Thursday, June 14, 2012

Muskegon River, Newaygo, Michigan


Date: Saturday May 27, 2011
Weather: Sunny with a few storms that moved in and out
Insect/Activity: Few caddis in the air, few baetis emerging, Suckers spawning.
Patterns Used: Blacktail Baetis, AB Tungsten Hare's Ear, Sucker Spawn
Flows: 2000 (?)


This one's an oldie but goodie! In the rush of life I never posted this blog and just kept pushing it back in favor of posting more recent outings. Over a year ago now, I got out to Grand Rapids, MI on a business trip and added in a couple days to stay with Jay and fish the Mighty Mo (Muskegon River).


It was a surprising day - we started out really hoping for some good caddis activity, but it never really happened and nymphing in the morning was slow. Jay hooked up with one late season Steelhead on a green caddis pupa. Then the afternoon hit and things changed ...


We aren't sure if the fish just turned on, or if moving locations and changing tactics was the culprit, but as we moved up river the Suckers were a little more intense on their spawn beds so we switched to fishing a sucker spawn pattern and the rest of the day was about as epic of a fly fishing day as you can have!


We spent from 4 PM until 10 PM bringing in more fish that were feeding hard in the shallows on sucker spawn than I can count. A lot of them were good healthy fish, and naturally (as fish stories go) the biggest of them never made it to the boat. I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story.


Tight lines,


-Jeff