp and found his tracks in the morning.   He didn’t bother anything, but it was exciting nonetheless.  

This was the best day of fishing in my life.  We were constantly on fish and there were several times where I had to sit back and take a break for a few minutes to let my forearm recover.  The totals were:

Nick-  3 grayling, 8 rainbow, 5 sockeye, 15 chum, 1 king, 1 Dolly Varden

Sam- 6 rainbow, 1 sockeye, 2 chum

Dave- 1 gralying, 3 rainbow, 2 sockeye, 5 chum

Bill- 1 rainbow, 2 sockeye, 4 chum

Notes from Day 5-

 Weather-  coolest day so far.  Breezy, overcast, in the low 70s.

Fish- All species

Hot Flies- Rainbows- Pink Bunny Leeches, Battle Creeks

                 Salmon- Pink Eves, Battle Creeks, Comets, Sockeyes

Other-  While fighting a salmon, my line broke shooting the split shot back at me and striking me in the nuts.  Sammy and Chuck seemed to enjoy seeing that.

This past weekend Sammy cut short his Saturday afternoon fishing session with Steve.  His reason?  He had to attend a wine tasting event with his wife and friends.  The Man Card rules clearly state  that a card revocation or suspension may occur if: “….turning down fishing trips in favor of shopping…”  

In Sammy’s defense, he was on a weekend outing with his wife after a two week business trip.  However,  it is  also a fact that if one goes to a wine tasting event the purpose of attending  must be  the  eventual purchase wine (hence, shopping).   So, let’s put it to a vote:

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2009 Canadian Fishing Report

From the shores of Pamela Lake at Lochlomond Camp where Deb and Larry Hadenko preside.

It seems we are on a bi-annual pattern of fishing in northern Ontario for walleye and pike. Once again Deb and Larry provided us with their great hospitality and very comfortable and friendly facilities. While the weather was a bit more chilly than usual, the welcome and desire to serve was as warm as always.

 This year, our fisherpeople included Steve, and his sons Tim and Nate, Tom and his daughter Rachel, Mike, and two newcomers (along with Rachel) Larry Ill (Stubby) and Jan Snyder the Elder. As usual, the drive was long, but the lead vehicle saw a wolf on Highway 11 while the second vehicle saw a moose on Highway 631. Again this year there was a bear roaming camp, which made Jan’s early morning walk a bit interesting.

 We managed to get out fishing from a Longlac pier on the day we arrived, but it was windy and rainy, so we made our first serious attempt on Sunday morning as we drove to Kawakanika Lake. Larry had two boats already there, and we trailered an additional two boats. The water level was inbetween the low we experienced 4 years ago, but not as high as two years ago, so we had to watch our motors. We were successful in catching many fish everyday, despite having to work for them on several of the days. The first and last day the wind was favorable for drifting holes, but the other days we did quite a bit of motoring to move through the holes. We always caught plenty of fish for the evening meal (even more than enough, but they all were eaten by the time dinner was done), and managed to fill our limit of walleye to bring home along with 8 Northern Pike for the trip. Tim caught the largest Northern pike, and Mike caught the largest walleye. Rachel seemed to get some pretty big ones, too.

We saw eagles and loons each day, and had shore lunch in three different places. Due to the wind, the easiest place was the sandy beach where Rachel had her initials carved into a tree along with M. F. She has not told us who M.F. is yet. Moose tracks dotted the sand on the sandy beach. It also was much easier to get our feet on shore, especially for the older members of the group.  We also found several other hotspots that we previously had not fished before for future reference. We did make good use of our rain gear, but never had to utilize it for more than an hour or two.

 The cabin each night was filled with good food, good natured ribbing and one liners, 6 handed Shoot the Moon (where Rachel seemed to always have the bowers, even though she did not bid), and lots of snoring (good thing there were 4 bedrooms). Everyone pitched in when it came to cooking and cleaning.

 On the way home, the lead vehicle saw a bear cross Highway 11. We had our best Canadian restaurant meal in Hornepayne, and we of course stopped at the Mall of Canada in Pancake Bay. We stopped in the Soo for an overnight, so Mike and Larry could give the Indians some of their money. Once again, a great trip, and we are thankful to God for sharing His wonderful creation with us and making the trip safe for everyone.

Pictures Here

One of my son-in-laws appears to be a bit color blind.  So I am going to submit a question to you guys.  This debate must be settled once and for all -  scientifically.

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Written by Sam Licavoli

Dave called me from work last Tuesday (Aug. 26)  and said,  “Lets go trout fishing.”   I replied when and where and he said pick a day and how about the AuSable in Mio. I called him back about 20 minutes later and suggested we take a day off work and go the next morning and the trip was on.

I called one of our favorite retiree’s Joe Robbins and asked him if he would like to go along and as usual he just had to much shit to do and didn’t think he could make it. I was pleasantly surprised when the phone rang at 5:45 Wednesday morning and it was Joe saying he was going to be able to go. We departed from my place at about 6:30 in a steady cool rain.

