Not often that one hears Latin in a fishing boat, but when Dr.Bob Oster, his buddy Ron Barch, and guest Marty—a former professional trumpet player and music professor—would land a steelhead, Bob and Ron would blurt out, “Excelsior!” Pretty cool!
To be sure, Muskegon River steelhead are relatively few and scattered these days. Fly fishing them is requiring persistence, lots of casts, patience, and breaks from the fish gods. On the other hand, if one is fortunate enough to find steelhead as we did today, then it’s smiles all ’round. As I’ve said repeatedly to customers this spring—this following a week plus of flooded river during which large numbers of steelhead spawned and began dropping back to Lake Michigan—as a guide, “You can be a hero one day and a goat the next!” Today, we lucked out, period!
Loved fishing with the guys. Lots of laughs and great conversation with dear friends and in the case of Bob, a former colleague, too. Here, Ron poses a hen, and Bob, a buck.
Captain Tom Kuieck
