Yesterday, on one last guides’-day-out before our fall salmon and steelhead bookings beckon, fellow RiverQuest guide Don Graham and I heeded the musicians’ mantra and gave the Muskegon River’s smallmouth our best shot. Smallie fly fishing has been terrific lately so we set out with high of expectations for a great day. Five hours later, having boated only one measly smallmouth and one microscopic bluegill, Don and I entered into some serious introspection. We simply could not buy a strike; poppers and streamers in a myriad of colors yielded zip. Pretty day but brutal fishing.
After lunch, though, as we drifted down river, casting to likely hold after likely hold, our fortunes began to brighten to the point where the takes came faster and faster. Not coincidentally, we began to notice schools of minnows, whereas in the morning, we saw none. The fish had moved downriver following the forage. Pretty simple: why live where there’s nothing to eat? The take-away was right there all along; we just weren’t observant enough to see it. Whether chasing fish or hunting game, find the food, and you’ll find your quarry—in this case, more than one kind. Fishing literature is rife with the maxim “Pike feed voraciously in the fall.” Certainly, that’s the case on the Muskegon River right now. Although we were targeting smallmouth, pike after pike ripped our streamers all afternoon. 15 lb tippet held most, but lesser poundage resulted in flies lost.
Don and I agreed once again; few fly fishing experiences are more all ’round satisfying and flat-out fun than floating down the MO popping smallmouth bass and increasingly these days, nailing pike. Just a total blast!
Capt. Tom Kuieck