We stopped at the Turkey Roost for breakfast, Franks Great Outdoors for fish n’ stuff and to check on a new fish finder for the Silver Bullet. We made one last pit stop in Mio before arriving at the Meinecke cabin at about 10:15. The rain had stopped by the time we reached the Turkey Roost and it was going to be a beautiful day with partly cloudy skies and a temperature of about 70.

We rigged up and hit the river. Joe and Dave fished streamers while I took my son Sammy’s advice and used a spinning rod casting spinners and Rapalas. He said I wouldn’t catch anything on a fly rod. Dave hooked a fish on his second cast and it wasn’t long after I could see Joe fighting a fish also. I caught a nice rainbow on a Rapala. We decided to break for lunch at about 2:00 and the score was Dave 10, Joe 2 and Sam 1 fish. The fish appeared to be plants as they all were between 10 and 12 inches long.

During our break we visited with Luella and Evan Meinecke and the neighbors Spence and Wilma Hargrave. Joe made the comment that it has been so long since he had been there he doubted the Hargrave’s remembered him, but Joe’s doubts vanished as we were walking back to the Meinecke cabin when Spence yelled out, “don’t get lost Joe”. Spence had come to our rescue when we got stuck on a backwoods trail while trying to go fishing in 1981, but that’s another story that Joe and I would rather forget.

We fished further down stream in the evening and I decided to join Dave and Joe using a fly rod. Just like the morning, Dave hooked a fish on his second cast. Fish were rising all around us but Joe and I were unable to hook one. Joe even tried a dry fly trying to match what appeared the fish were taking off the top but had no success. Dave called out “their hitting on an olive colored Wooly Bugger”. Though Joe and I had an assortment of Wooly Bugger’s we didn’t have any that were olive green and the fish wouldn’t take any thing else. Joe even dug deep and pulled out a couple of natural Wooly Buggers but they just weren’t the right shade of green. I still can’t figure out how he tied them on. We fished until about dark. The final score was Dave 13, Joe 2 and Sam 1 fish. Sammy was right about me not catching anything on a fly rod but Dave sure did.

Hey Dave and Joe what are you doing next Wednesday. I know Dave and me are willing to play Hooky again. Do you think you could find the time Joe?

A few pictures here

Written by Nick Cassidy

On August 22nd Andrea, Gus, and I decided to drive up for a hike on Three Forks Trail.  The trail curves about 3 miles through the woods before dropping a couple hundred feet down to the West Fork of the Chattooga River.  The river is full of rapids, huge boulders, slate ledges, a few deep pools and pockets between boulders.  While Andrea was sunning herself on a rock and reading her newest Fly Fishing magazine I decided to throw some hoppers in a few of the pockets between boulders.  On about my third cast into a pocket the water erupted with a 12″ brown trout devouring the hopper fly.  I saw the flash of one more brown in that pocket, but couldn’t coax another fish to hit in that run.  I moved up to the next pool and on my first cast I got another brown, slightly larger than the first.   After a dozen or so casts, I moved up to the next pocket (slipping and falling under in the process).  On my second cast in that pocket I had another brown (11-12″).   As with each of the previous fish, it became a struggle to land the fish and keep Gus from biting it.  I was unable to get another hit, but I was confident that there were fish holding in each pocket through that river.  The problem is that Andrea doesn’t like me getting out of her site and the walking is about as slippery and dangerous as any river I have ever fished.  I decided not to head down over the rapids to fish the pools below.  I joined Andrea on the rock for a picnic and relaxed.  Gus and I even went swimming in one of the deeper pools.    I forgot my camera and my felt soled boots…two big mistakes when fishing this river.

Written by Nick Cassidy

Despite staying up late and finishing off my whiskey I woke up at 6:00 am and felt great.  I geared up and tried to fish for some salmon in front of camp.  While I did see a few moving up stream there were no takers so I abandoned the fishing to make a fire.   Chuck made Breakfast Burritos with egg, cheese, onions, peppers, and avocado. After the group finished a few pots of coffee we packed up our gear and headed downstream at around 9:00 am.  We quickly started getting rainbows to strike at pink streamers.  Sammy was using a pink wooly bugger while I was using a Pink Starlight Leech.  My excitement of the morning came when I threw my streamer next to a log jam and immediately saw an enormous streak of pink devour my leech.  I immediately started screaming like a girl because I knew I had the rainbow of a lifetime on the end of my line…30+ inches.  After a few quick runs I brought the fish to the surface to discover it was a chum salmon.  For the remainder of the trip, chums were referred to as “Cassidy Rainbows”.   While we did get a few nice rainbows to strike, we weren’t able to bring any to hand in the morning.

