Not Just Excited, Fishing Trip Excited

At left, copyright-free image from Helsinki. Bear Fishing.

Actually, this bear is in Kaivopuisto which is the difference between saying "it's in New York" and "it's on the corner of 49th and Park Avenue." [ think Waldorf Astoria neighborhood].

If you're a Cold War spook, Kaivopuisto is where you went to sip coffee on a bench when you were in town. It cut down on walking distance for all the household staff of the various diplomats' residences.

I lived with a Finn for three years, once upon a time. Now I have a side bag from a firm called Finn. Coincidence? I fenced with the Swede. The Finn would only drink (at the Jazzhaus in Lawrence, Kansas).

There's excited - little kid Christmas excited. Then, there's fishing trip where no one else will be on the river excited.

I've got the latter. Makes the little kid business look like a waiting room at a dentist's office.

I might have to get on my local stream tonight. I stopped by my fly shop yesterday to fondle gear. I'm even tying - gasp - streamers. I tie really ugly streamers.

"Put the  Pearsall's down and step away from the vise."

I need to do the day job. It'll make the day pass - sort of like making a kidney stone pass.

Prost.

South Branch Au Sable Fall Camp - Mason Tract

 At left are a pair of pictures from a wonderful piece of wilderness: the Mason Tract on the South Branch of the Au Sable.

These are older pictures from a trout-dash a year ago. The Mason Tract Pathway runs along the entire west side of the twelve (fourteen ?) mile stretch of uninhabited public land (exception - six cottages on east bank about halfway through ... legacy places). The top picture shows the posted waypost and map.

The bottom picture shows the South Branch nearer the south end headwaters  in their typical spring condition. Water will be lower now.

Banks are intermittently weedy/marshy rushes, timber and sweepers,  and Michigan fly-eating brush. The bottom is firm and alternates between cobble, gravel and a little sand/muck (especially near the swampy southern end).

The Amber Liquid guys are all ready for a great fall outing. We'll have a little rain before we set-up camp then a little cooling and some nice fall weather. We've got Old Del as a base (24 foot Airstream trailer) and a Vizsla pup for entertainment.

The early fall has a nice BWO hatch, a strong ant/beetle bite, and good micro-streamer action.

I'm anxious to get the guys on this section. They enjoyed the Deward Tract earlier this year though there was some brook trout grumbling about "little fish."

My answer? Buy a three weight! [ the Senator did and he got a nice one].

Anyway, the Mason Tract is the same sort of remarkably undeveloped protected wilderness with ... brown trout. Large browns, actually.  If I can put the Amber Liquid guys on just one, I'll have them hooked on trout camping this great stretch. Time ont he water is what they need. The fish are here. The bite is here. Time, gentlemen. Time.

Below - official breakfast of Amber Liquid Anglers. Yes, thin mints. They're made with real girl scouts.



I need to post the photo recon of the Jordan River yet. Might be a winter project. I know I'll be fishing the Jordan in July and August next year.

This weekend, an early fall Au Sable trout camp. I'm barely able to sleep I'm so excited. I love this water.

Oh, refilled both flasks just in case of rain. Yes - drank one of Bushmills and one of Glenfiddich while waiting out the Jordan downpour. That's a lot of whiskey; but, it was a lot of rain.

Prost.

I'm Only Going Over Jordan

At left, copyright-free image of a brook trout from:

Brook trout fishing : an account of a trip of the Oquossoc Angling Association to northern Maine in June, 1869 / by R. G. Allerton.

This work is in the collection of the Ernst Mayr Library of the MCZ, Harvard. Image hosted on wikicommons.

I'm going to the Jordan for a trip to hunt brookies. The Jordan River Valley is a nearly pristine piece of Michigan managed by the state almost from the time it was first clear-cut. The second-growth forest is mature, protected, and isolated from the hordes who usually descent on rivers like the Au Sable on weekends. I'm in the upper part of the river valley - the rough part. The trees lie in the braided stream as so many matchsticks blown from a giant's makings box.

It can be treacherous. It can be a dangerous wade. There are a lot of pinch points from the timber. I'll be careful. Rain on Saturday and so subsurface.

The upper has a few browns and many brookies. Most of the brookies are small though I'm hoping to cover enough water to find the exceptional specimens. We'll see.

I've an old-style fly wallet in brown leather done up for me by Chris Lantzy over in the sidebar. I've loaded the felt pages with my arsenal for this weekend: wets. There are a handful of drys and attractors and a good dozen nice caddis which I'll use as indicator flies on some dry-dropper rigs.

