Todd, Whitney, Taylor, and Leah Oosting joined Don and I for a day of smallie fishing today. After a few quick lessons both girls were making fishable casts; veteran fly angler Whitney made quick work of establishing a solid lead on Todd much to his pleasure. All of us enjoyed the beautiful day on the water. We fished 6-8wt. rods with intermediate sinking fly lines, leaders down to 2x, and flies that resembled small crayfish; remember smallies are typically lazy fish so slow your presentations down to their speed! Pictured is the Oosting crew and Taylor show off her fish holding skills. Thanks again!

Tight lines,

Steve

Vacation is going well; fly lines started to get dry so we headed out for some freshwater bonefish. My son Zach joined me on this beautiful afternoon and after cruising for carp we came across a very large pod of sunning fish. A few well placed casts yielded me this brute. 8 or 9wt. fly rods with clear intermediate sinking lines are my recommendation. This fish took an umpqua “perfect” crayfish pattern. The wind is howling today or we would be back out for more action.

Tight lines,

Steve

Definitely time to start thinking bass; pictured is Jeff Lieninger from Indy with a beautifull smallie caight on the surface yesterday. Water temps are starting to get dicey on the MO for trout so we are transitionong to smallmouth bass. I will be on vacation through the 3rd of July but I will try to show some fun fishing pics if I wet a line. I will be heading for the St. Mary’s river on the 6th of July for trips for Atlantic salmon; I have two single dates remaining to fill if any of you have any interest. I will as always keep the reports going with hopefully some great fish!

Tight lines,

Steve

Go figure. While the bugs have either hit the water fifteen minutes before dark or been AWOL the last few days, last night we were treated to an excellent grey drake spinner fall, and—get this: the trout decided to snack on them! Dave and Toren took nine trout and eight smallmouths through the afternoon/evening, the highlight of which was Toren’s laying out a beautiful 40′ cast to a rising brown, only to bring him to net after a spirited resistance. 16.5″ and beautifully marked, the fish was in excellent condition and bolted from my hand upon release.

Our sequence of flies for the evening went like this: caddis (in response to small tiddlers taking what appeared to be caddis, but apparently were not); sulpher spinner (took one on this fly, but it clearly was not the preference of the trout); isonychia spinner (absolutely nothing doing on this usually reliable fly); and finally grey drake spinner, which the trout took with confidence. Thank you master tier Fred Vargas and congratulations Toren!

The afternoon and evening were a perfect combination of great conversation, steady fly fishing action, and fabulous atmospherics. In short, a dream afternoon and evening on the Muskegon. For me, it was a special float since I now (as gramps-retiree) go into summer “retirement” from guiding to spend time at our family cottage and to tackle a long list of “honey-do’s” around home. Needless to say, the cottage time looks great, but the list is, well, the list…. Come to think of it: September on the Manistee for kings is looking pretty good right now!

Again, congrats to Toren and thanks to him and his friend Dave for a wonderful time on the river.

Tom

Bugs Bugs Bugs….Fish? Fish? Fish? I think the fish went on vacation last night we had plenty of bug late but the fish were nearly non-existent! We had only about ten minutes of rising last night and managed only 1 fish around 12 inches. We did however spend the early part of the evening throwing for smallies with some very good action. It may be getting close to transition time? I will be out again this evening maybe the fish will be hungry?

Tight lines,

Steve

Wow after 90 degree heat traditional weather returned to the region yesterday with temps in the 70′s; I actually wore a jacket in the evening. I guess I finally understand why the folks from down south think its cold up here. We have the Inter Vet group here for the week and last night found us in our usual haunts looking for Isonychias at dark. The insect activity was a bit earlier last night than in the past nights of high temperatures; we had rising fish around 9pm. Everyone had opportunities at decent fish last night with two nice trout coming to net in my boat.

Tight lines,

Steve

Happy fathers day to all of you dads out there! I have today off and will be spending the day at the pool with my boys- Masen, Zach, and Brycen. The Corona is on ice so it should be a great day! Speaking of good days; last night I took one of my web guys and his dad out for an evening of dry fly fishing. Kevin and his father Tom quickly learned what Saturdays on the river are like with what I can only say was the most drunk tubers I have ever seen! After the tubers had passes out- I mean passed on; the evening quickly turned peaceful and rising fish could be found taking Isonychia, Gray Drakes, and Sulfer spinners. This trip was new experience for Kevin and his dad; with some adjustment in casting style Kevin found success with this very nice brown on a Isonychia. Kevin did have the fish story of the summer while casting to what I had determined was a “very good” fish; Kevin presented the fly exactly as instructed only to have this great brown sip the fly turn and break the 4x tippet clean! This was not due to the hook set just the plain size of the fish…oh well…in the memory bank.

 Tight lines,

Steve

Well after being up for nearly 40hrs straight chasing bugs Thursday night with Mike and then heading directly to the St. Joseph River for summer runs with Bill Darooge yesterday I thought the report could wait until this morning after some much needed sleep. Bill joined me to fill a slot in his 60th birthday quest to fish 60 different rivers this year as part of his birthday celebration. We started our day in the lagoon which turned out to be a good choice; Bill landed one and lost another before we went to the creek mouths off the main flow. The steelhead that were positioned off the creeks had decided that a change was do because they were gone! Bill and I then went back to the lagoon but the bite had pretty well shut down for the day.

Father’s Day is Sunday; Dads like gift certificates!

Tight lines,

Steve

Summer time weather continues with near 90 degree temps this afternoon. Attorney Mike Mathews joined me for what would be a very nice evening of dry fly fishing. Wet wading with water temps near 70 provided a nice relief to the hot weather. We fished mostly dry’s today with only a few quick swings with bead heads. Adams provided lots of activity until the evening bugs got going. If you are leaving the river around 10pm you are quiting about an hour early; most of our good fish had not even begun to show them selves until around 10:15pm. Isonychia blanketed the water in much the same fashion as Hexes would on the other rivers quite late this year. Normally you can find good Isonychia activity from 9pm on but this year it has been very late; grab a cigar or a cocktail and wait! Pictured is a very nice 20 inch fish from this evening. Maybe it was the sun but I saw a couple of hexes tonight…on the MO…?

Tight lines,

Steve

Well after chasing bugs last night on the Muskegon and not nearly enough sleep I was on the St. Joseph River today for the first time this year chasing summer run steelhead. The run is shaping up with fish in the system. The river was uncharacteristically high for this time of year giving the chrome access further up the creek mouths. The main flow of water was also a bit cooler than normal but I would expect things to change greatly this week with the near 90 degree temps all week. The fish today were taking small eggsucking leeches and woolybuggers. We fished mainly clear intermediate sinking lines with 0x-1x tippet. Pictured is one of todays fish that was noticeably lean!

Tight lines,

Steve