The river was braided for most of the drift today, and many times were taken into sections that were smaller than the headwaters where we started 4 days earlier.  Chuck, Bill, and Dave found the first pod of salmon of the day in a small braided section.  While they were fishing I walked around the bend and hooked up on what I originally thought was a huge rainbow.  Later that day, when Sammy landed his Dolly Varden, I realized that it was actually a Dolly that took me into a log jam and broke me off.   Bill and Dave got into a few salmon while Sam and I jumped in the raft and Justin took us down river to our first pod of salmon.   It was a slow slack-water pool and there were hundreds of sockeye and chum.  We tied on Sockeye Greens and got a few quick hook ups.  After we would fight a few fish they would shut down.  We then switched to Sockeye Oranges and got a few more hook ups.  After they shut down again we switched to Pink Eves (which we mistakenly called Stinky Pinks).   We got a few more hook ups.  In all, we landed a about  5 or 6 each.  After fishing the hole for an hour the fish did not want to hit at all.  They all bunched up together and we couldn’t drift through the pod without foul hooking a fish.  We had nearly 20 casts in a row which resulted in foul hook ups.  At that point we decided not to waste any more flies and float down river until we could find less fish.

 Anyone who knows Sammy and I, know that it takes a lot to pry us off fish, but with a limited number of “hot” flies and no fly shop on the river, we began to be pretty stingy.   In that pod alone we probably hooked into 100 fish between the two of us…most of which were foul.    Justin informed us that we needed to make up a lot of water today and would probably be floating much later into the night.   We met up with the guys a bit down river and had Sardines and Bagels for lunch.  There was a nice pod of fish on the end of a gravel bar which Sammy and I both fished and landed a few.  The Stinky Pink was the hot fly at that time. 

We didn’t get into much for salmon the rest of the day and even the rainbows didn’t cooperate much.  We did find a good run where Sammy landed a really nice Dolly Varden.  We stopped there to fish and saw a few Kings moving up river but couldn’t really get anything to hit.   We sat back and lit up a few Backwoods and waited for the Chuck raft to fish the run upriver.  After floating for another hour or so we hit the first real snag of the trip.  There was a log jam which stretched across the river.  There was no safe way to get through the jam so we had to portage all of the gear and the rafts over land.  By the time we decided what to do, unloaded the rafts, carried them through the brush, loaded them back up, and started off we had probably used up a good 30-40 minutes.

  As soon as we started floating again I made the comment “Don’t worry guys, the next portage isn’t for another ½ mile!”  Everyone gave me dirty looks, and I believe Dave called me a name that is more common in San Francisco, but we chuckled and floated down river.  About ½  mile down river we hit another logjam, which we again had to portage.  After they all took turns calling me names we started to unpack the gear.  From the time we stopped, unloaded, carried the gear over land, repacked, and started floating again less than 20 minutes had passed.   After the two portages, I think everyone was ready to get to camp.  Right as we were floating up to camp (at about 9:30) Sammy got out to fish a good run of Chum which were starting to bed up.  He hooked into a few and landed one while the rest of us unpacked our gear and set up camp.  While Sammy got in some extra fishing, I would get even with him the next morning.   We made a fire and sat around eating peanuts and BSing.  Sam broke out some of his Jameson for us to enjoy and Chuck made us Spaghetti with bread and salad.  Chuck informed us that the next day would be our best day of Salmon fishing, so we hit the tents exhausted but excited about the next day.

We crawled into bed around 11:30 and I soon realized one of the dangers of a week long wilderness trip.  Sam’s feet smelled like rotten garbage.  They were so bad that I actually put my head into my sleeping bag to escape the stench.  The foulness managed to keep the bears away, so I guess it wasn’t all bad. 

Notes from Day 4-

Weather-  Low to mid 70s, breezy and partly cloudy

Fish-

           Nick-  4 grayling, 4 sockeye, 4 chum

            Sam-  2 grayling, 1 Rainbow, 1 Dolly, 6 Chum

            Dave- 2 grayling, 1 Rainbow, 3 sockeye, 3 chum

            Bill-  3 sockeye, 4 chum

Top Flies-  Salmon-  sockeye green and orange, Stinky Pink (really called the Pink Eve)

                   Rainbows- Pink Starlight Leech, Pink Wooly Bugger

Comments of the Day-  “Don’t worry guys, the next portage isn’t for another ½ mile!”  and also the comment I made about the chapstick.  You all know that is not what I meant!

Written by Dave Kern

I’ll slip a short Saginaw Bay walleye report in here between Nick’s outstanding  Alaska stories.  Joe Robbins, Terry Cassidy, Mike and I gave the Bay an afternoon try, hitting the water at about 2:00 p.m.   The day was hot and humid and the winds were stronger than predicted – blowing out of the south, south-east.  The waves were right at the limit of the Bullets capabilities at 2 to 3 ft.,  but we decided to give it a shot.

We motored south and west out of Thomas Rd.  before our setting up inside of Callahan Reef,  knowing full well that we would only be able to troll in one direction;  with the waves. Our depth finder was on the blink as well.   Not knowing our depth we laid out eight rods with crawler harnesses.   We fished from about 2:30 to 5:30 and picked  up fourteen keepers and lost several more at the boat with light hookups.   Purple blades and pearl blades were the hot colors.  A Few Pictures Here

We spoke with Fred Kurrle after docking and he had a good fishing day as well.  Fred fished in the morning and caught his limit.   All-in-all it was a decent day considering the handicap of no depth finder and one way trolling.  Soon it must be perch time, eh?   A note to Mr. Hazel and Mr. Kurrle:  A perch report or email would be most appreciated!