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| These reports are written by the Silver Bullet crew. If you go fishing, you are obligated to write a report. And if you know us, you are a member of the Crew! |
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Georgia Hunting My Dad, Terry, and I went down to South Georgia for another Deer/Boar hunt. I think we were a little spoiled from our trip in October as we had to work twice as hard and did not see the game that we had previously. We mostly hunted what the locals call the “River Swamp” and pushed a lot of the islands. Terry ended up bagging a nice pig on the second day. Joel, one of Israel’s and Emanuel’s friends, walked up on a pack of small hogs and got all five of them that same morning. Hunter and I tag teamed another small hog the third day.
Whitefish - Tawas Pier
Boar and Deer Hunting
I left class on Wednesday night and picked up
Terry (who flew in) and Eric (who took the train
down) from
Terry- 3 pigs
Salmon on the Betsie
Last weekend I made the trip up to Michigan to see
my new twin nephews, which happened to coincide with
the Salmon run. We got into the airport in Flint at
about 1:30 am Friday morning and didn’t arrive to The most interesting event of the trip was when my brother Terry was fighting a fish and tried to get him into the net. Just when he was about to net the fish his line broke and threw the split shot back at him. It hit him right between the eyes and cut him wide open. Within seconds he had blood running down his face into the water. He then developed a baseball size lump between his eyes. Terry is about 6’3” and 250 lbs and that almost dropped him. He wasn’t wearing his glasses at the time because it was still early in the morning. Thank goodness it didn’t hit him in the eye. Click Here for Pictures
Montana….wow! That’s
an obscure description, but it’s difficult to relate the
beauty of this state with any number of words. Everywhere one looks there is
a snapshot waiting. Keith aptly stated that “if
only you could take 3-D pictures then you might do
justice to the landscape”.
Because Sam, Joe or Mike has not forwarded a fishing report, I will write of our first trip to the Bay. The report will be short. We trolled with Hot ‘n Tots and Thundersticks on a very hot and calm day. Our success relied on sharp turns, and the fish hit when the idle baits returned to motion. We boated 11 walleyes and kept 10. The colors that produced were the bubble gum pattern and chartreuse colors. One each of extremely large sheephead, catfish and gar pike were also boated. Sam and I also turned a bit red due to our first exposure to the sun.
Smallmouth at Grindstone It
was a great day for fishing and although the threat
of potentially severe thunderstorms was in the
forecast by 11AM May 30th Dale Manley and Joe
Robbins were on the road again, this time on a
mission to teach small mouth bass what real
fishermen are all about. This trip Dale's son-in-law
Patrick Daugherty Scores of fish cruised around and dared to be caught. Anything and everything with the exception of the kitchen sink (only because they didn't have one with them) was cast time and time again but the fish wouldn't offer up. Loaded and ready to head down the road it was noted that there were small mouths just lolling around inside the harbor proper, and not being able to fight off the urge; the game was on again. After many tries, Patrick finally enticed one to hit and although it got off before he could land it he enjoyed a hardy fight. Not to be outdone, Dale eventually antagonized a little one that was guarding it's bedding area into biting using a floating jig tipped with the tail piece of a Berkley Power Bait. A few casts later Dale again hooked and landed a nice 18 incher. Joe had his usual luck. Time
for something to eat so it was south on M-25
and into Harbor Beach. While there our boys went out
to the public fishing area next to the power plant
only to find shallow skunky water that not even a
self respecting carp would have ventured into. Port
Sanilac was next with nothing going on except for
the occasional wall walker. With a storm looming, it
was homeward bound, and storm it did. Traveling in a
ferocious wind and driving rain with hail that hell
wouldn't have many people pulled off the road to
wait it out. To the surprise of everyone thru
the deluge comes a "man's man" a real man; a real
stupid man riding a motorcycle! Home by 7 with one
in the box. I guess the fish were the true teachers
today.
On May 27th, 2006 Eric
Kochenderfer and Joe Robbins once again found themselves
on Cedar Lake in Although they did get some action from some nice sized crappie and a few bluegills. Eric did pick up one decent sized bass to make things official. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, warm and sunny; so warm as a matter of fact that Joe even took off his shirt! Probably explains why the fish were a no-show. No matter if you are successful or not; when you're fishin' with your buddies all is right with the world and this year even the weather got it right.
