On the drop............

I fished alone this morning for a few hours as the Commander was getting over some type of flu like event. The water was still a little up and a little murky at first light. As this was a Sunday I entered the abyss in darkness and crossed the flow twice in darkness. I knew exactly where I wanted to start and where I wanted to work my way back from.

My first two spots surprisingly didn't produce but with the water a little up I looked for fish in spots that I may usually walk by and it paid off. It was a relatively successful day. With one special fish that came in an area that I was least expecting it to come from and not paying full attention.

The unexpected fish was a thick girl that gave me a great fight with a run down stream through a run and a pool and almost into some dead wood laying by the shore.

I have caught bigger but for some reason she left me once I released her with my knees shaking and a little out of sorts.

I felt like was a just in a car crash with the adrenaline pumping.

I needed a few minutes just to take it all in and remove the smile from my face.

A welcome surprise..................

one for two............

I woke up this morning to see my first two choices doubled in flow overnight and would most likely be brown. I hit a smaller trib and fished off color water with limited success. I caught a small male and lost a larger male.


No pics today..........

A Birds Eye View..........................

This morning I met Bill and Frank for a morning outing. We attempted to catch her a little before the drop with hopes of getting into a pod or two.

The water was a murky chalky green with a flow around 478. We threw standard size to golf ball offering into our pools in runs with limited results.

Bill and Frank hooked a few and I was happy to get the skunk stripe of my back with one fish.

We also had a large winged visitor to a run. He flew up right as I fought and released a fish. At first I thought it was a turkey vulture and he was foreshadowing the impending demise of either Bill or I but that was not the case.

Bill suggested it was a juvenile eagle and from a few image searches on the web that appears to be the case.

What a beautiful creature.

Though we did not hit it right and a few fisherman I talked to at one of the pools did not either today or yesterday; It was nice to be out with a few good friends and a special stop at Sprague's General Store.

Now that is a the way to end a days fishing. Thank you gentleman.

Until tomorrow....................

Today with Frank................

This morning I fished with Frank until lunch time. Bill was being the great husband that he is and couldn't make it down. Another lucky day with minimal people to contend with. We were able to relax and take our time. We fished our familiar spots but were able to hit the secondary water to and thoroughly fish the section of the trib.

The water was 42 degrees and green.

Other than both of us losing our floats and having to re-rig no complaints.

another great day to be out in the sunshine.

Yesterday....................

Yesterday morning the Commander and I headed out for a few hours. We chose our trib and access well as we ran into barely a soul on the water. We both hit a few fish and a couple that made our day. A great day to be on the water and nice weather for November.

Found a few..................

Today I spend a little over three hours trib hopping. I found some fishable water and got into a nice male brown and a slab of a male steelhead that appeared to be as wide as he was long.

a few other fish and hookups ensued thereafter.

A nice feeling after three days off the water...........

I also picked up a very nice black walnut wading staff from http://www.plumcreekstaffs.com/ .

Just something I saw and just had to have it. It is light and look great.

Until tomorrow....

Alone.........

Today was a day of relative solitude on the water which is always a good thing. The problem with fishing alone is that you loose any concept of time.

As the great philosopher Schomber once said: "Time folds unto itself".

Well he isn't a philosopher but he can be a deep thinking Germanic at times.

I walked and fished from hole to hole and run to run for what I thought was a short time but minutes melted into hours.

This pretty hard fighting steelhead had a fin clipped right pectoral fin.

I know a left clipped pectoral denotes a Skamania but to my my memory A right pec clip denotes possibly a 3 0r 4 year old steelhead.

She mad my day with a combination of acrobatics and bull runs.

It appeared today that the females I encountered were all silver and fresh and the males were getting darkened up.

Resting up for the next two days and taking care of business.

Fresh air.....................

This morning I met Bill and Frank for a half days worth of fishing. I dragging from some type of allergy. Most likely from all the wet decaying leaves but who knows.

The crisp fresh air cleans out the lungs along with a good walk. We all had a few fish in and/or a few fish lost.

The Premier aka Frank put on a little bit of show for us. While for some reason I think Bill left his shiny red cape with the big S on it in the truck. He had a lot of hookups but couldn't get them to the bank.

