August 7, 2004 - Walleye on the Bay (By
Dave)
After 9:00 am departure from the barn,
Mike, Joe and I set out for some late summer walleye
trolling. We dropped the lines at 12:00 (delayed by a
flooded outboard), and the hot 'n tots produced immediately.
However, the action slowed for the rest of the afternoon, with only
three nice walleyes finding the box. The ole' 218 was the key for
success on a day that featured extremely calm water.
Week of June 28 - Hex Hatch (by
Dave)
In an attempt to time
the Hex hatch, Mike and Dad set up camp on the Manistee River Sunday
evening (6/27). Steve and Alex fished as well on Sunday and Monday
nights. Dave and Nick traveled north and fished on Tuesday and Wednesday
evening. The drops were rather light Sunday through Tuesday.
Wednesday evening it appeared that a total washout would occur when
suddenly at 10:30 a large drop began with a moderate feed.
Fishing was fair to good throughout the week as 12" to 17"
brown were caught and released. Nick lost his first mortgage
payment playing cribbage, while Buck gloated at his good fortune with
the cards.
Memorial weekend on the Au Sable near
Mio - (By Sammy)
The weather held
up well through the first part of Memorial weekend, no rain. Rusty
and fast, the water pushed down through the leaning cedars past the
cabins and campfires and any angler that tempted fate. I found myself
Friday evening watching tan caddis bounce on the top of the chocolate
colored water, along with a drake or two, but there was no activity to
be seen from shore to shore. I decided not to fish that evening and
opted to watch the Pistons play against Indiana.
Saturday,
my Uncle James and I decided to try our luck wading the fast waters. He
managed to pull out one small rainbow on a caddis fly I had tied earlier
that day. I found a hole in my waders, the big one at the top! Not being
able to see much more than 8 inches into the water I managed to walk
onto a grass flat and step into the hole that sits behind it. My uncle
thought that I was screaming because I had a large fish on, but with the
high pitched nature of my screams he quickly began to laugh.
On Sunday I had
decided the only way we were going to be effective at all was to cover
as much water as possible hoping to pass something in front of an active
fish. The fly rods were put in their cases and the heavy tackle came
out, spinning rods and reels armed with hook ridden crank baits.
The canoe launched around 2 p.m. The technique I had learned from my
father paid off. Dragging a small anchor behind the canoe to slow us
down allowed my uncle to fish the holding areas. To my surprise the
makeshift anchor welded together by my grandfather actually stopped the
canoe in the high waters! This allowed me to work us into the bends
where the deep holes, large trout, and walleyes lurk. I managed to
pull two walleyes out of the first hole we came to, one, that was around
the 20-inch mark and another pan fryer around 16. The rest of the
trip I hooked two more trout, one brown around 14 inches and a rainbow
that measured 11.5 inches. Uncle James sitting at the front of the canoe
pulled in a huge, 8-inch rainbow that nearly took the pole from his
hands.
Monday brought rain
and we decided to head back south to the life we left on Friday. Even
with the poor water conditions, we were successful. I had a great
time fishing with my Uncle James. I rarely get a chance to do so. We
turned a weekend of fishing that started out cold, into a trip we will
always remember.
April 24th
(Opening Day For Streams) (by Sam): I
met Keith Perior in the parking lot of Gracie’s Restaurant, located at
the corner of Birch Run Road and M-13, at 7:00 am and we proceeded to
our secret fishing hole on the Flint River. This was the first time we
fished for walleyes on opening day. Three of us, Keith, Richard Vandette
and I fished the last 3 days of the season with little luck catching
only 3 fish total in the 3 days. Keith caught all 3 fish and we blamed
the meager catch on the high fishing conditions. It was the high winds,
high water, high 30’s and high supply of beer. Richard and I figured
the later was the most important factor since Keith had drank 3 to our
1. We determined that beer some how enables your fingers to become more
sensitive allowing you to feel the very light bites Keith was
describing, Richard and I never felt a thing. Its also possible the
number 3 may have had something to do with it.
