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.

Where Are the Bugs?

A fine trout dash to the upper Manistee last weekend. I managed a few brookies all of who refused to pose nicely for an in-net picture. I'm getting very good at impressionistic trout photography and I don't even use elaborate post-production filters! Wrigglers!

Anyway, up north and something is going on this year.

Michigan is usually a metronome bug state. This week has this bug. Next week starts that hatch. We're as dependable as the day is long.

Not this year. Even the mosquitoes are light and sparse. It's been a long cool wet spring but the insect life as is sparse and rare as observed by this angler.

I found some of these fellows. I am a poor judge of insect taxonomy but I believe these to be eastern swallowtails. They are substantial in size so I doubt they are the Canadian variant.

Bear camp. New solo stove ranger portable firepit in the foreground. Awesome stuff.

Doing its thing: containing fire.

These fellows were out in vast numbers. Great to see. The bears will be happy.

Dinner spot waiting on some sort of activity.

The time stamp is off on my camera by about 3 hours. This is just before 8 PM. I took a couple brookies from the cutbank on the far side during my first pass down this section at noon. I fished just over a half mile of stream early in the day then returned in late afternoon to fish the same water having scouted and memorized some key features.

This was a nice glide with three submerged structures on its stretch.

One particularly nice brookie I estimate over the 12" class was twice fooled by nice wire-wrapped partridge-and-yellow spiders in size 14. Nice fish.

Each time he dove instantly into one of these remaining CCC structures placed in-stream to provide habitat back in the day. Most are in the last stage of existence and are wader-rippers with big spike nails and jagged timbers. They do however hold fish.

The water is nearly five feet deep around this example which happened to show up well on the photo.

The trout took on the downstream drift and couldn't free himself from the tension of the line at thirty degrees off to the side. He'd then dive and sprint to the bottom of the structure where he easily snapped my light leader. As soon as I detected life on the line using a hand-twist technique (same thing I learned in Colorado long-line nymphing years ago), he'd be off.

I suspect this trout sports a dozen tattoos of disappointed anglers on his fins and holds a mouthful of piercings like a Seattle barista.

I was able to enjoy the last of some Squadron Leader. I'm not sure how much longer it will be in production so I've stockpiled plenty for the rest of my days. This tin was purchased in 8/2008.

That's my on-stream "Missouri Meerschaum" . I'm not going to cry if it gets away from me in fast current. I believe the $5 pipe is what one wants when on the water.

The advantage of the large wall tent is that one can work away late into the night in a mosquito free environment.

Scotch and ink, gentlemen: almost as pleasing as trout and water. (The T.P. is because of the allergies. I was a sneezing bear Saturday night.)








If you find the hatch, please let me know. I'm thinking of putting a picture of the brown drake on milk jugs.

Prost.

Summer Trout

 It's summer.

At left, a purchase from a winter ago: The Hardy Cascapedia in the 4/5 trout size. I'm torn as to which fishing buddy to leave it to because without a doubt, there'll be a knife fight in the attorney's parking lot over the thing.

I got to meet John Shaner this spring who is the East Coast "Mr. Hardy" among other things. I'm told he had a hand in the re-emergence of this wonderful piece of gear.

He's a super guy and has an encyclopedic knowledge of wet flies, the origins of the North American dry fly tradition, and and and. Besides this, he's a super guy you'd want to introduce to your sister.

I got a bit of stage fright in meeting him.

I fed him and our crew dinner -- a special special Italian affair with great wines (Thanks Scott!) and meatballs someone dear to me taught me to make -- but except for "Hello, glad to meet you" I couldn't bring myself to ask him to sign my old copy of Bergman's Trout.

It goes back to meeting Buck Buchanan in the day (NFL HOF 1990). He died at age 51 of lung cancer. When I met him as a kid, he was the largest man I'd ever seen. I thought he was a giant. I'd watched him on television with my dad and here he was shaking my hand. All I could do was stammer.

I had a date with a girl once who was so beautiful I couldn't talk to her. My only hope was to talk at her while focusing on the foreign businessman and his wife over at the table behind her. The fellow probably thought I was gay the way I kept staring at him. Every time I looked at her, I lost my voice.

Luckily I covered my embarrassment in alcohol because that always helps, right?

With Shaner, I covered it by vicodin and an early trip to bed while everyone else ate and talked. I didn't even get into the dining room. I twisted my ankle the day before and the bastard had swollen to the size of a softball while pounding like it was on an anvil. I wasn't good company.

I'm the king of pissed-away opportunities.

