Happy 4th of July Anglers! I’m headed back to the Yak early. Michigan has been a fun experience that we can all talk about in the boat when I get back.
It’s gonna take more time to get things operational out here. So instead of not working or fishing this summer, I’ve decided to come back a month earlier than planned. I miss work and the Yak.
I’ll be taking August trip dates!
I’m bringing my new skiff with me for real this time so everyone can lay eyes on it, I can actually work out of it before the winter, and it only seems right since everyone who has been a loyal customer and supporter of mine the past 10 years helped me get it! I’ll have bass dates open in August on Potholes Resevior and the Quincy Lakes area.
Sign up soon. August gets here quick and I head out July 24th to head back. August 1st thru 30th are open. September and October are almost full but there are a few dates for the fall hanging out there.
I’m taking my son along with me on a road trip to take home home to Idaho. I’m gonna fish a bit along the way with him and have a proper father son road trip.
A bit of a change of plans but it’s just fishing. I hope to see you riverside in August anglers.
Washington Anglers! I’ll be back this September and I’ve got the weekend set aside for Fly Fishing Schools!
Learn how to fish on a budget! Build community, meet new anglers, learn from 2 experienced education based guides! Have a lot of fun!
We have 2 days with 10 spots for each day! Get that friend into fishing, help your kid or significant other, or knock the dust off for the fall fishing.
Anglers who sign up will also receive 10% off a guide trip booked for the Fall 2024 or Spring 2025 season!
Being a fly angler, you get to witness some really cool shit. Especially if you take the time to observe, listen, discover, and just be in the space. Let go of the need to catch fish, the focus, and just get lost in it.
It can take practice to disconnect in the world we live in today. I like to think that a big portion of my job is helping facilitate that disconnect and reconnect for people.
I am very fortunate in the things that I’ve got to see, hear, feel, and touch while taking in the experience of fly fishing. From the simple act of standing in front of almost 1000 year old trees in the high alpine lakes of the backcountry or the hidden swaths of the OP.
To amazing wildlife encounters with Moose in Idaho, Brown Bears in Alaska, Black Bears in Montana, to seeing gators of enormous size and beautiful stingrays, don’t even get me started on the birds. The eagles of Kechikan getting into the trash behind the pub, to diving seas birds for mullet indicating fish are near by, to hummingbird rituals in the conifer tree tops of Washington high country. The dolphins, snapping turtles, cardinals, herons, loons, elk, Bears, orcas, sea lions, are just some of the things I’ve got to witness. All have a special place in my memory.
I’ve seen awesome lighting storms, rocks the size of houses roll down a mountain, storms that lift trees from their roots, floods, and heavy flows in rivers that shake you to your core. The awe that the natural world has can be terrifying, alluring, and make you realize how insignificant you are. A true reality check. A reminder that we are but a small insect on this great ball of life rolling through space. It’s pretty fucken rad.
Insects, we got there eventually. As an angler you better get used to bugs. And I could get into the intricacies of a BWO hatch, or get into the October caddis life cycle, or when to fish for flying ants…but all I want to tell you about is a story about a bug hatch.
As anglers we know what a hatch is after a little time fishing. We are all chasing a good hatch of something in hopes of witnessing what I believe is the epitome of fly fishing. A trout, on a dry fly, during a hatch, on a river. It can be one of the easiest or one of the most frustrating things in angling. It is by far one of the best ways to catch any fish in my opinion. I’ve caught all sort in all sorts of ways. A dry fly eat from a wild trout has still yet to be beat for me.
There is a bug I have always loved. And it hatches during a wonderful time of year. The golden stonefly. An evening hatching, early summer time stonefly. Large, almost 2 inches long usually, bright yellow or burnt gold, they usually usher in the summer solstice.
Trout eat them as the evening sets in and the light changes. Willing to expose themselves for easy opportunity at easy food.
I was on a river in Idaho during this time a few seasons back. My partner and I were there for several days. We were floating a 13 mile stretch of river into the 10:30 pm. time frame. I think we took out just after 11 with a few other anglers worried we were gonna miss the ramp.
We had had a great day. Lots of fish. And we were just kind of vibing and floating. Not really fishing. It was just after 7pm. And we rolled up on a few other anglers in pontoons that were clearly waiting for something.
As we floated past them and back to a section we had to ourselves, the most amazing hatch happened. As the light fell behind the fir trees all the stoneflies that were residing in the branches descended from the tree limbs upon the river. Not just a few, not a hundred, thousands. Thousands of golden stoneflies hovered over the river and fell with soft plops and plurps.
Like golden fairies lit up from the alpine glows light of the mountain sunset. An occurrence that will not be missed. These bugs flittered and fluttered to the river surface. The water sliding them down it’s current. The next generation being put to the river while the birds and fish fed, a complete cycle of life happening in real time. It is a sight anglers. A true sight like the northern lights or fireflies for the first time.
We were so busy watching this amazing occurrence above our heads we didn’t notice the trout had also noticed and were smashing the ovipositing naturals.
