So, So Happy!

Whenever I have an opportunity to get retired RiverQuest guide Don Graham in the boat with me, I know it will be a special day for the both of us since our fly fishing relationship runs farther back in time than either of us would like to remember! So many great times; so many fish brought to hand; and so many treasured memories.

Last Friday, we grew that collection of memories as we chased early run fall steelhead on Michigan’s Muskegon River, which is experiencing a run of Chinook salmon that, by recent years’ standards, is solid, indeed. Fishing indicators behind spawning salmon and, later in the day, deep nymphing the same, we probed run after run, bowl after bowl, only much to our delight, to find this gorgeous, hen steelhead having said, “Howdy do!” to Don’s fly!

Given that our times together are all too infrequent, due to any number of variables in our lives, bringing Don’s steelhead to hand after a protracted fight was truly special for both of us. It’s early on the fall steelhead calendar, but our half day search for them attests to the fact that fishable numbers of fall steelhead are there to be hooked, played, and landed.

All in all, today a terrific time with Don that left us both so, so happy!

Tom Kuieck