Saginaw Bay On the water, a small wind storm blew and we almost left the bay but in a matter of 15 minutes the wind calmed down again. In a matter of 2 hours we caught 2 white bass, a sheephead and a 16" walleye. We used crawler harnesses with the typical chartreuse color and trolled very slow. At the boat launch, several boaters where just coming in from fishing and they all said to go east and fish in 5 to 6 foot of water near the Finn road launch. Monday - 05/29/2006 - Dan and I arrived at the Essexville boat launch around 6:00 a.m. We launched and finally reached our destination after a 45 minutes boat ride to get to the Finn road area. We fished in 5' to 6' of water with many other boaters. The wind was blowing South West 5 - 15 mph. We trolled very slow with crawler harnesses. My favorite was a white blade with 3' leader and 3 hoods and some chartreuse beads. Everyone was catching fish. We caught several white bass along with 15 walleye ranging in size from 16" to 23". We fished from 6:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and the fish continued to bite even though it was very warm on the water. 80 degrees. We even saw someone catch a 25" walleye on a rubber worm trolling. This area east of the dumping island about 2 miles east of the Saginaw River is very hot for walleye. Now would be the time to get out and fish. The Finn road launch is currently being dredged and will be ready in 2 weeks. Go here for pictures
Trout Camp 2006 Warm;
Warm/Cold; Cold and Rain; Cold; Warm/Cold/Rain; and
Cold/Rain/Snow. That description pretty much Some fish were caught when the effort was made…..more were caught on live bait than flies. But getting to the stream became a chore as we avoided the rain and cold for the third straight year. We did have a couple of newcomers at camp this year. Bob Meinecke drove north with his motor home, and Bob's son James and grandson Evan joined the group on Saturday. Tim made his first trip to trout camp and might have picked up a couple of new words along the way. Old friends Larry Ill, Tom and Neil Schiefer joined us for a day on Saturday and it was good to see Doug and Mark again. We missed the company of regulars: Andy, Dan, Frank L., Denny and Sammy this year; hopefully they will rejoin the group next year( I still suspect a Man Card suspension is in Sammy's future). Everyone enjoyed the great stories provided by Daryl, Harold and Dean. Roger made a week of it, arriving on the previous Sunday. Once again Sam and Joe were great at the grill, and Frank kept camp clean and tidy between fishing and golf. The Pringle boys - Dale and Lee - arrived on Saturday and did some fishing. Harry, Steve, Mike and Dave ate too much food. Despite the weather, all considered the trip to be a success because of the renewed friendships. We know that next year it will be seventy degrees, sunny and the fish will be jumping into the nets. Click here to see pictures.
Chattooga River- GA/SC Border, North of HWY 28
5/19- 5/21/06 In an
effort to give my friend Eric one last men’s weekend before
he gets married, we decided to play The other four of us left my house at 6 am to make the 1 hour 45 minute drive. We then proceeded to make the 2.5 mile hike carrying heavy backpacks, hauling two 50 qt. coolers filled with frosty beverages, all while fighting the effects of a hangover. Needless to say, the hike out was much, much lighter. Saturday was decent fishing. Mike and I both fly fished and caught several 10-14” fish. My prize was a 15” rainbow on a dry, which was my first GA trout caught on a dry fly. Most of our trout were caught on small, white dries. However, I picked up several after dark throwing a #10 Wooly Bugger. The rest of the guys did very well with crickets and power bait and always had trout for the campfire. The other bait they were using was some form of Hellgrammite that was found all over the place near the river. These things were 4-5” long! I couldn’t find the digital camera so it will be a while until I can send you some pictures from my disposable. Now I am getting ready for Montana.
The 29th
annual Tour de Thumb began with a 7:30 am departure from Sam’s
house. Roger Kitchen, Sammy, Sam, Joe and I were
joined by Frankie, Caleb, Austin and Haley Licavoli at
Grindstone for a morning
fish. Frank Sr.
met us shortly after noon to complete
the '06 participants. Today we were
Johnson Walleye Outing
Thursday, April 13th 2006. Dan, Dave and Mark Johnson went fishing in Au Gres.
