redneck_billcollector
Purveyor Of Fine Spirits
Just got back from Michigan, spending a week in the woods doing a little fly fishing and exploring. I happened to be lucky enough to hit the area just in time for the peak Chinook/King Salmon run on the Pere Marquette. My first day there was one of frustration, the spots I checked out were shoulder to shoulder fishermen from all over, saw tags from Florida, Georgia, lots of Kentucky and at least a dozen other states lining the forestry service roads that had easy access to the river.
After a day of riding around and studying maps without even attempting to brave the crowds I found a spot that required a little bit of a hike and was not crowded. After getting down to the river the second day, there were only two people there, and they were both taking a nap on the bank of the river waiting for the afternoon bite to kick off. One of the gentlemen has fished the river for Kings for over 20 years religiously and took me under his wing showing me what works. He even gave me about 30 flies that he tied that are "hot" on the river.
Well, I got there and saw salmon everywhere in the river, and man were they big. I suddenly felt sort of under gunned with my 8wt, especially when both the men were using 10wts. I did not want to go over 12lb tippet because I did not want to run the risk of breaking my rod. This apparently was a smart move, because one of the men had already broken a 10wt, they were using straight 40 leaders (apparently popular which leads to a lot of broken rods according to the owner of 1884 Fly Shop). Not knowing what I was doing, I cast early on into a huge pod of salmon and snagged one, there was no turning him, I do not even think he knew he was snagged for the first few minutes, it felt like I hooked the bottom and for a while thought I was, except there was a slight throbbing.....when he finally realized he was hooked, well, he took off downstream and broke me off. I ended up repeating that scenario a few times before I was informed what I was doing wrong.
The man who took me under his wing gave me a bag of metallic blue stonefly nymphs in sizes 6 and 4 and then things turned around. For whatever reason, those salmon got very upset when they saw one and attacked them. I stopped accidently snagging them and was mouth hooking them. They would jump and I had one greyhound like a blue marlin, it was fun, but most would get into the current after a while and then head straight for one of the many fallen trees in the river. I must have lost around 20, some throwing the hook, and some breaking off, but every one of those losses taught me something. I finally caught one, fighting it for around 20 or so minutes (sure seemed longer) to get it to hand. I was one happy camper, both figuratively and in reality. After a few photos it was released (the Pere Marquette is a fly fishing, catch and release only river), to die in the next day or so after it completed spawning. My very next cast I had a repeat, another male, slightly smaller and another 20 or so minute fight. It was getting dark and I decided it was time to make the hike back to my camp, and it was a good thing, I came dragging in about 25 minutes after dark on a trail that I could barely make out even with a head lamp (not to mention seeing two bears in the area that day). In the photo of the second salmon, it looks like I excited it, but in reality, me being a novice and not knowing what I was doing, I was holding him in a manner that made him expel a good bit of his milt (you can see my mistake in the photo). In the end, I got me two nice King Salmon on an 8wt using 12lb tippet and lost about 20 more.....
Feeling my oats I figured I would head north and try to catch a Coho/Siver Salmon, which you can keep and eat. I moved camp about 100 or so miles north to the Platte River where rumor had it, a Coho run was in the process.
Well, I got there and it sadly was the tail end of the run, I was hearing "you should have been here last week". However, there were enough in the river to have a lot of fishermen there. This river has different regs, you can use bait and keep the fish. Well, there were some snaggers, and I am sad to say this, from Georgia and "flossers" and bait slingers all over the place. I found a stretch where there were some and I fished hard, wanting just one on a fly in the mouth. I started fishing around lunch time and fished to around midnight on the first day going 0 for 2. A massive male, that would have been a trophy by any standards ate a purple egg sucking leech, size 6 and jumped for the sun. Stripping out line and I could not get him turned in time before he made it into the timber and broke off, I was using a lighter tippet then, I do believe 8lb. About an hour later I hooked a hen that jumped twice and threw the hook. No more bites. But I know where to find them and am already planning my trip for next fall. On an aside note I fished all the next day but did not see many salmon, so I broke out my spey rod (I purchased it at the fly-fishing expo a few years back when I had been drinking and never used it) and practiced casting. I was throwing egg patterns under an indicator when all of a sudden, the last big school I saw came blasting through, got the fly perfectly out in front and a couple showed interest, but they did not commit.
