Thursday, December 27, 2018
Friday, December 21, 2018
Monday, December 17, 2018
12/9/2018 Plugging Away
What is there to say about Sunday? It was quite the day. It had it all: ups, downs, twists, and turns. Mostly good though. Mike and I were looking to get out and do some backtrolling for Steelhead. The St. Joe was still running pretty high from the week priors rain, snow, and snowmelt. With that in mind, we were trying to decide on where to go for the day. I threw out a relatively obscure and off the wall new place to try out. Mike agreed and before you knew it, I was on the road, heading to Mike's house to meet up for the days adventure. Driving to the lake we were discussing what we might find at the new spot, and what kind of lures and tactics we were going to use for the day. Over the course of the last month or so, we have had almost exclusively overcast days. With little to no sun for the entire month, this day was different. Bright, sunny, and bluebird skies were a welcome sight.
We got on the water and before long we were heading upstream. Surprisingly, the water was a muddy brown color. Even as we went upstream the water only got marginally better with maybe a few feet of visibility, if that. The water did not look good to either of us. We were even contemplating trying to get onto Lake Michigan itself and trolling for Lake Trout. In the end, we decided that since we were already here, we might as well put some plugs out and give it a try. Was that a good decision or what?
We started out with only two rods out, after about 20 minutes, I decided to put a third rod out. I pulled out a Storm Hot 'N Tot and put the rod out. Within minutes, the rod violently doubled over and began kicking with the huge headshakes of a nice fish. I had my GoPro in my pocket, but instead of taking the time to get it on my head before grabbing the rod I opted to grab the rod quickly and begin fighting the fish. This fish was hot and fresh into the stream from Lake Michigan. The fish gave it everything it had and then some. Big drag burning runs and nice cartwheeling jumps were part of a very long and intense fight. Finally the fish tired and we were able to get it into the net. What a beautiful chrome fish! It is impossible to adequately describe these fish and even the best camera cannot really do them justice.
After admiring and releasing that fish, the action was hot and heavy! Within minutes after releasing the first fish, one of the rods had a savage take down, but before Mike could get to it, the fish was gone. Just a few minutes later another rod buried and began to buck wildly. After a brief battle Mike steered the second Steelhead of the day into the net. After a quick picture we released the fish only to have yet another fish on after about another 20 minutes. It was my turn to reel the fish in and it did not want to come quietly, trying to get tangled into all of our other lines in quick succession. The nice chrome Male Steelhead fought admirably but before long became the third fish of the day to visit the net! In less than an hour of fishing we had gone 3/4 on some of the coolest freshwater fish in the world! The days are so short this time of year that shortly after that streak the sun was already starting to head for the horizon. We fished for a few more hours and managed to grind out one more nice Steelie at the very end of the day. We finished the day by going 4/5. Each of us got the chance to reel in two nice fish apiece.
On the way home, we were pretty elated and I was checking out the pictures from the day. Suddenly, Mike says 'aw crap, we have a flat tire!' A quick peek in the rear view mirror and I saw that one of the trailer tires had absolutely exploded. With how well the fishing had gone, something had to go wrong, right? We had to pull over along a major interstate and change the tire as Semis and Cars went by at fast speeds at uncomfortably close distances. We were most of the way through changing the tire when mercifully a police officer showed up with his nice bright lights to steer folks away from us. We were glad to have him. We finally got the tire changed and got on our way back to Mike's house.
When we arrived back at Mike's, there was an envelope under my driver's side windshield wiper. At first I thought it was a ticket. But it wasn't. Check out the picture below to see what it was. It definitely brightened the end of the day for us! Merry Chritmas! And yes I do mean Chritmas.
We got on the water and before long we were heading upstream. Surprisingly, the water was a muddy brown color. Even as we went upstream the water only got marginally better with maybe a few feet of visibility, if that. The water did not look good to either of us. We were even contemplating trying to get onto Lake Michigan itself and trolling for Lake Trout. In the end, we decided that since we were already here, we might as well put some plugs out and give it a try. Was that a good decision or what?
We started out with only two rods out, after about 20 minutes, I decided to put a third rod out. I pulled out a Storm Hot 'N Tot and put the rod out. Within minutes, the rod violently doubled over and began kicking with the huge headshakes of a nice fish. I had my GoPro in my pocket, but instead of taking the time to get it on my head before grabbing the rod I opted to grab the rod quickly and begin fighting the fish. This fish was hot and fresh into the stream from Lake Michigan. The fish gave it everything it had and then some. Big drag burning runs and nice cartwheeling jumps were part of a very long and intense fight. Finally the fish tired and we were able to get it into the net. What a beautiful chrome fish! It is impossible to adequately describe these fish and even the best camera cannot really do them justice.
After admiring and releasing that fish, the action was hot and heavy! Within minutes after releasing the first fish, one of the rods had a savage take down, but before Mike could get to it, the fish was gone. Just a few minutes later another rod buried and began to buck wildly. After a brief battle Mike steered the second Steelhead of the day into the net. After a quick picture we released the fish only to have yet another fish on after about another 20 minutes. It was my turn to reel the fish in and it did not want to come quietly, trying to get tangled into all of our other lines in quick succession. The nice chrome Male Steelhead fought admirably but before long became the third fish of the day to visit the net! In less than an hour of fishing we had gone 3/4 on some of the coolest freshwater fish in the world! The days are so short this time of year that shortly after that streak the sun was already starting to head for the horizon. We fished for a few more hours and managed to grind out one more nice Steelie at the very end of the day. We finished the day by going 4/5. Each of us got the chance to reel in two nice fish apiece.
On the way home, we were pretty elated and I was checking out the pictures from the day. Suddenly, Mike says 'aw crap, we have a flat tire!' A quick peek in the rear view mirror and I saw that one of the trailer tires had absolutely exploded. With how well the fishing had gone, something had to go wrong, right? We had to pull over along a major interstate and change the tire as Semis and Cars went by at fast speeds at uncomfortably close distances. We were most of the way through changing the tire when mercifully a police officer showed up with his nice bright lights to steer folks away from us. We were glad to have him. We finally got the tire changed and got on our way back to Mike's house.
When we arrived back at Mike's, there was an envelope under my driver's side windshield wiper. At first I thought it was a ticket. But it wasn't. Check out the picture below to see what it was. It definitely brightened the end of the day for us! Merry Chritmas! And yes I do mean Chritmas.
Thursday, December 13, 2018
Friday, December 7, 2018
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