North Branch White River … it never felt so good to lose a fish!

The most important news I have is that my wife, Michelle, gave birth to our second son last Sunday! Henry Lewis Allen was born at 6:30 PM in the evening. As it goes, the first week was a little rough, with very little sleep and a lot of crying. But what a joy it is to have another boy – Winston now has a best friend and I have two fishing partners (in about 5 years).

Henry, fast asleep after a long struggle to come into this world.

When Sunday rolled around my loving wife said, “you need to get out and recharge”. So, I took the opportunity to head out to the river for a half day of fishing. As it turns out, western Michigan is under a flood of Biblical proportions, so I decided it would be a great day if Jay and I just went for a long drive, discussed life, and hopefully found some fish in the process. We heard rumors that some of the more spring-fed rivers were clear water and if it was small enough of a system may be wadeable – the North Branch of the White River fit the bill so we headed out!

When we arrived, we were happy beyond belief. The river was in GREAT shape – clear, wadable and lots of gravel! The steelhead fishing was not epic, but we were happy to find the fish were fresh, but not on their beds yet, so we were able to hook fish on nymphs and egg patterns in the deep runs.

If I would have been a little more aggressive with the net this photo might look a lot different!

The worst news of the day is that we went 0/4 when it comes to landing, but hooking a steelhead each hour meant that fishing with your brother, the sun on our backs, the air in the 50′s, and an occasional fish exploding up the river it never felt so good to lose a fish!

Tight lines,

-Jeff

via Allen Brothers http://www.theallenbrothers.com/site/2013/04/north-branch-white-river-it-never-felt-so-good-to-lose-a-fish/

Muskegon River – on a cold afternoon

When you really need a day on the river, it doesn’t matter much what the weather is doing. Such was the case yesterday. The weatherman had said high 30′s and partly cloudy, the reality was high 20′s, wind, bone chilling humidity and no sun. But, it really doesn’t matter too much when you’re out on the river with your brother breathing in the fresh air. Even poor fishing didn’t make much of a difference, it was just good to be out.

 

A close up shot of Jay’s pristine steelhead.

Jay, Hudson and I got on the river about noon and the primary goal was to hook some steelhead. We fished deep runs with the classic “chuck and duck” method with not much success. Jay hooked and landed this well colored steelhead, but the rest of the day we couldn’t even say we bumped a fish.

Near the end of the day we decided to fish for trout, which turned out to be pretty great! We only had an hour, but we were able to pick up about 8 fish in the 8″ to 12″ range. It probably would have been a pretty good day had we just gone for trout.

We did get a couple of fun photos to add some good laughter to the situation too! Check them out below.

Here’s to staying sane!

-Jeff Allen

Jay, looking like a happy “normal” angler.

Jay again, rocking the new fangled “my w@ng is bigger than yours” fish hold. Whenever you’re tempted to do a photo like this – just say no We all know what you’re trying to say – we’re not buying it.

What’s that? Two can play at that game – Jeff answers the call right back! Kaboom! Turn that 8″ fish into a monster! (Yes, that was a painful expression to perform.)

via Allen Brothers http://www.theallenbrothers.com/site/2013/03/muskegon-river-on-a-cold-afternoon/

Rogue River Steelhead

Jay and I got out on the river Monday morning before doing some video work on our fly-ting business (the Allen Brothers). It was a good chance to check out what is soon to be my new home-waters. No doubt you’ll be seeing a lot more posts from me on the Rogue. On February 1, 2013 Michelle and I move in to a new home we purchased and it’s a short 5 minute drive from downtown Rockford, MI

Jay with a hefty steelhead!

Currently, the Rogue seems to be a “marginal” trout stream due to pretty warm temps in the summer. But my endless optimism, when it comes to trout, thinks it has the potential to be EPIC with proper management and and regulations. No doubt I’ll try and get involved in that arena.

We had a great time on the river. The fishing wasn’t anything to write home about, but the conversation was great. It’s been awesome these last few months “getting to know” my brother again. We’ve always been best friends, but have lived in different parts of the country for the last 15 years.

Getting ready for the release.

I think we were on the water for about 4 hours and landed three fish – one 13″ rainbow, a 17″ jack steelhead and this hefty steelhead that jay picked up. The rainbow came on a scud, but the rest were on a classic egg pattern.

Looking forward to blogging more and getting “back on the wagon”!

-Jeff

Location: Rockford, MI

Date: Monday December 31, 2012

Weather: Cold and clear, just above freezing

Insect/Activity: None

Patterns Used: Pheasant Tail, Gammarus Scud, Egg

Flows: 175

Hello West Michigan! August through December 2012

With the launch of the new website, moving across the country, finding a new job (no, Allen Brothers does not supply Jay and I with an income … yet, it’s still a labor of love  ) and having an 18 month old son – it’s safe to say that fishing, let alone blogging, took a bit of a backseat in the second half of 2012.

Having said all that, I did manage to get out on the water a few times on my own, and with Jay and we had some good times! Most of the images below are from the Muskegon River, but I also got out on the Rouge River (soon to be my homewaters and a short 5 minute drive from my house!), and on a creek that a friend of mine showed me just north of where I live.

I hope you enjoy the photos – I’ll let the captions do the talking.

