Beautiful day on the river with Captain Don Graham and my youngest son, Ryan. I must confess that Steve’s 3/21/08 post touched a chord: it seemed just like yesterday when I was hauling Steve as a two year old off to Dick Pobst’s Thornapple Shop and Dick Nelson’s Angler’s Corner. Back in the day, Glen Blackwood was selling rods for Dick—in fact, Glen sold me my first fine fly rod. Amazing how it all comes round. I had an opportunity to visit with Dick and Nancy at the Trout Unlimited Banquet Thursday night and sit with my angling buddy from back then, Paul Youngren, who successfully bid on the float trip River Quest donated to the Schrems Chapter. Great night reconnecting with some fine people.
As for our day on the water, the steelhead and trout decided to favor us with their attentions: we hooked seven steelhead and landed three (we won’t detail who was having trouble bringing them to hand on this day!). A bonus was some very fat rainbows that decided they wanted to get into the action, too. Judging from how healthy the trout looked, we should have some great light rod action come May and June
Fly patterns that did the trick were: peach egg, clown egg, PM wiggler, Antron Stone, Antron Hex. All the fish we took were in flat water just off current seams. All in all, the sort of day that brings us back to the Muskegon for more.
Don has the steelhead photos, but here’s an example of how plump the bows were on this day.
Tom Kuieck