I'm going with "the coug", the black magic, the partridge-and-orange ( and olive, and primrose yellow), a couple of nice dun-hackled scarlet spiders of which I have great hopes, and some #20 and #22 soft-hackled tricos just in case.

I'm loaded for ... brookies. I'm hoping not to encounter bear. I'll sling my food just to be sure.

Hemingway traveled all over Michigan fishing, usually alone. I'm doing the same with this trip. I've got some things to work over and the fly rod helps with that. I've got that flat metal taste of brass and scotch on the back of my tongue. There's a murder in the ink I need to work out.

I'll have pictures. I'll post a report.

I'm too close to being a character of E.H.'s these days to enjoy his writing though I will read some on this trip. I've demonstrated a considerable ability to piss away an endless stream of opportunities in life. I'm sounding like "Three Day Blow" now.

I've quite a grand collection of "didn't work out" mostly because I cannot let the good efforts of others stand for me in any way. I'm compelled to cast the line myself.

I'm beginning to think there's a story in that.

There's certainly a trout in it.

Prost.

Where Are They: Fish Porn

At left, copyright-free image for visual impairment.




I don't have a great deal of faith in video instruction. The lessons don't stick as well as does on-stream experience.

For the Amber Liquid guys who might have let their waders dry a little too long this summer, I offer this series from Orvis on the Sunday Fish Porn videos.

You could do worse than review these lesson segments.

Finding Trout.

Just about as instructive fo the "calm approach" technique, a lovely bit of brook trout hunting here:
Native Brook Trout from Derek Philippon on Vimeo.

Later Summer Distractions ... and Flies

Late Summer Ghost

Late Summer Ghost

Late summer and the vocational pursuits trump piscatorial adventure. Sadly.

Everybody has the summer blues. We need to be fishing but the weeks slip away with the other required activities of daily life. At first family, then the heat, and now the day job.

It's how it goes until we reach season's end and wish that we'd found one more outing, one more fish.

So, next best thing: the vise in the evening. (As my spouse would say: the vice).

Steve has a great fly over on the Soft-Hackle Journal here called the Turkey & Starling Nymph.

I've just received a huge handful of cock pheasant tails from a friend and so, used what was at hand.

The fly pictured here is a size 16 pheasant-tail soft-hackle using a peacock herl head for my friends: the brookies.  It is wire-ribbed and designed specifically for a buddy who likes to fish the same fly all afternoon.

This will do it.

I've increasingly come to like soft-hackles tied in the style of having the herl in front of the hackle. Some of the old spiders in Robert Smith's The North Country Fly: Yorkshire's Soft Hackle Tradition clearly follow this line of approach. I like the style because it enforces a clean-eye design. Summer flies for me often become over-crowded so much so that I have a box of "not quite" flies that didn't make the cut. Eye-crowding is the most common offense.

I should say it is only a varient of the pheasant-tail soft-hackle flymph so hardly anything original or distinctive. I do like the lighter hackles in fall and they seem to work (I've only done the lighter hackle for two seasons though so we're early in the objective evidence stage).

Late Summer Ghost:

Hook: Umpqua #16 (any)
Thread: Pearsall's in scarlet.
Tail: generous pheasant tail barbs more than you'd think would look good on any mayfly.
Abdomen: Pheasant tail ribbed with ultrafine in gold or silver.
Hackle: Ginger or bleached hen. Three wraps (which you'll think too many as you tie).
Collar: three strands herl counter-wrapped short and secured with a couple thread wraps running through.

This fly really isn't a very good spider. It is however a damn fine micro-streamer, iso, or pupae in the drift. It works. I don't know why but when in the water it looks "buggy."

Bushy tail. Longish active hackle. Herl. 

Weighted, this Late Summer Ghost is nice in a snap-jig motion. I'll tie some this week with four-to-six wraps of non-lead at the rear of the shank to be covered with larger pheasant-tail barbs. Sacrilege!   Weighted soft-hackle! Yep. There it is. 12, 14, 16, 18 and unweighted in 20.

I'll tie these aplenty and some Cougs (the coug) and some 18/20 CDC-only Caddis  [with thanks to Ed Engle for the pattern (Ed's book: Tying Small Flies)]. These should take care of my buddy at fall fish camp and give him plenty to fish even if he only ties on one pattern a day.

Now if I can just do a little more field research on the water I'd be all set. I've got some fox-squirrel and bucktail streamers I'm anxious to try.

In the meantime ... the vice. Er ... vise.

Prost.

