November 20, 2008

 

Hi All

 

 

Sorry for the huge laps in reports. We had a great salmon season. Thank you to all for coming up and slaying the King of the Great Lakes this past fall. Fall colors are over and winter is settling in around here. Deer and Steelhead season is now in full swing. Hunting is tougher for most with the baiting ban in lower Michigan.

 

All the rivers are still lower and clearer than would like to see. The fishing is not bad for 38 deg. water and I'm still scratching my head trying to put together what gave us this last couple pushes of fresh Steelies. It must have had more to do with wind and fronts in the big lake is my guess. We have had a couple small shots of rain but most of them did little to the overall flow and the river was running pretty gin clear. This last rain, on Nov. 13th I measured 1.5 inches. It may sound like something but it wasn't crap considering how dry it is around here. We did manage to get a little stain out back this last one. So I think it's safe to say there was more rain East of here in the tribs.

 

With the snow on the ground we finally have some "re-leaf " from the leaves( no pun intended) something I noticed on the river today. The first part of the fall Steelhead season it was full time leaf detail to keep the hooks clean.The neo waders with rubber sloes, my Rabbit hat along with my trusty Carhart's are back in fashion for me. Even the boat heater has been fired up a few times. 

 

On a sad note, in the middle of hunting season, my dogs decided to go for a final hunt without me. I let them out to play before dinner and off they went on Halloween night. My lab Bear was found on the side of the road 3 mile South and the Brit is just gone. Hated loosing the 4 year old Lab, the run wasn't her idea. She was always content just hanging out especially before dinner. Before all that bird hunting was going pretty well around here with many days of 20 + flushes and lots of shooting in just a half day or less of hunting.

 

On a happy note, my wife (Debi) and son (Adam) and our 1 year old pup (Rose) will be making the move to Baldwin this winter. It has been a long 5 years 1 month and 6 days of living apart and still remaining a family (since we bought the Lodge). I often compared it to our men and women working overseas or in the military. We probably only spent 20 % of a year together at best. The sacrifice was worth it all to be living where we will call home on the Pere Marquette River.

 

I will share a few photo's of some of our last trips. Most of the fly trips have resulted in spit hooks or break off's dealing with light lines and hot fish. Some of the smaller one's would come to hand along with many trout. I would imagine it will become a little easier to put a better precentage in the net with this colder water dousing the flames coming off there tails. We have been doing better on plugs as of lately for example we went 5 for 6 today and # 6 was up to the boat a couple times before coming unbuttoned on a half day trip.

 

We will be running a Winter special for a full day guided trip booked for December 1 to March 15 th. we will include a free nights stay . We also will be into our winter rates soon as well which drops the rate in most of our rooms $ 10 a night. I will be headed off to the vice to do some tying for the rest of the night. It is that time of year with lots of indoor time in the evenings. Soon we will be puting new blades on the ice augers and testing the ice. I have just a couple packs of pan fish left to fry. The reports will switch over to the winter reports page soon for snow depth's and ice thickness. 

 

 

Tight lines and Happy Hunting

 

Clint