Fishing Report
Spinners on a riffle slick at dusk
05/16/13 When people complain about having too many bugs, it's like a broken down celebrity complaining about having too much money. Go cry on someone else's shoulder: the rest of us have real problems.
But there might have been too many bugs last night in the wide water below Mio dam. A beautiful little backwater along a gravel shelf with four great big trout thumping the water around me. Every drift resulted in a wad of bugs on my fly, or on my nail knot. The fish, I think, were eating spinner clumps. The return trip to this spot was meant to be vindication for Friday, a day when many of these same bugs hatched in a BIG way and I spent two hours locked in position, casting across my body into a 20 mph wind at a fish tight to the bank beneath a bush. The fish was in a foot of water and at times, when it rose up, I could see its body quite clearly. Or, at times, it's back and/or dorsal fin would simply break through the surface and wave there. Like Jaws.
One of about ten big fish/dry fly pics that we could post. This trout won the beauty contest though!
No vindication last night. But you won't hear me complaining either.
This is one of my favorite times of year. Tim and Co. were in the other day and pulled off the May slam:
1. Look for morels: found several hundred
2. Go fishing: intense hendrickson hatch and numerous large trout landed
3. Barely catch the last quarter of the Red Wings game -- a beautiful comeback victory to force Game 7
Morels
While much of the hendrickson hatch is over or winding down, good spinner flights should remain right through the next week, intermingling with mahoganies and Borcher's Drakes. This is a classic May mish-mesh of hatches. The light hendricksons, popcorn caddis, yellow and olive stones, mattress thrashers, Borcher's Drakes are on their way in. The dark hendricksons and black stones are on their way out. Prolific, profuse hatches make for lots of good hatch-matching fly-fishing. On Monday, during a good hendrickson hatch at Keystone -- with fish that were definitely eating hendrickson duns -- the trout wouldn't touch my hendricksons but would devour a Hemingway caddis.
Folks have been spending some time on the South Branch which spiked briefly at over 400 cfs and began crashing yesterday. These are not safe wading levels insomuch as you can't wade down the middle casting at the banks. But if you know the water, you can have some fishing. The popcorn caddis can really get going on the South Branch. But if I had a boat and a day, I'd be floating the river pitching around stoneflies!
Working a good riser
One scene sticks with me from last night. You know those scenes. They almost never involve you holding a fish or any of that crap. It's something more poetic. I heard a hoot from upstream from Matt. Hook-up! Big fish. I looked upstream and just as I did, twenty yards from Matt, a trout -- silver in the glare, pewter -- suspended itself a full yard above the water and hung there for long enough for the image to find permanence in my brain. There, unlike a photograph, it'll continue to embelish.
It's looking like a great week to be standing in a river.
Check out some events this weekend:
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Buy, Sell, Trade, Appraise, Consign...and EBay Saturday, May 18 (we awarded over 4k in credit on May 4!): Steve Keim knows wood rods and classic reels. For years, he's been the go-to guy around here, an encyclopedia of knowledge. This year, he's decided to put it into action. Though he's bowing out of shop work, he hatched a darn good idea. In 2013, Gates Lodge will buy, sell, appraise, consign or sell your stuff on Ebay for you. What's more, On select Saturdays this spring and summer, Steve's going to run a Buy, Sell, Trade, Appraise, Consign and Ebay day. Want to know how much your rod is worth? Bring it! Have a reel you want to sell? Bring it There'll be lots of coffee drinking, a few opinions, a lot of knowledge, and just a darn good time had by all.
Steve will be working his booth outside of the shop on the following Saturdays from 10 am - 2 pm: May 4, May 18, June 1, June 15. This is going to be a blast and if you have questions, please let me know.
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Hardy Day: Steve Burkhalter will be at the lodge this Saturday with Hardy rods to be test casted. This is a fun even if you have no interest in buying a rod. The Hardy Zenith is as fine an all-around rod as is on the market and comes in a whole host of lengths and weights. We have a lot of different options at the shop!
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