3/29/15 Consolation Prize

I knew going into Sunday that it was going to be an unusual day. The weather forecast for the day was not very good. Despite the weather, Nick and I sat in a parking lot looking out across Lake Michigan at the gloomy sky and wind swept beach. The question: should we go out in the kayaks and fish despite the forecasted heavy winds and rain? We spent a long time to decide but in the end it really is a pretty simple answer: If you have to debate it, it probably isn't worth the risk. After parting ways with Nick, I decided to drive around and check out access points for the Lake Michigan tributaries and see if I could spot any anglers and/or Steelhead. I found some really neat access points and even ran into a member of the Team Triggerfinger website. He was float fishing one of the lower creeks and told me that he hadn't had much action. After we parted ways I headed upstream to check out another access point. The stream in this section really looked pretty good so I decided to get out of the truck and take a walk to check it out. As an afterthought I decided to take a rod and tied on an orange spinner that I had good luck with last year. I would later regret the decision to not take any other gear with me. I immediately began to see signs of life and spotted several fish in the relatively clear water. I began to fish the spinner like I would fish a small trout stream, casting in front of and behind laydowns and working the lure across the current to tempt fish hidden under submerged wood. I came across this spot that looked good but I thought to myself "this would be a tough place to land a fish if I hooked one". The bank was high and steep and there were several laydowns creating a small triangle into which I could cast. I threw a cast into the triangle and immediately saw a Steelhead swirl on and miss my spinner. I cast again and had the exact same result. The Steelhead swirled on it and missed it again! I cast a third time and the Steelhead swirled on it and missed it a third time! With my fourth cast I purposely tried to move the lure slower and give it more time in the water. As if on cue, the Steelhead grabbed my spinner and the battle was on! The fish did not want to leave it's hole so it spent most of the battle thrashing and whirling around in a very small area. I slid down the bank on my butt to the water, and managed to hand-land the fish. It was a beautiful female. She was full of eggs and had some very nice color to her. I snapped a few pictures with my phone (they came out blurry and didn't turn out as well as I would have liked) and got her back in the water. It was about this time that I wished I had brought a camera, landing net, and pliers with me. I was pretty far from the truck at this point so I decided to continue on without going back for those things. I was sitting on the bank in the afterglow of catching that fish when I realized that I had set my reel down in tons of mud! I had to disassemble the reel and wash each part in the river to get it to work properly again. I continued on downstream and shortly came to another great looking hole. I cast out and immediately had a fish come up and take my spinner! I tried to set the hook and realized that after I had taken my reel apart, I had forgot to tighten my drag down enough to get a good hook set. I immediately tried to tighten my drag but it was already too late. A fish that I should have landed came off within 5 seconds of being hooked. Shortly after this I snagged my spinner on a branch and it broke off leaving me without a lure. I decided that it was worth it to go back, grab some things from the truck, and continue on. I marked the spot with a stick so I would know where to pick back up fishing when I returned. I grabbed more lures, my camera, pliers, and net from the truck and made the journey back. I continued fishing for several more hours to no avail. Towards the end of the day I did manage to land a small Brown Trout which was a complete surprise. All in all I fished about 2 miles of stream, saw probably 30-40 Steelies, and went 2/3. Not a bad day despite not getting on Lake Michigan as planned. The section of stream I fished was really very nice. Unlike the other tributaries it was in a completely wooded area, there was very little garbage, and I did not see another soul the whole time I was out. If you ask me, I couldn't have asked for a better outcome to an unusual day.