We continued to just watch for a while. In 20 years, I can count on my hands how many times I’ve seen something like what we were in the midst of that evening. It may not have happened again like that for the rest of the hatch or even for several seasons. Of course we fished before it was over. But trust me just to be in the middle of it and just observe fish being fish. The river being a river, doing this natural phenomenon regardless of if it is witnessed.
It was rare, special, and something as anglers we kind of just wind up in the moment of. We chase it, and I dare say not for the fishing but to be one of the few individuals in a large world, that get to be a part of it…no matter our insignificance in its presence. The rivers will do without us, we have no bearing on how a river flows.
Truly, we learn we can dam them for a time but they can always break free if they move that way. They bring life and take it, we just step in and out, never remembered or forgotten, just welcomed and farwelled. Just to see it anglers. In a world that is in short clips, audio bytes, regurgitated garbage with a smidge of worthwhile content that may show us our humanity or our culture, the natural world holds secrets and awesome chaos, beautiful creations and moments that slip by unnoticed but worthwhile and meaningful. Even if they only impact the individual for that moment. These encounters are of substance, they matter, they are a hard line connection into space, our space, internally and externally.
Chase these moments anglers. I fear that these encounters get lost in the noise. Be still, quiet, and just be in the space. Put the phone away for the next few fish. Spend time with the natural a few seconds longer, with no motive but to be in the space and in that moment. For yourself, selfishly for yourself, take it for yourself, snatch it, hold it, feel it. Remember the smells, the light, the feeling in your body, what your thoughts bring forward. Fall into it, get lost in those waters.
I’ve been chasing trout for a while. I feel I’m pretty good and knowledgeable on the subject. I’m also constantly learning. And you never know everything, but you can know a lot. My skillset when it comes to trout is pretty adept now. Which makes learning new places and figuring things out a quicker process. It’s still a process. How many of my clients have spent more than a few trips learning how to fish. I myself took months to even catch a fish on a fly rod. I’ve met so many people that have encountered fish on their first try and many that haven’t. We all go through this process of angler development.
Angler development has stages and it changes. The simple version of it is, you learn the basics, stumble and fumble for a bit, start catching fish, start figuring it out, start losing a lot of fish, get better at not losing fish, then you might like big fish, or a specific kind of fishing like dries or euro, or maybe you like creeks and small rods, or maybe you are a two handed steel chaser, or just like plopping poppers for bass. We develop into anglers and change as we continue to fish.
Learning new places helps anglers really figure out what they like. It also makes you a better angler. And travel is good for you. I myself after 20 years am still developing. Fly fishing, and I have had a lot of time to settle. Changing it up helps with getting stale. I went to Florida and wasn’t impressed with saltwater fishing. But for some anglers, it’s their MF jam dude, and that’s rad. I’m all for passionate anglers. I love trout fishing in the west. Coming east, of course, has shown me how unique Western fishing is. There is nothing like what we have in Montana, Idaho, B.C., the OP, the Oregon coast, or the heavy fast water of Colorado, and all the stuff in between. Those rivers are special in that there aren’t any like them expect there.
Michigan trout fishing from my perspective is wittled down to three big rivers, and a few smaller creeks, lakes, and the big areas where the lakes and rivers meet. For comparison to western stuff, it’s like the state has three Rock Creek Montana sized rivers that cut through the state flowing south and then east and west into the big lakes. Which catch all the water. Everything flows into the big lakes.
The Pere Marquette, the Ausable, and the Manistee River are the big three. They each have branches or forks, or tribs, depending on where you’re from. They call them branches out here. There are some smaller streams or creeks. Teanaway, East fork of the Root, upper Blackfoot size, and a few creeks that resemble Flint Creek MT, or Black Tail Ponds WY. Less than 300 cfs. These rivers are the Pigeon, Black, Rifle, Sturgeon, and so many others. They make up the majority of the 29 rivers that call Michigan home. There are more in the Upper Peninsula, which is a 7 hr plus drive. It’s kinda like driving from Missoula MT to the OP in Washington. We explore those later.
Max cfs for fishing out here is less than 1800 on the big rivers. They kinda blow out after that. Big rainstorms will do that here, just like MT. These are small meandering rivers like the smaller spring creeks of Idaho and Montana. They have fish, not as many as Western anglers are used to, and there is a robust stocking program for all these watersheds. Blue ribbon means good access, good fishing opportunities out here. Large fish are throughout the rivers accordingly in structure, deep water, like browns do. Hanging out being lazy on the bottom a lot of the time. Hiding in structure like shelves, grass beds, logs, the few rocks, and all of the underwater sand dunes. These fish will slide up and around the sandy bottom like Sandworms from Dune looks to smash food.
It’s a low light game in the summer. Just like out west, but it’s more like that 2 hrs window of caddis fishing as it gets dark. The fishing during the day is slower than I anticipated. After over a dozen days on 2 different rivers and a few smaller creeks, the activity is low during the day. Like dead silent most of the time. Fish that do eat are small. The larger ones eat at night, they’ll move for a streamer, but it’s pretty uncommitted so far.