So, the Cascapedia is delightful. It's spooled with OPST Lazar line and I left room to handle a whole fly line in 4/5. I'm going with a Rio LT in DT 4 wt.

Yes, at 6+ ounces someone will say "isn't that heavy?"  The difference between the Cascapedia and a Galvan Torque is about two ounces. That's a couple slices of ham. I'm not going to feel the difference.

I'd say I'm not casting postage-scale light rods but that isn't true. I've an 8' WInston BIIIx in 4 wt and a Hardy Zephrus 8' 4wt  both that are in that light class.  I know 8'6" is the better length in both rods; but, I live in Michigan and 8' is just fine. I prefer the McKellip M84 8' cane but it rains here and one must make concessions.

You don't have a problem with cane in the rain? Good on you. I have and I do.

Anyway, I bought this reel something more than a year ago and have been using it for single-handed Spey work and some double-handed on a 3 wt Echo 10' 6" 3 wt. It's loaded with OPST Lazar line and backing. The thing is large. I've left enough room to make a loop-to-loop for the LT DT from Rio in 4 wt.

I'm tying.

 In sorting some boxes, I've segregated some flies from the collection for this coming weekend on the Au Sable and Manistee both of which are unseasonably -- and uncomfortably -- high.

  Big coachman-style streamer with a double hackle head inspired by the low-water spey flies Steve at The Soft-Hackle Journal ties. Mine aren't as clean or neat; but, the big hydraulic wake of the twin hackles does something special on 12" strips and BOOM trout take 'em.  Size 7  Alec Jackson irons hook here.

 A nice red-assed inspired wire wrapped soft-hackle that does well in finding the underwater soft seam below faster surface current.  Fish lying in that gravel channel under the flow take this beast with gusto which is good because I often have enough slack in my system on the take that I need the assist.

Black and palmered in a wide-gap #14. Always helpful in softer water when things are still a bit higher and faster than usual.











I'm making the run to do a "dry camp" up on the Manistee at the ruins of Deward.

The river is small there and high water won't hurt the brookies. I'll swing a hammock (Hennessy - now a 20 year old beast good as the first day new) and use a Ranger stove from the Solo Stove people as my portable fire pit. It's a lightweight camp confined by distance-from-road restrictions.

Hey, we all want to enjoy the unspoiled wilderness so some camping restrictions are in order.

Hope summer smiles on you. It was a long time getting here.

Prost.

From Adventure: Treasure

AT left, some favorite hooks acquired from the Dette fly shop,  Livingston Manor, NY.

I love the Partridge hooks. I've used a few and find then to be optimal for my fishing. Finding the mother lode was a huge bonus for the trip.

Dette has the whole catalog on their shelves. The heavy wire hooks are my favorites for spring because my soft hackle wets  easily penetrate the film and drift down to the 12 - 18 inch depth I find pulls fish from their bank and timber hiding spots. We hatch a lot of caddis in this state and so nymphs "practicing" their assent is a common sight to trout. Wets floating in the water column do the job.

I was so excited to find the hooks that I went a little overboard on the buy.

I believe.

At left, a no-hackle nymph given the extra weight of a bead-head. Yes, you correctly recognize the pink squirrel.

The extra-length tail on this #17 model prevents the tumble effect common on some bead-heads. It allows me a little more leverage in "steering" my fly during downstream drifts in gin-clear water.

I believe in the pink squirrel. It has been a day-saver for me.

AT left, a generic Michigan searching fly: the hackled olive spider. This one is tied on an Alec Jackson steel dry fly hook I find heavy enough to penetrate the film.

I will use this fly on the Upper Manistee near the Deward tract here right after Memorial Day. 

And since spring is a long slow affair this year, I'll also make good use of this purple-and-starling tied with my diminishing stock of Pearsall's thread.

These  dark little pieces of food do well for me in shallow water ticking over gravel or cobble right into the head of a pool. There's almost always some hungry trout with enough interest to make a grab.

 


I've broken out the light camping gear: my Hennesy Hammock I use in Canada as there is no flat ground whatsoever in the Wabakimi.

When it is hot, sleeping in the hammock is preferable to lying in a bunk and sweating all night despite the fact I smell of bacon to the bears. Sleeping in a hammock is called "hanging" by the cool kids. Makes me think of hams hanging in the rafters. I think bears think that way, too.

It takes two minutes to set-up my light camp and on the Upper Manistee in spring, I want to waste no time. The brookies are hungry!

I'm booked into the Driftless for early fall. I'm going to give my new hooks a work-out there. Maybe on the fall trip it won't rain six inches in the week. Maybe. Falls can be wet over there.