I guess even the mighty have their off days LOL. It was nice to finally find some fish and we even saw a pair spawning already. And no they were not stray salmon of any type.

This girl came on a peach offering behind a few boulders in faster water.

Thanks for the company guys.

Gerry thanks for the shout out today and the extra info. Hope the shoulder is feeling better and will catch you on the water.

The Commander saves the day......

Yesterday the commander and I decided to change it up and go north to the D.B.. We arrived at our destination to find relatively limited vehicles and a nice flow coming from the dam. We were both optimistic that it would be a good morning.

I hooked and lost a few brown. The Commander hooked a few fish and others were catching also. Then the dam shut off the flow. the current disappeared and the water became stagnant.

Our D.B. experience ended abruptly.

The Commander and I returned to my truck and decided to work our way back home. we decided that the Commander would guide me today to some of his home water and that he did.

We were lucky to find a few stretches with green or dark water in a clear running tributary.

The both of us got into a few nice fish that were surprisingly aggressive.

I was grateful to Tom for showing me some of his water and salvaging the day for both us.

A morning off today to rest my weary bones and take care of some business.

Alien abduction continues......

Today was the Commander's birthday. So Mike and I accompanied the Commander on a expedition today.

We fished four different section of the system today.

Nice green water

Mild temps

Good water flow


Very limited number of fish caught

A ghost town in comparison to previous years.

Where did all the fish go?

What of many variables is off the norm?

What do the fish know that we do not?

Alien abduction of steelhead population rumored....

I got out today with Bill and Frank for the morning.

We were all hyped up to get on the water with the hopes we would hit good conditions.

Well despite what we would consider good conditions, the pickings were slim. We did a lot of walking and not much catching to our dismay. We literally threw everything at them in our vests to no avail.

Why they had lockjaw today?

I have no idea and it left my well seasoned and more accomplished fishing partners scratching their heads.

I guess a comfort to all of us was that we saw very limited catching by others.

I just might have to put down the fishing sticks for a day to reboot the computer so to speak as the trying conditions put my enthusiasm at a low point.

I don't think I like this sport anymore..........................LOL

I'm just tellin' ya. We aint goin' to catch anything......

Those were my words of wisdom when Commander Tom picked me up this morning. Usually I have a good intuition on if fishing is going to be good and where we might get into them on any given day.

But lately the fish for the most part except for the odd day have been spread out more than usual.

I told Tom were were going to be doing a little walking and to expect a lot of company. A projected 65 degree day and you know every Tom, Dick, and Harry get out on the water.

Never the less, we walked until we got away from most human beings and found a few fish to take our offering. We ended our day about noon time with our forced march making soup out of our waders.

Gee Commander you look a little happy in that picture..................

Fishing with B squared..........

Today I fished with Bill and Buda in the morning. It was a morning of trib hopping to find the right water conditions as they were all in varying levels of visibility. Muddy, brown, stained, green and clear, We found it all depending where we stopped.

At the first stop, Bill and I started walking down the access at the first light only to find the stream brown so we left and went on our way.

The 2nd spot was muddy. Bill and I looked at each other and said nope and went on our way.

3rd stop, Bill and I met up with Buda to find a stream green but clearing really fast and with in an hour and a half she was clear. We picked up a few fish there including a dark buck I caught.

Initially on the hit, I thought the fish was a fresh female chromer straight from the lake. He hit hard and made four quality runs before coming to shore. To both Bill and my surprise the fish was a dark male filled with piss and vinegar.

We were off to our fourth spot to a trib which unfortunately has become one of the most overpopulated by fisherman this season. There were cars and trucks up and down the trib. The three of us stopped at a well known spot behind a church and Buda gave us the best line of the day. He rolled down the window of his truck, surveyed all the vehicles and asked if there was mass today.

We all laughed and hit one more spot with room on that trib and Bill picked up a fish.

The last stop of the day was one of Buda's special spots and she was a beauty. As we walked into the gorge and breathed in the crisp, cool, fall air. Buda noticed the buck scrapings on the branches. Buda is an expert hunter and picks up the smallest signs of deer presence in the woods.

