Morning on the Big M

I hit the Manistee this morning.  Spent some time driving around trying to find the river access point that had been recommended to me a few years ago, all the while trying to talk myself out of just fishing below the dam for "easy" fish.  The few times I've been there, Tippy has never been a real pleasant place fish.

I figured a variety of water types in a more wilderness setting is a better way to spend my time, besides I don't really even need to catch fish, right?

Finally, found the right road, parked, rigged up and made my way through the overgrown trails to the river.

This spot seems to be the area where the river transitions from more classic fly water with bigger runs down to a corrugated bottom, compound currents and "micro-buckets".  No fish hooked, but I did get a number of  bumps and a few repeat grabs in a couple runs.  Also made some great two handed casting progress.

At one point I was looking across the river, when I saw what was likely the biggest freshwater fish I've ever seen, jump out of the water. It was about 80 feet straight across the river from me and came about 3/4 of the way out of the river.  What I saw of the fish was easily 4-5 feet.  After my initial shock my thought was that it was a sturgeon.  Looking around online I found a few pictures that seem to confirm this.  The following isn't my picture, but is almost exactly what I saw

Here are some other random shots from the morning.