Salmon Trip

[FairWeatherFisherman]

One of eight salmon I caught on my Michigan trip earlier this week. My biggest fish on a flyrod. I hope this ubb stuff works.

http://home.earthlink.net\~ccsu12598\mike\salmon.jpg



[This message has been edited by FairWeatherFisherman (edited 10-02-1999).]

[spinner]

did not work...send me the photos please.....spinner...

[FairWeatherFisherman]

Spinner,

I got it going - we had it wrong on the Earthlink server. I emailed a couple of the pictures to you.

Mike

[This message has been edited by FairWeatherFisherman (edited 10-01-1999).]

[ICHTHUS]

No fair,
The link doesn't work and I want to see the pics.............please

[Windknot]

Flyguy, you there?

We got a teaser about salmon fishing in MI from FairWeatherFisherman, but only a short story! This past Saturday while trying to eat breakfast before going to work I flipped the TV to one of the outdoor shows and saw folks fishing the Pere Marquette (sp??) River for salmon running 15 - 40 pounds. Oh, that was exactly the wrong thing to watch before going into a windowless salt… but I digress. My daughter-in-law thought there was actually something humorous about ol' dad shoveling cereal into his ear; ordinarily, she's not bad, for a non-fisher, but we'll continue to work on these lapses.

Short of hooking my 6 wt to the bumper of my son's Bronco, I can't imagine being connected to 40 pounds of wild fish in a small stream. If you have the time, please drop us some details!

Tight lines,
Don

[FairWeatherFisherman]

Don,

I spent four days fishing the Pere Marquette last week. It rained three of the four days, but it was fairly warm and not too uncomfortable, so we fished it nearly all of the daylight hours. The river was full of fish, mostly salmon, but also some steelhead. Many said they had never seen a run as strong as this one. The river is fairly narrow with a moderately strong current. We fished it by canoe and you could really tell that it was downhill. I didn’t see any big rocky shoals like we have here and though there were occasional big rocks, the major impediments were deadfalls. We stayed at a lodge called Barothy that owns seven miles of river frontage and lots of the guys walked in to fish. The town of Baldwin is not far from there and has three fly shops. There are several businesses in the area that provide canoe livery and car spotting. Part of the river is fly only, but although we used fly rods we didn’t fish that section. Most of the guides used drift boats (but didn't see any wooden ones like Drifter).

The first day (the day it didn’t rain) I was fishing an area of the river that had a very shallow gravel riffle. It was fantastic seeing those big fish shoot upstream over that area with their backs way out of the water. It was one of the loudest noises I had ever heard an animal make. The biggest fish I saw on the trip was one who shot downstream across that riffle. It looked out of place, way too big, surely 20+ pounds. The most exciting fish I had on was in a very fast narrow area with several deadfalls. (gravel plus deadfalls = fish) I recently read something that Lefty said about knowing how you were going to land the fish before you cast. I didn’t follow that instruction and after fishing this area for about 45 minutes got a strike. When I set the hook a tremendous fish shot out of the water racing downstream stripping drag. Truly explosive. It jumped a second time by a deadfall and was gone. The ones I landed were fun too, but this is the fish I keep thinking about.

There is lots of good information about this area on this site www.steelheadsite.com (http://www.steelheadsite.com)

[THE EG]

For all you guys with no resposibilities and the ability to be spontaneous, the first part of October is the peak of the King Salmon run on the Salmon River in upstate New York. Near the towns of Pulaski and Altmar. I'm gonna miss it this year but just repeat what FairWeatherFisherman just described. The steelhead come in during the run and right after (November) to gorge on the eggs. If interested, search the web for Pulaski or Salmon fishing in New York or drop me an email.

[fishmonger]

Have fished the flies only water on the PM for Browns in the summer, a truly beautiful stream. My wife grew up in the area, and her father was quite the RiverBum. Unfortunately, he passed away just after we got married, so I never got to learn any PM secrets from him, and the PM gives up her secrets very slowly. He prefered the steelhead over the Chinooks and other trout. This river is awesome anyway you slice it. It has the distinction of being the second river in North America to be stocked with Brownies in hte late 1800's, after the AuSable in New York, I believe. Half of the shipment went in the AuSable, and the rest proceeded by rail to the PM. It is one of the cleanest, free flowing rivers you have ever seen. Worth the trip. I haven't been there for a year and a half, and am really jealous that another Georgia local beat me back there. It looks like you represented us well...

[This message has been edited by fishmonger (edited 10-09-1999).]