Outbound & Downtown

Exploring.  This is something that every person has done in their life, to me it just never seems to get old.  I remember as a kid riding my bicycle so much with my waders on I would wear holes on the inside of the wader's legs from rubbing on the bike frame. As an angler, I very much so still relish the opportunity to fish new water for just about any type of fish.  I've traveled across the U.S. & several countries fishing, the increased pulse rate & downright sheer excitement of when you step into a new piece of water is exhilarating.  One can hardly expect to catch fish when fishing someplace new, you have to earn this right.   Putting together the pieces of the puzzle to find choice water & then figuring out your plan of attack is a work of art. Learning is such an important part of fishing and life in general.  One does not become an expert at fishing after a year or two at this sport, anyone who says they are is full of shit. Actually, anyone who declares themselves an "expert" is a pompous ass-once you stop learning your game is over. Catching fish in a  place or two is the norm, but take that game to locales across the board & get ready to be very humbled. Rarely do these quests pan out into much, but every so often you find yourself a gem.  Over the years one of my fishing partners & I have logged way too many miles on both of our vehicles in search of the holy grail.  Our wives think we are idiots as many days we just drive across the U.P. spending loot on pricey fuel and we don't even get a cast in with the fly rod. But dammit, when you have one of those days where the stars align and one of these places you have researched actaully has some sweet trophy fish-it feels damn good.

Experience the finest-Fly Fishing in Michigan Upper Peninsula-
http://www.riversnorth.net

ohhhhh that smell....

It's the height of a busy guide season & spare time is at a premium right now.  Not much time to update this blog, let alone being able to spend time with family & friends.  I guess that's the price of running your own business & being on the water when the Trout want you to be.  It is truly a wonderful time of the year to be a fishing guide, the forest is alive and the rivers are teeming with life.  Being able to share this bounty with others is very fullfilling, so much nowadays that i'd rather have a new angler catch a great Trout than myself to have the opportunity.  The joy that fills one new to the sport when the hook into a quality trout is unexplainable.

Lately the conifers here have been pollinating or whatever it's called. I'm guessing as my truck has been covered with a yellowy looking powder every morning.  The other night on the river my clients & I had to hide off in the woods as a heavy storm rolled through that dumped biblical amounts of rain as well as heavy thunder & lighting.  After the storm several nice trout were brought to hand & we had a journey out in the dark form the river after fishing.  I couldn't help but notice an overpowering wonderful smell of pine.  It was like nothing I had ever smelled in my life before, so aromatic & just downright pleasing.  I'm guessing it was form the pines being damp & this pollen being present.  I have never smelled this before & it was quite the treat leaving the forest with this in the air.  The essence of the woods during trout season.......

Baitfish-the future of them?

Seems like only yesterday when I was a young boy fishing on lake Michigan with my Grandpa & Dad for Chinook Salmon, many of these giants would reaches sizes in the 30 lb range.  This was not uncommon in the early 1980's, Chinook up to 40 pounds were recorded every season on both Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.  Massive populations of Alewives gave these Salmon plenty to feed on all year long in these two Great Lakes.  These Chinooks thrived in the Great Lakes during this time frame.

Around 2000 Chinook Salmon populations seemed to be declining a bit on the Lake Huron side, maybe we thought it was just a smaller run of fish this year. Chinooks seemed to be skinny & on the small side verses what we were used to. So another season came around and even less fish were around, no one seemed to have an answer as just as many Salmon were being stocked as prior years. This trend continued until finally some answers were being given by scientists, fisherman & our state agencies.

The answer to the declining Salmon fishery on Lk Huron was directly related to the shipping industry that uses the Great Lakes for commerce.  The vessels that enter the Great Lakes system from the saltwater were directly dumping ballast water that was collected from water bodies other than the Great Lakes directly into our waters carelessly.  This was introducing invasive organisms into a water body that has never seen anything such the likes of this.  What has happened since is absolutely horrible.