Prost.

Back to the Black

At left, a Winston Boron IIIx with a Douglas Argus reel sporting a Wulff TT line ... all in 4 wt.

I'll use this as my back-up gear in the event of drizzle or anything more serious. I hate getting cane wet. I always think I'll damage something pulling one apart.

Opener in a few days on the Black River. Can't wait. Prepping gear. Stacking the load-out. Scanning the forecast for wind, rain, temps.

It'll be frosty in the mornings. The wind should be low and so I'm dumping the low profile backpacking spike-camp tent for the large safari-style number: a Nemo Dark Timber.(here).

The Black is an unassuming little river here in Michigan.

It is full of these fat little guys. I will say, they are slippery little buggars. Extra slime on them which I will assume is a sign of cold-water health. I'll do net-pics this year.

This guy was pretty typical of my last opener at the Black River.

A low profile shot of the Black showing the standard bottom. Small cobble with spots of gravel interspersed dominates the streambed. There is little agriculture as the river flows through forest and the logging is controlled now to areas away from the stream. There isn't a lot of run off silt/sand.

Water will be high so hopefully fishing the bank-line and close-in current seams will prove productive. I'm expecting to have to do some contact nymphing.

It's an excuse to shout "spring" at the top of my lungs.

It's been a longish dull winter here. I could use the uncertain joy of unexpectedly warm afternoons.

Prost.

Traveling for Trout

When my grandfather was three years old, Teddy Roosevelt traveled to Yellowstone. He's pictured at left in an archival photograph used here from the collection of the Smithsonian Institution.

I don't have any record of his success in catching trout.

I have local trout. I live in a trout state. I'm still excited about going somewhere else to catch trout.

When I was young, loading up a crew for a couple hot summer weeks chasing trout in Colorado was a real treat. We usually camped and of course my uncle, cousins, and friends were all the sort of outdoorsmen with infinite patience whose every easy action brought success.

These memories of a few happy weeks are precious to me. Somehow, the thought of traveling again for the same sort of uncertain boyhood adventures fills me with joy, even if I too squint at the camera.

If the trout cooperate, that too will make me happy.

Prost.

Trout Camping: Nemo Dark Timber Wall Tent

At left,  a hare's ear dubbed body variant of Steve's "Swing for Trout" style of flies. Pheasant hen tail. Hare's ear+SLF spun in a dubbing loop and secured by wire. Ginger hackle wrapped full.

Size 10 3 xl.  I'll be using these through the spring. I should probably tie a herl abdomen and then the hare's ear+SLF thorax. I'm lazy right now. This is a utility fly. Probably gets the job done. I'll be finding out shortly.

My library desk for the last two weeks. Does everyone else's desk look like this ? (The stack of books are from my trout library and are reference for a work-in-progress ... just like everyone else).

Robert Smith's book open as a visual reminder to tie sparse soft hackles. Sparse.

And sparse. Tried ribbing with floss. Meh. Don't like the outcome but my vote doesn't count. We'll ask the trout. Datus Proper taught us that.












The tent: Base Camp.

I chose a new base camp tent this year as most of Michigan's campsites are drive-up affairs. Maybe I have to pack gear 100 meters. Maybe. Most of the time the tent pad is adjacent to the fire pit adjacent to the gravel pull-in for the 4Runner.

So, where I'm car camping and making a base for a couple days or a week, I'm expanding my footprint. Last fall I crawled across a campsite to use a tree as a support to stand-up in the morning.  Sitting up on a cot has some merit right now.

Here's the final product:

So, the Nemo Dark Timber is a substantial tent consisting of an A-frame shelter and a wall-tent style insert which buckles into the outer shell. This will be clearer in a minute.

First, the set-up.

Tent duffel. About 19 lbs. Packable on a purpose-driven trip. Say, camping a half-mile from the parking I'd make three trips: shelter, sitting, and sleeping; camp kitchen and foods; and fishing gear + utility items.


I'm not opposed to packing a bit on multiple trips for comfort and/or isolation.

The "pile" of gear I'll use in my illustration.

Nemo Dark Timber on left, 2 Byer easy-cots, an REI collapsing table, a canvas dropcloth "tent carpet" and a folding camp chair buried in there.

Everything one needs comes with the tent.

The stakes are massive. I could tie-down a light aircraft on a turf strip with these and have with something similar.

That's a $16 hardware store hatchet. I leave things at the campsite sometimes so hatchets are pure functional items. I sharpen it with a file.