We got on the water around 8:00 a.m. and trolled in 13 feet of
water for about 2 hours. Dave caught a 25” walleye on a #18
floating rapala with Again, the fishing was slow so we decided to drift for perch and also jig for walleye. Again no action. After another hour we decided to troll just in front of the mouth of the Au Gres river because a couple of locals where casting for Walleye at the end of the pier. We trolled for ½ hour a picked up a couple of decent walleye in about 5 to 6’ of water. It was amazing since the lures where bouncing of the bottom because they where diving so deep and you could easily see the bottom and the walleye where still hitting. The time of day was between 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. We would have fished longer but Dan and Mark had family commitments so we had to leave the water as soon as the fishing turned on. Saturday, April 15th 2006. Dan, Dave, Ryan and Mark along with Austin and 3 of his buddies went fishing in Tawas. We got on the water around 7:00 a.m. and trolled for walleye until 10:00 a.m. No hits, nothing was biting. We talked to everyone and they said that from Bay City to Oscoda, the fishing has shut down. We think it was the North wind and cooler temps. We trailered the boat to Au Gres to attempt the same type of fishing we did on Thursday but there where loads of fishermen coming in from boating and fishing and they all got skunked. The DNR employee was interviewing fisherman and he told me that out of 30 boats, only 3 fish where caught Saturday. The rumor is that the perch are done and the Walleye have already been up the rivers. Click Here for Pictures
Pre-Tour
de Thumb
On Friday, April 7th Dale Manley
and Joe Robbins set out in windy, rainy weather on a prelude to
the annual Good Friday Tour de Thumb. By the time our 2
adventurers reached the Sebewaing area blizzard conditions had
taken over. Not to be deterred, they pressed on to discover that
the smelt were running for $4.89 a pound at
Spring Steelhead
I contacted my dad and Dave during
the week about possibly heading north to chase some steelhead I slept most of the way up mostly
do to the over stimulating conversation that was taking place
between my dad, Dave, and Buck or it could have been that I was
tying
Of course we stopped in at the Millersburg in to have dinner, remember we had only made one stop to eat so far can't be sacrilegious. After debating on getting the up north steak special three out of the four ordered it and it was bogey at best. So after eating we made our way home and for some reason I fell asleep again must have been the conversation this time.
Well until the next fishing
adventure which I believe will be the Traditional Good Friday
eat at every town in the thumb trip.
Click
Here for Pictures Flint River Walleye
Keith, Richard, Sam and I traveled to
the Flint River for late season walleye fishing late Saturday
I decided to take the
opportunity yesterday and go fishing back up to the Soque River with
Scott and Ken Terry Cassidy, Dale Wagner, and Ron
Langworthy headed up to the Saginaw River to try for some walleyes.
They launched the boat at about 9:00 am and immediately started to
get hook ups. Terry landed 5 walleye, and a load of Smallmouth.
Ron landed 4 walleye and Dale landed two walleye and a couple
Smallmouth. They were using 3/8 ounce jigs with stinger hooks and
walleye minnows. The hottest fishing was when they first got on the
water. "Should have been there at daybreak!"
Ken Selzer and I
went up to fish on the river behind his newly acquired land near
Clarkesville, GA. This stretch of the Soque River in totally
private and can only be accessed with permission from someone that
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 Fliesopen 2003 -2007 Millington, Michigan |
my
in-laws until about 2:30. My father, brother, and
friend Dube picked me up at 3:30am to make the 2 ½
hour drive across Michigan to the Betsie River. At
daylight there were numerous fish moving up stream
and we all had hook-ups immediately. Most fish were
caught on egg imitations. We drifted through holes
and fished them on gravel. Between the 4 of us we
landed close to 20 fish between 10-18 lbs and only
fished until 2:00 pm. We even caught several nice
sized rainbows feeding on the fresh eggs.
was along creating a triple threat. With the
knowledge that the Good Friday "Tour de Thumb" crew
had great fun with the scrappy small mouths at
Grindstone City our trio headed there
straight-away. As our intrepid anglers waded out
into the clear water disturbed only by a slight
chop, one of the afore mentioned storms rumbled
across the southern sky. 
Ryan and I are going to take to Canada.
The weather was very nice. Very warm with light winds from
the northwest.
some cards on Friday night and then head up to the Chattooga
River early Saturday morning for a weekend of fishing and
camping. My cousin Mike “Clovis” Cassidy (from the
Ledbetter Bloodline) arrived Friday night and staked out our
campsite. We figured if we were going to camp on the river
where they filmed the movie “Deliverance” than we definitely
needed a Ledbetter. There was a good hatch that night and
Clovis landed a few trout including a 20” brown on a dry
fly. 
around. I had heard that people were doing well on the west side
of the state and the temperature was warming up so I kept
pushing on the until I got a commitment to head to the family
cabin near Hillman to fish
an undisclosed river.
flies until 2:00 am. These flies that as we drove farther
north crossing extremely high water conditions on passing
streams were going to do me and the others no good. When we got to the undisclosed
river I noticed that the water was high and murky and pretty
much threw in the towel at that point because we were armed with
fly rods. We made a valiant effort fishing for about four hours
and headed back home trying to anticipate the "right" time to
come back. 