Tight Lines,
-Jeff

In a small creek, north of Grand Rapids, I picked up this fantastic brown on a Pheasant Tail.

A close up of the same brown – just gorgeous colors!

Noah, with a great little rainbow fishing the fast riffles.

Releasing another good looking rainbow.

A brown taken off the back of a King Salmon redd fishing an egg pattern.

My uncle Al, picked up a similar brown behind the King Salmon redds.

Yep, King Salmon. They don’t call them King for nothing. I don’t even think this one is particularly “large”. It was a good fight, but not really my cup of tea. I’ll probably fish for Kings about one a year – or maybe, I’ll just fish for trout and catch one King a year and that will be enough! It’s tough, for me, to be hooking a fish that I know has no interest in eating 

Jay caught this sweet steelhead just last week on the Rogue River. I’m pretty excited to move to Rockford, MI next month and be so close to some decent fishing!

Farewell Colorado, Frying Pan River, Basalt, Colorado

Date: July 13 - 15, 2012

Weather: Sunny with a few storms that moved in and out

Insect/Activity: Midges, small baetis hatch - very sporadic

Patterns Used: Blacktail Baetis, AB Tungsten Hare's Ear, Grey Midge, **Top Secret Pattern**

Flows: 170's

A Magnificently colored and spotted rainbow!

Farewell Colorado - we had a good 16 years! You will be greatly missed. On July 25th Michelle, Winston and I packed up the cars and began our journey across the country to make the Grand Rapids, MI are our new home. Having started a family, moving back closer to family has always been on our minds and we decided that this was the time to do it. 

Probably some of the best news is that I am now living 45 minutes away from Jay so you'll get to see a lot more posts with both the Allen Brothers in the photos, and we hope to start producing a lot more quality content in video format! Plus, we should be launching a new Allen Brothers website with our blog content rolled into the new site, so navigation, ordering flies and content should all get a lot more user friendly - but ... you didn't click on this blog to hear about website changes - so back to the Pan.

Ben Robb and I headed there for a combination birthday celebration and as a last hoorah! We had two full days on the river, with no thought of nap schedules, feedings or changing diapers! 

Ben with a great looking brown.

The fishing was superb! We were surprised to find not many folks on the river and we essentially fished the upper stretch just below the dam for both days. The flows were low, the water was clear and the fish were feeding. What more can you ask for? Midge was the most predominant insect, and we did a few seines throughout the weekend and never came up with any Mysis so I'm guessing it had been a while since they pumped any major water through the dam. Surprisingly, though, we caught almost all our fish on the Blacktail Baetis. I gave the size #24 grey midge with 7x tippet a try on a few finicky fish, but always returned to the Baetis for our success.

A few smaller fish came on the Hare's Ear, which was used as a point-fly (weight) occassionally, but most fish came on 7x with a micro-nymphing rig for maximium "stealth". 

NOTE: I have made NO modifications to the image color!!! Crazy!

Probably the fish of the trip was this rainbow. Arguably, the most beautiful rainbow I've ever caught, but it is hard to say when each fish has it's own beauty, merit and story behind the catching. This one was taken on a Blacktail Baetis, while sight-nymphing and fishing 7x. So, it's pretty hard to beat that story for pure joy, and a grin that splits across my face every time I think about it.

And then, there was the "flume" hole ... I'm not one for fishing deep water with tons of weight, but we showed up on Sunday morning at 7 AM with not a soul around  and we decided to fish right below the dam for an hour or so. I had a hunch on a pattern I wanted to try. I'm not one to keep secrets, but this is one I'm not willing to share - in the wrong hands, it could be used for ill and not good ;-) I tied on said secret pattern and spent the next 30 minutes watching my indicator shoot underwater with the ferocity of a midget out of a cannon at the circus. I have never hooked more 18" fish in my life with such ease and speed!

Flume hole cast #2 of the day.

Flume hole cast #6 of the day.

Flume hole, somewhere around cast #20 of the day! That is some crazy pigment on this fish!

The rest of the day was good fishing. Ben and I both had our best luck in the flats, sight-nymphing until about noon, then the high sun shut down most of the fish and we usually retreated to water a little further down the canyon for the afternoon. We even sucumbed to the "flume" hole once more on Sunday, mid-day, and didn't do as well, but were surprised to find most of our fish, again, taking the Blacktail Baetis over midge or mysis.

Throw in a breakfast at Cafe Bernard and some burgers and beers at night and you have yourself one fine weekend to remember Colorado by.

They call is a "morning bun". All I know is it's got a ridiculous amount of sugar and butter. You can get a "morning bun" at Starbucks, but it's not even in the same universe as this one. CRAZY GOOD!

No doubt, I'll be back for vacations, and to see friends, but for now I am turning my attention to consistent eastern hatches and looking forward to my first season of Steelhead and some Salmon fishing in Michigan.

Tight lines, see you out on the water :-)

-Jeff Allen

The food journey: Lunch in Buena Vista at K's Dairy Delite

The food journey: Breakfast at Cafe Bernard

The food journey: Breakfast Sunday morning ... in my car :-( It was stark juxtaposition to the rest of the fare we had that week.

Ben with another healthy rainbow.