Hey everyone,

Well, for those of you that will be attending the MI Fishin you may find this of interest. I just arrived home after spending 4 days with Jack at Kneff Lake (yes I survived, but he may be a bit rough around the edges ) You definitly will not go hungry and the conversation was great.

I want to thank Jack I had a great time and was extremely comfortable considering the rustic conditions. For those camping with Jack, lets just say he has got it down to a science.

Now the important stuff, THE FISHING. The fishing started out pretty slow the water temp was around 70, there were very few insects and not many noticable rises. Jack did manage to catch a few, and just make me all the more anxious to hook up. We fished most of the access points and it was pretty much the same for the first day or so, then we started to see more insects some of which were BWO 18-22, Tricos 20 and smaller, Some scattered Sulphers same size as the BWO. By Friday evening the white fly hatch improved and the fish started to respond.

While Jack ran home on Friday I set out on my own to fish the South Branch (starting in MIO), the water is deep but wadable, in most areas you can find ways across to fish the opposite banks some nice browns there. I gave jack some maps that I got at a fly shop that show the access points along that stretch, its about 30 miles to MIO then you can drive as far as you like going from point to point till you hit the lottery.
I did hear a fishing report ont he way home and it said that the Mainistee in Gaylord was seeing alot of trout.

Saturday, we decided to avoid the canoe and kayake hatch and rented a small fishing boat and fished Wakely Lake. any one that likes warm water fishing this is the spot. You can either use a boat (no motors and you dont need them) or float tube. Most of the fishing we did was a 100 yards down the shore from were we put in and we had a blast. Plenty of decent size bluegill, large mouths, and small mouths (thats what we caught) there are also suppose to be pike and other species. I caught a nice large mouth maybe 20", a small mouth about 12" (hooked three others one we actually think was eaten by a large mouth that followed us and chased our catches all day) we both caught several blue gill of various sizes but all had fight to them. I do have to say I am not a warm water fisher and only had flys that I use for trout, but was successfull with a clouse tied by Terry B, a helgimite epoxy back, and an olive bugger size 10. Fish them deep and with various retrivals and you should find plenty of fish. Jack actually saw the large mouth I caught go to the bottom and pick up something with with a split tail, and when I caught it it had that and a rubber worm in its mouth along with a leader. That is how we knew it was the fish that followed us all day from spot to spot.

Well, thanks again to Jack it was a very memorable time and cant wait to hang out with him again.

wireguy

P.S. sorry for the lengthness