Dan Challa and his brother Fred joined me on this beautiful late summer day. Streamer action was slow today for who knows what reason. Dan hit a fish right out of the bat this morning and it was all down hill from there. We had only a 6 other chases that we saw; the “hardware guys” were not fairing much better. As the saying goes “there’s always tomorrow”!
Tight lines,
Steve
I shared the boat today with Bob Rudolph and his friend Dave today. Streamer fishing Kings was new to both of them and with a little instruction they were both into the game. We had a great morning with 20+ fish coming to the flies. We spent a great deal of time today trying some new techniques that seemed to be edging on the next break through.
Tight lines,
Steve
-With the creation of this new site and fishing report a great deal of the function was bounced off a long time customer and friend Mike Mathews. Mikes face can be seen in many reports and pictures in our publications. Mike passed away suddenly and will be laid to rest tomorrow. Mike was regular fisherman on the Muskegon and Pere Marquette rivers; he was an advocate for the outdoors and fly fisherman. Mike will be greatly missed by me and those that were lucky enough to share the water with him.
Please keep your thoughts with his two daughters……….
RiverQuest guides Don and Fred joined me for a day of personal fishing. With the water clearing and dropping a bit from last week the bite was slow; Don put the only fish on today with it falling short of the net. Even though fishing was slow today the salmon that did leave the security of the logs to attack our flies provided a good rush of adrenalin! Having a personal day also allowed us to experiment with some new flies that certainly brought a few fish out for a look. New fish seemed to move until about 10:30 am and then sought refuge in the under water forests.
Tight lines,
Steve
Kyle Vanderstel joined me on the lower Manistee for some early salmon streamer action. We had a few less fish chase our flies today with no fish making it to the net. Despite the skunk the action made it great. a few of the fish made such aggressive attacks on the fly that the water was shot into the air as they missed the fly! With the calendar passing by everyday look for action to nothing but improve.
Tight lines,
Steve
Salmon, Salmon, Salmon! Recent rains have been right on que helping to send the first salmon of the season up the early rivers. I had the pleasure to fish today with State Senator Bob Jackman of Indiana. He an his wife were out for their first salmon streamer trip. I could not have asked for better conditions; stained water, Foggy sky, and practically no fishing pressure. We had 20 to 25 chases with one solid fish that was lost before it was boated. Understanding that “chases” are 80% of the fun it was a great day! 10wt fly rods with 400gr streamer express lines were on the order of the day; Salmon Snakes, Swimmy Jimmy’s, and Alewive patterns rounded out the flies of the day.
Tight lines,
Steve
Today on the Muskegon river with Dr. Bill Telford and Dr. Chuck Caldwell, pictured is Dr. Telford with a nice small mouth bass.
Don
Today I had the pleasure of spending some time on the water with my good friend Bill Haagsma, fishing for small mouth bass. It was a lot of fun watching fish chase our flies, hooking, catching and missing some.
Don
Capt. Don Graham and I had the pleasure of fishing with Dr. Chuck Caldwell and his sons yesterday on the Muskegon. After a slow wake up on the smallies we found the fish to be on the bite. Small and large crayfish patterns were the ticket. Intermediate sinking lines to 250gr grain streamer express lines fished with 2x tippet fished slowly around structure produced most fish.
Tight lines,
Steve
Jim Edwards with one of many smallies from today
Don