Went fishing

[soupmix]

So Monday rolls around and I find myself at work. Although I am physically at work, I am not really "at work." About ten o'clock I check my e-mail and there is a message from a fishing buddy saying he is headed north to wet a line. Pretty much rubbing it in. I think to myself, "Hey, that's why I have PTO!" I call him up and ask if he minds if I tag along.

So after an hour drive we hit a small river in northern Michigan. When we get there we see people at every access point for the sucker run. We were not there for suckers. Once at our choice spot we start to gear up and get some funny looks from the people fishing for suckers. After we are geared up we head up river, walking the bank.

The plan was to throw spinners for trout and then fly fish for steelhead in the evening. I have never hooked or landed a steelhead. Once we were in the river it was extremely easy to spot a few steelhead beds, not because of the cleared stones, but by the suckers sitting on them.

In the end I caught one small brown on a spinner and was able to avoid the suckers. My buddy caught a 19 inch jack steelhead that fought like a whale on his ultra-light gear. Keep in mind that we were not steelhead fishing at this point. We were just trying to catch a few trout and the gear we were using was ultra-light rods with 4lb test.

Just as the evening was approaching and we were thinking about going to get our eight weight fly rods I cast into a dark pool. As my spinner came out of the hole a large white mouth opened and ate my spinner. Then the fish turned at sat there. I couldn't move it. I don't even think it realized that it was hooked. I put as much pressure on the fish as I could with my little ultra-light rod. All of a sudden the water exploded and the fish shot about three feet in the air and snapped my line with one shake of its head. If that fish had vocal cords I am pretty sure it would of said "f#$k you" while in the air! As far as guesstimates go, my buddy put it around 28 inches and 10lbs.

After that we practically ran to the car to get our steelhead gear. And as things go, we never saw one after that.

Funny how things work... I hook my first steelhead and I get "hooked" in the process. I will be heading to a stream that is known to have a better steelhead run this Sunday. Wish me luck!

[gusstrand]

Steelhead are a wonderful and unforgiving mistress... makes me miss Oregon...

[Apache Trout]

Must have been a beast you hooked into.
Sounds like you're addicted to chrome.
Can't wait to see some pics when you get one.
Enjoy & good luck.
A.T.

[Brooktrout]

nice.