MI Fish In (early bird)

FAOL Community Fly Anglers Online
1

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 :lol: ) 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

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:slight_smile: Thanks for the update Wireguy. I will now go wipe the slober drooling from my mouth.

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wireguy,

Glad to hear you made it home safe and sound! It was nice to meet you and Jack in Grayling. If you ever make it down to Florida, please look me up for some fishing and casting fun!

Regards,
Doug

P.S. I already miss that cool weather they had up there. I got off the plane yesterday and started sweating immediately!

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Sounds like a good time was had by all. Jack is a lot of fun to fish with. Supposed to be a wee bit cooler this coming week, so maybe that’ll help the water temps. The upper Manistee does stay a bit cooler, so that could explain the better action there.

Mike

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:smiley:
Still catching up on the BB. Missed this post yesterday (DOH!!).
Harvey and I had a great time for sure, but he did wade my ol’ butt out Thursday!! Had to sit out the last session but got to help a youngster catch his first trout while wire turned the river to a froth!!
He did not mention the suprize visit from Kathy and Dave (Kathy Scott ‘Kat’ here) Wed. evening. They’d been fishing the South Branch and stopped to say “Hello”!
Harv’ next year we are shooting for early July and may catch some of the Hex hatch!!
Thanks for coming up.
Email any photos you have to Deana for the Album (Me Too!!).

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Wireguy,

Nice report…but for future reference, if you where near Mio you weren’t on the South Branch…you were in the main system known as the “trophy waters”…no biggie… :wink:

and yes there are some toads in there…took this guy Tues evening…

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I did have a great time and would like to thank everyone. Who won the casting comp on Saturday. Also does anyone know what Raymond’s last name is. The Raymond that was around 85 yrs. old. not all the other Raymonds.

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Chub if you’re talking about the Ray in the middle of this pic his last name is Donley

He is from Salt Lake City and one of the nicest folks I have met[/img]

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:smiley:
Kaboom1 won the casting contest and our registration gal Jean DeSavage won the rod!!
That’s Al Thomas on the left and Jerry Riesner on the right. Talked to Ray Sunday morning and he was driving back to Green Bay with his buddy to catch a plane back to Salt Lake.
I only hope that 20 years from now I can attend the 20th Michigan Fish-In and fish with the good friends I met at this one!! Who knows I may even be able to double haul by then!!

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As well as fishing at the Fish In itself…our drop in visit the week befor to “Jack’s camp” with my sister Kathy and bro-in-law Dave was a great time. I actually caught more fish that Wednesday night than all of last week. Non the less, the FISH IN was a great success and thanks to Jack and Mike for all of their work. And thanks to my Kat and Dave also for letting me use their split cane rods…what a dream.