I carry a Randall knife. I carry a hardware-store hand-ax. Go figure.

The A-frame tarp.

A-frame tarp erected. Still working on tension. First pitch tonight and you can see I botched the front corner stake placement. Tension on a tarp should bisect the angle formed by the corner.

My uncle George would be disappointed. In my defense, I haven't set an A-frame tent in twenty-five years. It does come back.

Those poles are massive DAC aluminum. The ridgeline-to-pole connectors are machined stainless. No chance of some sort of grommet failure there. No grommets to break out.

Interior. Floor. Still working on its tension. I don't have a picture of it; but, I did align the force vectors of the out-stakes of the floor segment before proceeding. No pull lines.

Took a minute to get right.

Floor of tent with canvas drop-cloth tent carpet.

Interior in "solo bear" configuration. There is a central lantern hook. It's easily got room for a camp chair, a work table for tying, writing, drinking, and a bunk. I like to write late into the evening when camping.

It brings me closer to Hemingway. I'm sure he sat up late at night on fishing trips and wrote because as he lay on his bunk he thought "what a lazy bastard I am lying here when those stories will not write themselves."

There's a lot of angst and guilt in this racket.

Two bear configuration. Plenty for room for two full-sized cots.

Room between cot and wall for storing.

Access into and out of the tent in two-cot configuration without bothering any other occupant in hibernation mode. Our crew sleeps very soundly when we camp. Not sure about yours.

Interior, two cot mode. I almost brush the ridge line and I'm just at 5'9". Note the huge door. Door storage pockets inside on the "centerpost". Window on the right and I've poorly secured the window covering. Both ends of the tent are of like configuration. It'd be easy to leave the screen open on both ends in August and have great ventilation. It'd be easy to have both windows open in all other months for a bit of the same.

The A-frame ridgeline tarp overhangs the interior tent by two feet on each end.

Another door image. In the right side of the picture, you can clearly see the buckle attachment system which connects the interior tent to the exterior ridgeline tarp.Look at that separation! The air circulation must be amazing and the tent must dry very quickly.

Nemo. Dark Timber tent. It's running about $225 on clearance from Nemo right now. I think the tent market doesn't stand such heavy gear very well. Backpackers want light. Families want cheap. This is a substantial piece of gear that went for $500 list originally.

The tent provides room for base camp and eliminates the need to upgrade to a trailer.

In storms, the tent has 4 guy-outs for the ridgeline (duh), 6 additional side guy-out points for the outer tarp. There are also 8 guy-out points for the inner tent to secure the bottom tent section.

You will have to re-tension the guy-outs in high wind throughout the night. It's the nature of such a tent design. We've all had to do it on classic canvas and yes, I'd suspect you'd have to keep a taught pitch on the Dark Timber.

A Tungsten 3p or 1p  from Marmot both handle 45 - 60 mph straight-line winds. I fully guy-out my tents by habit. Has saved me. I'd use those smaller profile tents should I be expecting thunderstorms.

Will the Dark Timber take a bad storm? I'll let you know.

I have enough confidence to try.

Oh, first pitch with pictures and staging: 35 minutes. I think I could get it up and configured in under 15 minutes next time if I remember all the tensioning tricks.

In rain, the tarp-then-tent set-up would be sweet!

Nemo Dark Timber: Tent

Prost.

Wuss

I'm wussing out.

The photo at left hosted on wikicommons is from MIKI Yoshihito from Sapporo City, Japan. MIKI allows its use here for just the attribution. Nice. And, nice snapshot!

Winter camping breakfast/lunch/supper/snack. Who knows? Looks mighty tasty to a bear.

I have toyed with the idea of winter camping and doing some fishing on the South Branch Au Sable.

I've decided to pass this year. If the winter warms a little, I might go. We're crossing our third week without rising above freezing and it has been considerably colder up in trout country (interior basin so ... cold).

March. I'll make a dash in March.

I haven't got an expedition quality bag.

I'm cool in my bag and bag liner at the mid twenties even using mid-weight layering and, as always, sleeping in a wool hat. I could use a better low-temperature bag; but,  I'm not sure I really want to be fishing when the nights drop to twenty or below.

The first four or five hours with a 40 oz canteen of hot water makes for good sleeping. The last two hours before dawn can be rough.

Apart from cold -- and the persistent ice-over -- the winter here has been fine.

I'm concerned for my friends in the Old World after the winds and storm blew through. Power outages can be a real problem where electric heat or electric-glycol systems are employed.

Hope all of you are warm, powered, and dry.

Or, at least the pub is two of the three.

Prost.