The Coldwater River and Upper Flat

Caught this youngster on the Coldwater River. He fell for a swung pink Vladi worm tied with UV Pink Ice Dub (rather that the more common material). I haven't fished the Coldwater in a couple years even though it's less than 10 miles from my house. The river hasn't been stocked since 2012 with browns, so this guy is wild. Awesome to see reproduction taking place. I did see a fair number of 8"-10" fish rising for drys. I hooked up with a couple that I'd guess were about that size. I was using a swung Mudler, but both fish popped off. Before I left I walked up stream and hitting the opposite bank with a gold and brown streamer. I rolled one fish that I'd guess was 12" or bigger.

In hopes to redeem my morning I hit the Flat at Fallasburg. Didn't have any better luck. High and fast water. So after I hooked up with this guy I called it quits.

Feenstra's Bass Detector

I might have a new favorite fly...this thing works!

Underwater Photography: Take 1

Still trying to figure things out.

A smallie on Feenstra's Black and Blue Baitfish

Two-Handed Skagit for Smallies

I lined my 11foot 6wt Cabelas Tlr switch rod with a 19foot 390 grain Airflo Skagit Switch using a 5'float x 5'sink light MOW Tip.  I tried this out last night and thought it was horrible.  Although, I was still managing from time to time to cast 50+ feet with nice loops. I couldn't believe how heavy and out of control the line felt  I came home watched a bunch of Ed Ward and Tom Larimer casting videos, had strange dreams all night about being at a casting clinic in the Pacific Northwest with Ed Ward.  When I woke up in the morning I hit the river for about an hour.  After a few casts I realized I was too stretched out with my casting stroke.  I pulled things in tighter and closer and things really came together.  I was hitting 60-70 foot casts with a big nasty streamer.  And it was all rolling out in a  nice looking loop.

This let me swing through some parts of the Flat River that I can't normally get to.  I hooked and landed a few nice fish as a result.

Feenstra's
Black and Blue Baitfish

My smallmouth bass interpretation of  Senyo's Artificial Intelligence

End of Spring Steelhead Season 2013

I'm officially done chasing chrome until the summer runs starts...next month.  I hope to hit the St. Joe for the first time this summer.  On my last trip searching for steelhead, I caught this obese little brown on a swung Kevin Fennstra fly - the psycho sculpin. I was using a bass/bullet weight to get it down fast.

I'm surprised by how many of these aggressive little  10"-12" browns there are in the lower Rouge right now.  Imagine if they made a section catch and release only...we'd have a bunch of big aggressive browns in a few years.

Fishing - May 12th, 2013

I got on the Rouge River just after 7am.  I was looking for chrome, but almost instantly had some Rouge River gold on the end of my line.




















 I fished for a few hours and must have rolled a dozen or more browns, but only ended up bringing two to hand.  So goes streamer fishing especially when you're looking for bigger fish.

There were still Steelhead in the river, some kids fishing downstream from me hooked two and brought in one. They were using Mepps spinners.  I saw one splashing by a shallow log jam and gave it a few swings, but it wasn't interested in playing, so I moved on.

This streamer ended up being my best fly all weekend.  Both on the Flat for smallmouth and browns on the Rouge.  It's just a little white Arctic Fox, silver flashabou, pearl crystal flash topped with some peakcock herl on a size 6 Gamakatsu B10s.  I used a fishskull head, but stuck eyes on it from the next size larger head.  I'm thinking this hook isn't a good match for the smaller browns on the Rouge.  The gap is too large.  I missed tons of fish and I didn't like the way it hooked the ones I did land.  It was a little too damaging.

Fishing - May 11th 2013

Hit the Flat River around 7am on Saturday.  Started out using a large Circus Peanut type streamer, but was having trouble casting. So I ran through a few flies until I got an eat on a Arctic Fox and flash Clouser type streamer I had tied up using a fishskull head and large red eyes.  I had quite a few bumps, hooked up with three typical sized, but lively Flat River Smallmouth bass.

I also accidentally ran into this guy with my streamer.  

These suckers are jumping all over the place on the Flat

Rockbass on the Flat River

Broken Rod

Tied up this squidro/intruder type fly to search for spring steelhead that might still be hanging around on the Rouge. I ended up snagging on a carp.  The fish went deep and broadside into the current...rather than just breaking it off, I tried to drag it in and snap went my trusty single-handed 8 weight.