I learned a lot this trip, to include the fact that Michigan has a native population of grayling which I will be back to chase. If you never thought about going to Michigan as a fly fisherman, go! They have Rainbow, Brown and Brook Trout. They have King, Coho, Pink and Atlantic Salmon along with a world class Steelhead fishery. They have smallmouth and largemouth bass along with Northern Pike and Muskies that people target with flies along with the afore mentioned grayling. And I only fished the Lower Peninsula and did not even hit the UP.
After a day of riding around and studying maps without even attempting to brave the crowds I found a spot that required a little bit of a hike and was not crowded. After getting down to the river the second day, there were only two people there, and they were both taking a nap on the bank of the river waiting for the afternoon bite to kick off. One of the gentlemen has fished the river for Kings for over 20 years religiously and took me under his wing showing me what works. He even gave me about 30 flies that he tied that are "hot" on the river.
Well, I got there and saw salmon everywhere in the river, and man were they big. I suddenly felt sort of under gunned with my 8wt, especially when both the men were using 10wts. I did not want to go over 12lb tippet because I did not want to run the risk of breaking my rod. This apparently was a smart move, because one of the men had already broken a 10wt, they were using straight 40 leaders (apparently popular which leads to a lot of broken rods according to the owner of 1884 Fly Shop). Not knowing what I was doing, I cast early on into a huge pod of salmon and snagged one, there was no turning him, I do not even think he knew he was snagged for the first few minutes, it felt like I hooked the bottom and for a while thought I was, except there was a slight throbbing.....when he finally realized he was hooked, well, he took off downstream and broke me off. I ended up repeating that scenario a few times before I was informed what I was doing wrong.
The man who took me under his wing gave me a bag of metallic blue stonefly nymphs in sizes 6 and 4 and then things turned around. For whatever reason, those salmon got very upset when they saw one and attacked them. I stopped accidently snagging them and was mouth hooking them. They would jump and I had one greyhound like a blue marlin, it was fun, but most would get into the current after a while and then head straight for one of the many fallen trees in the river. I must have lost around 20, some throwing the hook, and some breaking off, but every one of those losses taught me something. I finally caught one, fighting it for around 20 or so minutes (sure seemed longer) to get it to hand. I was one happy camper, both figuratively and in reality. After a few photos it was released (the Pere Marquette is a fly fishing, catch and release only river), to die in the next day or so after it completed spawning. My very next cast I had a repeat, another male, slightly smaller and another 20 or so minute fight. It was getting dark and I decided it was time to make the hike back to my camp, and it was a good thing, I came dragging in about 25 minutes after dark on a trail that I could barely make out even with a head lamp (not to mention seeing two bears in the area that day). In the photo of the second salmon, it looks like I excited it, but in reality, me being a novice and not knowing what I was doing, I was holding him in a manner that made him expel a good bit of his milt (you can see my mistake in the photo). In the end, I got me two nice King Salmon on an 8wt using 12lb tippet and lost about 20 more.....
Feeling my oats I figured I would head north and try to catch a Coho/Siver Salmon, which you can keep and eat. I moved camp about 100 or so miles north to the Platte River where rumor had it, a Coho run was in the process.
Well, I got there and it sadly was the tail end of the run, I was hearing "you should have been here last week". However, there were enough in the river to have a lot of fishermen there. This river has different regs, you can use bait and keep the fish. Well, there were some snaggers, and I am sad to say this, from Georgia and "flossers" and bait slingers all over the place. I found a stretch where there were some and I fished hard, wanting just one on a fly in the mouth. I started fishing around lunch time and fished to around midnight on the first day going 0 for 2. A massive male, that would have been a trophy by any standards ate a purple egg sucking leech, size 6 and jumped for the sun. Stripping out line and I could not get him turned in time before he made it into the timber and broke off, I was using a lighter tippet then, I do believe 8lb. About an hour later I hooked a hen that jumped twice and threw the hook. No more bites. But I know where to find them and am already planning my trip for next fall. On an aside note I fished all the next day but did not see many salmon, so I broke out my spey rod (I purchased it at the fly-fishing expo a few years back when I had been drinking and never used it) and practiced casting. I was throwing egg patterns under an indicator when all of a sudden, the last big school I saw came blasting through, got the fly perfectly out in front and a couple showed interest, but they did not commit.
I learned a lot this trip, to include the fact that Michigan has a native population of grayling which I will be back to chase. If you never thought about going to Michigan as a fly fisherman, go! They have Rainbow, Brown and Brook Trout. They have King, Coho, Pink and Atlantic Salmon along with a world class Steelhead fishery. They have smallmouth and largemouth bass along with Northern Pike and Muskies that people target with flies along with the afore mentioned grayling. And I only fished the Lower Peninsula and did not even hit the UP.
