Trout Family

 

At left, my trout family. Picture courtesy the Lovely Courtney.

We make our own way upstream. We look for cooler water. We try to find a place with cover and food.

These are my trout guys. On the right: Big Bear. Next: The Senator. Third from the right is Mike who is part steelhead whisperer. Third from the left is his brother Mobes whose wedding we had the pleasure of attending this weekend. (Welcome Debs). The guy wearing the tablecloth from an Italian restaurant is the Wilson. I'm the guy on the left who minutes before shed his sport coat due to the 85% humidity and spousal dancing obligations.

We're out of uniform being reasonably cleaned-up,  mostly shaved or at least trimmed, questionably sober, and sans waders.

It is important to have  trout family. It's important to make family if yours turns out to be a festering bowl of shit. It's a biological luck of the draw if you leave it to nature. These folks have removed the random affair and made family from active choice. We're chosen family.

So, We're preparing for outings. We're talking trout. We're pondering gear we don't need and waters we've read about.

Next up: Montana for me. For the group? Maybe Washington. Maybe Alaska.  We talked NakNek rainbows. We talked Situk steelhead. We talked other places. We'll see.

We're planning trips. I hope you are too.

Prost.

 

 

Trout Camping Summer Style

 

At left, my walleye fishing buddy Mike (takes me into Canada with him when Canada is open)  in front of the Nemo Dark Timber tent we used for four nights here this past week up on the Au Sable outside of Grayling, Michigan.

There are no grayling in Grayling, Michigan anymore. Just wanted to clear that up.

Trout? Yes. Grayling? No.

Mike fishing the Holy Waters section of the Au Sable mainstream down from Guides' Rest against a lovely batch of iris. They're not native but they are lovely.

So, we had bluebird days without a cloud (trout hate bright days without clouds) and cool nights (37 Wednesday night by the tent thermometer before dawn). 

 It was a Michigan summer outing. We had warm. We had cool. There were rumours of Drakes and Hex. There was a dramatic cool down in the evening we went hexing and ...no hexing. In fact, the river died about ten minutes before sunset that night and stayed that way for over an hour growing cooler and less hex-like.

We caught fish. Nothing big ... but fish.

We ran into poachers on the Black taking fish on chicken parts in a john-boat and putting all of the catch into a cooler. We didn't realize what they were doing until they slid the boat past us over gravel then proceeded to float a spring hole and vacuum the fish out indiscriminately. They were locals. They were in camo, And, I didn't want to get shot. It happens.

We ate well.

Mike cooking double Iowa chops one evening.

We fished the Mainstream Holy Waters, the Mason Tract South Branch Au Sable, the North Branch Au Sable, The Black, The Deward Tract Manistee, and the mainstream Manistee below Goose Creek Horse Camp (thanks, Lauren!).

 We ran a dry camp. No alcohol of any sort consumed. No damage done there.

We engaged in first class bushwacking without breaking any rods. We caught fish on size 18 soft hackles and size 14 caddis as well as a few more specialized flies and micro-streamers.

It was a good outing and all worked well. 

 We fell asleep in the Nemo Stargazer chairs reviewed in the preceding post so I have to say they passed a "trout fishing" comfort test.

Obligations keep me from the "trout belt" of Michigan until August. My next big outing will be the Madison River at Sun West during July. Lifetime trip, I think. I'll let you know.

Prost.

 

Nemo Stargazer Chair for Camp

 

Waiting. We spend a lot of time at trout camps waiting. Watching. Thinking. Talking. 

Sure we fish; but, for every hour on the stream is an hour in the darkness, the too bright, the too early, the too late. We're sitting through those times.

I can't fix your chronic wind knots or mis-matched hatch hopes (and aren't all our fly choices merely hopes unrealized from the other parts of our lives?). I can fix your sitting and waiting.

We all have 1960's era webbed chairs or the Wal-Mart special collapsible numbers with the poor support and finger-pinching expanding set-up.

I give you: The Nemo Stargazer.

This chair solves your problems as you and your buddies are solving the world's own. Or the trout's. Or the reason why that 1990's era F-150's  electronic ignition is a P.O.S.

I digress.

The Nemo Stargazer: a super-comfortable chair able to double as a suitable recliner for trout-camp naps. Works on your deck. Works on a bank. Works at the campground. It even works at the community ice cream social and symphony band concert (I have a great many professors in my small town including a sizable number from the faculty of the music department of Giant University next door - so our community band approaches the level of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields). 

But, the chair.

It is a rocker due to its suspended nature. It is sturdy like a fine shovel. It is supportive (back patient here so I know supportive) and comfortable all at the same time. It reclines to about a 140 degree position with a headrest secured by velcro which is easy to reposition.

Stargazing? Sure. Trout napping? That too.

It isn't too low, too high, nor does the band under your thighs cut into you after an hour of discourse.

You should buy one. Hey, they're way cheaper than that rod you have in the arsenal which your rarely fish. How many "rods I don't use" do you need, anyway? You have twice that number.

Pictures:

Angled view on my deck.

Recline-o-matic webbing strap. The mechanism works like a Barcalounger: you just push back or sit up and the chair adjusts. It is stable in the whole range of motion.

The frame: shock-corded poles (think tent) of heavy aluminum and the cross-piece brackets are milled aluminum. Tougher than a Bougle. Yep, I'll stand by that statement.

The suspension clips with a positive locking mechanism. The chair does not "slip off" the stand in use. Good thing, that.

You'd be sound asleep if it did slip off so, all's the better.

The chair/net/basket. It's a one-piece meash chair with embedded supports for grab handles (sit/stand for old guys) and two continuous vertical back support rods.

 

 

 

 

 

Last picture, I promise. Freestanding on my deck in maybe better light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only complaint: maybe could want a footstool. Well, you have a cooler in the truck, don't you? It isn't doing any good in there. Pull it out, perch up, and enjoy trout bliss.

You might need to set an alarm so you get up and go check the hatch. Just sayin'.

Nemo Stargazer 

Prost.