Anyhow, when
Keith and I arrived at the secret spot for the season opener all
conditions were much improved. We estimated the water level had dropped
about 3 feet and we recovered 3 of the fishing rigs (3/8 to ½ ounce jig
heads with 3 to 6 inch Berkley Power Bait twister tails) we had lost
previously. As usual I was the first one with a line in the water and on
about my 3 rd cast I caught a nice walleye. Keith soon joined in and
when we had finished fishing at about 11:30 am, we had 4 walleyes on the
stringer. The last fish was caught at about 9:30 am and as we both had
other obligations (wives) to consider we called it a day. Keith had
caught 3 walleyes to my 1. Keith also caught a White Bass, Small Mouth
Bass and a Carp.
The Walleyes
were all males from 20 to 22 inches in length and weighed in at about 3
to 5 pounds each. We stopped at Gracie’s for a quick beer (3) and some
peanuts, talked about what a nice morning it was and the reason poor
Richard couldn’t make it. His son had given him a gift certificate for
a hunting trip somewhere in northern Michigan for this date. It seams
the certificate was only for the opportunity to hunt for a wild boar. If
successful it would be an additional $3 per pound live weight. Great
gift idea eh. We figured given the chance he would probably miss the pig
on purpose. After writing this fishing report as you requested Dave I
think the number 3 had more to do with it since we never had a beer
until we got back to Gracie’s.
Silver
Bullet - 3 Fish - 0
April 9, 2004: (by
Dave): We kicked off the annual Tour D'Thumb by meeting in
Sebawaing for breakfast. Frank, Dominic, Joe, Sam and I were the
2004 participants. We began scouting at Caseville as there were
reports of no fish being caught. We began fishing at Grindstone
with no success. We moved to Harbor Beach and discussed
dinner. After a pork chop dinner in Verona, we drove back to
Caseville and fished until dark with no fish. It was a typical
Good Friday trip - no fish; good food. (We took some outstanding
pictures, however, I deleted the files by mistake - sorry boys.)
Fish - 1 Silver Bullet
- 0
April 7, 2004: (by Nick) Steelhead
fishing on the West side of the state was slow yesterday. Terry
managed to land two chrome fish and a nice Brown while Nick was
skunked. We fished the PM in the Morning, then drove to the Rogue
(more people than fish) and then drove back to the PM. About 500
miles for 2 fish!
Fished the East side
today with equal success. Reached the river at daybreak and fished
until about 9:30. There were very few fish in the river, but we
managed to find a few. Buck fished for the planters and landed a
nice 7 incher, which he reluctantly released. Nick had to show him
how to catch the big fish.
Silver Bullet -
1 Fish - 0
March 27, 2004: (by Dave)
Roger Kitchen was in town and
suggested a pre-Tour D’Thumb fishing trip to Buck.
Sam, Joe and I were invited to tag along.
We decided to head towards Tawas, as good weather was in the
forecast. A 9:00 am
departure time was set, which was soon changed to 10:00 am.
In
Tawas, 38-degree temps greeted us.
We also faced strong east wind as we pulled into the parking lot
at the pier. It was
quickly agreed that watching the Red Wing game at Barnacle Bill’s
would be far more enjoyable than sitting on the cold pier. Besides, it was possible that the wind could die down and the
temperatures might climb 15-20 degrees in a couple of hours (well, it
has happened before!).
While
watching the hockey game we consumed a couple of $1 coney dogs and a few
brew’s. Later, we
decided that the mouth of the Tawas River would be a great place to
start fishing (we felt that a 20 yard walk to water would be far
superior to a ¼ mile hike on the pier). Joe
and I stood guard in the van while Roger, Sam & Buck fished. They fished hard for ½ hour with no success….well, Sam did
catch a small branch floating down the river.
We departed for a great dinner at Dunleavey’s in AuGres.
It was certainly a nice rehearsal for the Tour D’Thumb.
Fish
- 1 Silver Bullet - 0
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