8-21-12

“Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

No, neither fellow RiverQuest guide and best fishing bud, Don Graham, or I have read our obituaries as Mark Twain found himself doing one day in the New York Journal,ˆbut those of you who might have thought the high temps the Muskegon River posted this summer did in our resident rainbow and brown trout, we’re happy to relay that reports of their death are also “greatly exaggerated.”  Surely, some didn’t make it, but we found trout are in very good supply over the five miles or so of water we floated today.  To be sure, most were stocked this year, but not all, as the brown I’m holding attests.  All of which means, September on MO will give us some great fly fishing options:  brown and rainbow trout, smallmouth bass, and Chinook salmon.  Can’t wait!

Wish we could have posted some smallies, too, since that’s the species we were targeting, but the two or three photo fish we had on eluded our best attempts to bring them to hand.  Nonetheless, Don and I lost count of the trout and bass we boated.  The bald eagle that swooped to the water to snare a fish Alaska-style, the pair of ospreys, and the two mink, one of which sported a crayfish back to its lair, were right there, though, photo-ready. Too bad we were too busy fishing to pull out the long lens for you, except for the long distance shot of a single osprey.  Just so hard to focus on photos when the fish want to play.

But a great day:  very few people on the river, gorgeous atmospherics, no untoward scar-producing hookups to our heads or other body parts as we’ve heard tell of lately… Just cooperative bass and trout packaged in Nature’s finest.

Captain Tom Kuieck