Weather Has Broken

The weather broke here about 8 days ago. It started raining again.

Today's highs will be in the low 70's.

It's time to think of trout again -- since we won't be killing them on the release.

The little beast at left is "The Coug."

The tiny bit of herl and a grey soft-hackle hen just killed brookies for me last fall. 14/16/18.

I used scarlet floss to wrap the body and create the tag. Pearsall's silk in scarlet is used on the fly but any thread will do. Old fat brookies need glasses to read so use that to your advantage. This follows the GISS principal for nothing at all. Pure attractor play.

I'm reading Ed Engle and his small fly tactics. Time to think of "the coug" in size 22. I'd love to hear from small fly fisherman who have used the small-fly in the soft-hackle variants.  I'm wondering about drift and drag though I take plenty of fish tight-line so just haven't sorted the small fly business in my mind. I've thought myself a presentationist from early dry-fly training but fish a tight line a little less than half the time with little difference in results.

Can it be that trout just don't care?

Local Hatch:

Ephoron's are hatching here on the Huron. In two weeks they'll be up north.  I'm tying soft-hackle Ephoron's after finishing this entry. Sunday morning at the vise. You commune with your gods. I'll commune with mine.

Mill Creek:

The shocking mid-summer in my Mill Creek restoration stream was disappointing. Few fish found in the public access part which runs through Dexter. Heat. Hopefully, the fish went upstream to springs and holes. Hopefully.

Good news is that shocking efforts far upstream in cooperation with some local landowners showed good fish including a 23" - 25" trophy trout. They're in there and for a small stream, this is the sort of fish-of-a-lifetime which makes a small stream angler's pulse quicken.

I'm eating berries and nuts for breakfast. I am however dreaming of campfire cooking. It'll be a couple weeks until I can make a dash north to trout-land. Vocational commitments.  You have to pay the trout bills sometime.

Soon time for this (Lou the foxhound is helping in the picture). I could use some fall.








From the Field:

And lastly , a series of action photos from our last Amber Angler outing. Cast, drift, screw with your gear. It's a technique Amber Liquid guys use all the time. Strike inducing, even. Maybe as much as the Leisenring Lift. I know you've used it. We should give it a name. Suggestions?

   

Prost.

Pine River - Briefly

I'm going to e a little slow with the whole Pine River report much like my new friend here at the left.

BLUFF: The Pine is not for wading. Great river. Cold. Rugged country of mainly sand forest. Wild fish.

However, the river at its slowest has current as fast as you can sprint. This makes a two-foot deep cobbled sand/rock bottom a treacherous place when a rock rolls from underfoot. Sand banks which threaten to suck you into them don't help much. The fish are wild and they are aggressive though you'll find much habitat you think should hold fish ( and will, on the South Branch of the Au Sable or the Pere Maquette ) which does not. Still, there are fish.

Drift the river. Don't wade it.

Some snaps and comments:

Here's a bit of sand on the mostly sand footing of the Silver Creek Pathway: deer and coyote. Nice prints in one spot. The coyotes howl every night. Nothing obnoxious but they're about.

Saturday morning snack on the banks of the Pine: western loop of the Silver Creek pathway. Better river image to follow.

River. This is the typical view. There are a great many riffles though the river was very low. There's plenty of water - and very cold water - but if this is the river at low, I'd hate to see it after the 4.5" we got at my house on Saturday!

The trail is well marked and offers limited access to the river. Much of the trail when it follows the river is at least fifty feet above the bank. Also, the areas where the river is adjacent to the trail without the elevation challenge didn't offer a great deal of interesting water for fishing to habitat. Meh.

I picked-up two dozen of these out of a snag on the bank. When was the last time you saw a pull-tab can ... and this is old-style thick can and not the thin beer cans we have today? It looks to hold about a quart. I don't think this ws some hipster's PBR. I think this was a guy with two first names.

I did some of this after the scouting hike. I could keep my feet in the water a for less than a minute. Cold.






Panorama of where I drank my coffee this morning. I had seven hook-ups total on this stretch of water seeing the fish on the surface on five of those. No fish to hand, though.  I need to work on my downstream streamer release technique with the line to let the fish hook himself before we get to steelhead season. Disappointed in my technique. The trout only took streamers (deer hair ties) or a root-beer colored PTN I used on Saturday evening which I subsequently dropped into the water as I went to photograph the thing.

I'd return in a drift boat or again when flows are at the bottom of the summer flow. It's a tough river.  At normal flows, I want nothing to do with it while on foot.

Prost.