As we all take a little break to spend some time with friends and family on the unofficial start of summer weekend, please take some time to remember those who paid the ultimate price for our freedoms.

I have never been able to think of the day as one of mourning; I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Decoration Day. I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it. We honor them in a joyous, thankful, triumphant commemoration of what they did. ~Benjamin Harrison

Capt. Dave DeVries

05/24/11

Fishing was excellent and the guys I was with a pleasure to serve. Both Gavin and John, old friends, are excellent fly-fishermen and really enjoy their time on the river together. Those two ingredients made for an enjoyable fish-filled day. The Muskegon has really been flexing its muscles lately, showing what it has up its sleeve….a lot of big fish! We nymph fished in the areas that were active with spawning suckers and had our eyes opened to the quality of fish that lurk in its mysterious depths.

Jay Allen -guide

05/19-22/11

I spent three days with two fun guys, Mike and Steve. Both are good anglers and were willing to adapt to whatever means were necessary to get into fish. We fished it all streamers, nymphs, and dries. Catching fish on all three techniques. Nymph fishing accounted for the majority of the fish caught and they were able to get a good number of hold-overs in the boat. Caddis are beginning to show up quite regularly in the afternoon and fish are starting to respond to them. Green caddis(#18) are the predominate species that is hatching. Always remember that on a good caddis fishery like the MO fish will feed on the emerging pupae most regular. Carry both floating pupae and unweighted pupae. Also, don’t be shy in giving your pupae patterns some movement slightly before it reaches a targeted fish. Caddis are very active emergers, you have to imitate the fly as well as its movement to consistently catch caddis eating fish; especially the bigger ones.

Jay Allen -guide

Thank goodness for the mancave back at the lodge! Dr’s Hicswa and Eavey and I made good use of our time taking shelter from yet another spring storm. Lunch, a few beers, a couple good cigars, and lots of laughs made for a great afternoon. The trout this morning weren’t digging the cool temps but provided some decent action. Had I known we were in for a short day, I would have had Al pose a nice 15″ brown he successfully nymphed, but with some of our biggest trout showing themselves lately we opted for a quick release and a quick return to the game. This proved to be a good plan right until the torrential rains and lightning rolled in….

Capt. Steven Kuieck

Things don’t always play out on the river the way you think, but when they do–watch out! As predicted, a couple days of summer-like weather and the fish are happy. I should mention that some were happy to pose….two of our biggest, both hovering in excess of 5lbs, one a lake run brown, and the second a true river pig both ended up swimming away before I could forever capture their stature with the camera. No, these fish didn’t fall short of the net, they simply had “Mr. Soft Hands” to blame. Oh, well, been there, done that! To make the day even more special, we had two nice drop-backs give flight on 5x floro, one made it to the net and the other parted ways with us at eye level. Bring on the summer weather and more days like today!

Capt. Steven Kuieck

Wow, sorry for the big delay on my posts! Streamer fishing on the Muskegon the last week with big uglies has been pretty challenging. Posing the rivers largest for the camera has proven tough, though as the water temperature finally started to warm late Thursday into Friday the big boys came out of hiding and began to show themselves. Still, posing these wonderful trout for the camera has been a challenge. Dry fly action is slowly starting to come into play with Black Quills, caddis, and a very few Drakes. The suckers are starting to spawn but the real action is still waiting to break loose with warmer flows. Fishing will soon be great as this 80 degree weather will warm the water. Thanks goes out to Taylor-Baird, Lumbermens, the Sidor group, and Mike & Steve for making an all be it challenging week  a success.

Capt. Steven Kuieck

With just a few hours to fish, Dick and I headed to the Muskegon to fish  trout with streamers. The fishing was slower than I expected, but we managed to put a few in the boat and lost a few. Dick and I had a great time fishing streamers on light rods.

Capt. Don Graham

Ben and guest Chris joined me today for some “big uglies” streamer stripping.  Chris fishes the Manistee and Ausable and has brought to hand some tremendous brown trout this spring on outsiezed streamers so naturally he was pumped to give them a whirl on the Muskegon.  Apparently, though, our brown trout didn’t get the message that today was to be dinner time.  In the word, the “bite” was weak to say the least.  Some short strikes and chases from trout smaller than we had hoped were the order of the day.  During the day, too, the river jumped some 300 cfs, which surely didn’t contribute to our good fortune.   Fortunately, the weather was Chamber of Commerce perfect.  Neat, too, to see some grey drakes over the water in the morning—a harbinger of good times ahead.  Some steelhead remain in the river, but their time is short.  Chris holds a buck that literally punched in minutes before he needed to call it a day.  Thanks, guys; it was great to reconnect with you; I enjoyed the day a ton.  Best wishes for continued success!

Captain Tom Kuieck

The past two days of warm summer-like temperatures in the low to mid-80′s have left the steelhead seemingly pressure cooked. While I can’t speak about all of the steelhead, the fish we encountered today were not the happy campers of only a few days ago. However, the trout and even a bonus pig of a river smallie kept Dan and Dan well occupied. Streamer fishing this morning was very productive and gave up some nice results. Much to my surprise we had a very nice caddis hatch this afternoon–too bad the trout are all gorged on salmon fry and steelhead caviar!

Capt. Steven Kuieck

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words (or as Captain Don says about me—two thousand).

Captain Tom Kuieck