3-17-09

70 degrees in Michigan! Can you believe it? Captain Don Graham and I sure could: the day started with a chill, but quickly warmed, so off came the jackets and waders. By late morning, Little Black Stone Flies started showing up—first by crawling onto streamside brush and then onto the banks. Wasn’t long before they were fluttering in fair numbers over the water so it was time to pop stone flies on our tippets along with our obligatory egg flies. I chose a Sparkle Stone as my point fly since the water was running high and off color. Wasn’t long after that I was rewarded with a hen that went airborne on the hookset, and with the heavy water, she tore me up pretty well. Don, too, hooked and fought a strong chromer for a good while, only to have the hook simply let go as we were about to close in on it. No extra pressure, not even a run or jump at that point since Don had played it so well for a substantial amount of time. Bummer! No matter, though, call it a “premature release” and know that it swims for another day.

With the river dropping, we’re hoping the Muskegon settles so the good numbers of fish already in the river can find our flies even more readily. We already have a fine run of steelhead, which, of course, only pumps us up all the more for the days ahead.

Captain Tom Kuieck