We all admired the towering cliffs and autumn colors as we hiked our way in. The water was a nice green. We picked up a few fish and Bill even picked up a brown.

It turned out to be a great morning not for the numbers of fish but for the quality of the company we kept and the beauty our tributaries afford us all at this time of the year.

Thank you for sharing the morning with me gentleman.

Bill thank you for the pictures.

Until tomorrow...............

18 Squared............

I hit the road at 5am and made it to the DB on Lake O. at 6am. I set out to hit the T. run and there was a line there in the dark ahead of me but I found a half way decent spot.

I popped a male steelhead on an orange bead on the 2nd drift and it was down hill from there.

In my opinion it was slow today once the sun came up and there were not sufficient amount of fish around for me to hang around.

I was back in my truck and on the road at 8 am and beat a path closer home to the other 18.

We had south east winds today and my gut was telling me it wasn't going to be a hot day.

I fished a section of the trib for a few hours with no takers and packed in by 11am.

Check out a great blog that recently came to my attention by it's author Ryan Davey. The man is one adventure bad ass and is working the Lake Erie tribs this season. http://www.adventureangle.com/

Peace and love..........

A tale of two rivers.......

Well two sections of the same river that is............

I voted bright and early at 6am and then met Bill and Frank for a morning expedition with the hope of catching a few fish and to hear tales of their trip to a different Great Lake yesterday.

I beat them to the access point so I walked into the dark abyss all by my lonesome with the hopes of putting a fish on the bank at sun up while waiting for them. That I did not do but they came in about 10 minutes behind me.

The Premier headed for the Premier Pool while Bill and I fished Little Wheel with hopes of moving down to Sulphur Bend.

In the first ten minutes Bill and I put some fish on the bank in the clear to clearing water.
Once we were done we moved down to meet Frank where he was fishing. He apparently got into a few fish. We left him to his own devises with some fly guy who walked into his pool and low holed him. Frank was fine with it I guess until the guy wanted to get all artsy and lit up a pipe.

Frank can't stand smoke period. How about saving the pipe for a rest on the bank and actually focusing on catching fish and not smoking??????????

Once Frank was sufficiently smoked out from the low holer he met us down below sulphur bend.
Bill had a few bites there but is was slow and the water was dropping.

We decided to move up river in hopes of finding more than a few fish here or there.
On the way upstream we passed by Jerry from Renegade Rods. I was surprised to see him as his shoulder has been acting up and it hurts even to cast. As always Jerry was his talkative and friendly self and I introduced him to Bill and Frank.

After a friendly discussion on water,tackle, and a few other tribs; we moved up to a pool. Magic Mike was there with the other Frank and we talked about the same things. The water here was a lot greener with a little brown tinge to it. We couldn't believe this was the same trib we fished below.

Bill and Frank got into some fish and we went on our way for a few sandwiches and some conversation.

A refreshing day on the water and as always a good thing to run into friendly faces on the river.

Until tomorrow.....................

*****There were no pictures taken of today's expedition to protect the innocent and not so innocent and yes they are all guilty.

DB2 Welcome to thunderdome......

Tom and I got out for a few hours this morning and with all the streams mucked up we decided to go back to the dirty B. for the circus. We got there an hour late as we did not take into account daylight savings time.

We fished the slower staging water with no luck and the prime spot was filled up this morning.
After we had enough we decided to walk toward the dam to get an eye full of the Zoo.

It was as expected a horrifying sight. Luckily we only saw a few fish caught all day. The sportsmen and I use the term loosely were lined up shoulder to shoulder from trestle to dam.

Honestly that is not fishing and I really don't have a name for it. I still can't believe people pay good money to drive here from out of state to participate in that sideshow.

Lambton if your out there it reminds me of that 1972 Michigan Salmon fishing movie you had up on your blog.

Well after Tom took a few pictures of the Circus to send to Eric in Albany for a chuckle; we moved on to a new creek of Lake O. This mid size creek had no people but the fishing was non existent also.

I am sick of seeing leaves flowing down stream and tea stained water.

Enough is enough. I want my mint green steelhead water back. NOW!

A little snow on the ground wouldnt be bad either......