Organisms such as the zebra & quagga mussel has overtaken Lake Huron-in laymans terms these mussels eat the food that the alewives need for survival more or less. Thus creating an environment void of food for the alewives, this means if the alewives have nothing to eat-they starve to death. This in turn creates a entire crash of the system from the bottom to the top predator (Chinook).  Luckily Steelhead, Atlantic Salmon, Pink Salmon, Lake Trout, Brown Trout & Coho are not as reliant upon the Alewife population as the Chinook Salmon.  These other Salmonid populations seem to remain strong despite the low numbers of Alewives in Lake Huron, they have a more diverse diet that doesn't purely reply upon baitfish.  Atlantic Salmon & the others tend to eat what is available, aquatic insects & other baitfish provide enough food for these species to still thrive.

Since this crash in baitfish populations Michigan DNR has cut back stocking efforts on Lk Huron, no reason to stock a fish that purely relies upon alewife when there are no alewives present.  The only stocks of Chinook that happen on Lake Huron are purely for tribal treaty reasons, which is a whole separate issue.  Michigan & Canada now rely solely upon natural reproduction for Chinooks in Lake Huron, some of the river systems have astounding rates in natural reproduction which keeps Chinook numbers present.

Michigan DNR biologists figured that this may happen in Lk Michigan in the near future, so they cut stocking efforts of Chinook to try to balance out the predator/prey balance.  This was done around 5 years ago & now Chinook numbers are not nearly what they used to be in Lk Michigan.  Current research on Lk Michigan on baitfish populations are not good. Steadily declining numbers of alewives, smelt & others are pointing towards the same issue that happened in Lk Huron. This year class of Chinook appeared to be smaller & not as many as usual. I'm not panicking yet as fish were still what I would consider strong in numbers & fishing was good. This is such a frustrating situation that was caused by something our government could have controlled.  Its not rocket science either, it is amazing that uncontrolled dumping of ballast water has occurred for so long.

Check out this link to a study on Lk Michigan biomass, it pretty much tells the more scientific story of what I explained above.  Hopefully sound management & good decision making by our State agencies will ensure quality fishing for generations to come.

It is amazing to me how quiet people are keeping about this, hoping that it will go away or something. It isn't going away & it seems like not many people are stepping up.  The more people who know about this problem the better, tell your legislator about this & that it is of importance to you.  It's better to be proactive verses reactive.

http://www.riversnorth.net

Road Tripping

Biblical proportions of snowfall & hurricane force winds.  Yepper, an old school ass kicker of a yooper style storm has pummeled the crap out of the Upper Peninsula. I heard that just west of Central Marquette county  27 inches of snow already has been received from this storm.  Storm reports out of Gitchee Gummee where reporting waves up to 20 feet & coastal flood warnings.  No end is really in sight in the form of a warm up, temps look to be in the low 20's for at least the 10 day.

This snow isn't going to make the ice fishing crowd to happy, i have to imagine that the cold weather we have been receiving had some solid ice around.  Whenever we get a big dumb of snow it compromises the ice conditions big time, the snow acts as insulation & melts away the good ice below it.  20 inches of snow on top of 5 inches of good ice will deteriorate conditions quite quickly.  I heard a report last week of somebody breaking through in Iron Mountain while venturing out, this always puzzles me.  Of all ways to die, I think breaking through a frozen body of water & drowning would most likely be the most miserable way to go. Is the possibility of maybe catching a fish worth swimming in ice cold water worth it? I highly doubt it. Hell, id rather drive myself to Thills Fish Market in Marquette & purchase some fresh whitefish verses freeze my ass off!  People always use ice fishing as an excuse to go drink beer, why the hell would I wanna sit outside in subzero weather to drink a beer?  Really, I enjoy consuming booze as much as anyone-but this is just stupid.  A warm pub or my couch for that matter makes much more sense to guzzle down some ales.

On another note, I was lucky enuff to make my way down to Detroit this past weekend to attend the "Big Chill" game at the Big House & the Red Wings vs Canadians game.  It was a damn fun weekend away from the U.P. to watch some hockey.  It's nice to get to the big cities every so often to keep in touch with reality!