The rivers are easy to wade, but soft bottom and sand are taking me a little, getting used to. I recommend boots, not chacos. The rivers have current and lots of fun places to punch streamers and dries in. It’s all structure, bank, and shelf fishing. Tail outs, recess water, subtle riffles, multiple seams of cross current, its all there, its all trouty anglers. Different but trouty. There are bugs, but nothing that rivals anything out west yet. The Hex have started, and I’ve been able to observe fish eating them in the 45 minutes of the hatch from about 9:30 10pm to about 11pm. Night fishing is an interesting game, and also one that isn’t consistent. They may eat hard one night and then not at all the next, which I have also observed.
I am going to snorkel these waters. They are clear, tannin but clear. The best way to understand how fish be fish is to just go look. My years and my experience, as well as my little bit of time on these Michigan rivers, tell me that fish hold in deep and tight and move in the mornings and evenings. Browns are naturally more nocturnal. They are set in that all too familiar early am late pm cycle. Which is a summer thing. The spring and fall are different, of course. Population is something else. There isn’t a lot of room on these rivers compared to places out west. Are there 1000 fish per mile in sections, absolutely. I’ve seen pods of 30 plus large trout feeding on midges on the Ausable, and I’ve heard and seen pods of 5 to 15 feeding in various places. They are there. I want to know how they compare to Western trout. How do they move about these strange rivers, the sand and grass beds, how do they use them, the deep water and structure, how do they pod up, how territorial or friendly are they, do they react more to light, or movement, are they sensitive to boat traffic and people.
All of these things have now spiked my curiosity to learn more about these places so that I can better understand and appreciate them. I don’t particularly care if I catch fish most days. And when I do, it’s usually just for one. But I do want to understand how a river system works, and these rivers are oranges to apples from what I understand. The fish are the same. But their environment is not.
Michigan is a fucking deciduous jungle. Currently, it’s 80 degrees and probably 60 plus humidity. I love the humidity anglers. It’s so nice. It’s like Florida was in November. Just pleasant. Made the beard get shorter, but man, the weather is nice. Also it’s cloudy like all the time here. Not Seattle gross clouds in November, but just normal awesome fishing cloud cover. The wind here ain’t near as bad. And even when it is, there are so many damn trees they soak up almost all of it. Even on the lakes wind ain’t been like the Yak or other western rivers.
Camping here is wonderful. With lots of room. You can float to campgrounds and have shuttles run for multiple day floats. Lots of canoe and kayak access, plenty of raft and drift boat, and skiff access. Most people use the same boats as out west. A lot of old Hyde driftboats, a few adipose, lots of stealthcrafts. I even met another Hog Island skiff owner on the lake near where I live. There are tubers and kayakers all over. Doesn’t bother fishing too much. It’s got a similar feel to the summer as out west. The birds are way cooler out here. I’ll say that. It’s what makes it like a jungle. On any given day, there are 10 to 25 birds making noise.
Also, there are fucking fireflies every night! No one told me how freaking rad those little light up butt Beatles are. They are like little blue and chartreuse sparkly LED lights from 10 to 1am. So awesome to watch them. The other night, Kristen and I watched them blink and twinkle along the riverside of the Manistee in the thousands while fish ate Hex, caddis, and Spinner Fall. It’s not always about fishing. Sometimes, it is just about appreciating the space and the opportunity to explore and witness it.
Being so attached to the Western rivers, this place can make one feel out of sorts as an angler. A new phase of my development as an angler. I’ve needed a good challenge, and it’s part of what I was seeking out making this move. More to explore here in regards to trout. The opportunities for other species are more vast than the trout fishing here in Michigan.
Lakes upon lakes and several big short rivers that hold bass, musky, pike, gar, and carp. I have only ticked the surface of that kind of fishing here. It’s much more straightforward, in my opinion, than trout fishing. Especially bass, but pike eat, that’s what they do. Musky are a challenge, but they are more abundant here than places I’ve chased and caught them before. The salmon and lake run rainbows they have here are of little interest to me personally and professionally. As I felt out west with steelhead, it ain’t for me. I’ve caught my chrome. It was fun. I’m good. I’d rather chase something warmer in the winter months. Just not Florida.
The start of my summer has been interesting. It’s strange not working and being on river rhythm each day. Things change this next week. My son will be here, and we will be exploring this place together. Something I’m looking forward to. Taking time off of work was a necessity for many reasons. My body is a little wore out after 10 years. Many know my knee was funky two seasons ago, no more jumping outta the boat for me. I’ve been fishing less because my right elbow needs a huge break from rowing but also fishing. I wear a brace when I do row and fish now.
Most importantly. I wanted to take the opportunity to spend time with my kids this summer and the next few as they get ready to become young adults themselves. My oldest kids are almost 17 and 15. The youngest is 10 now. They are easier to see living here in Michigan. Flying them is much more affordable here, especially as they get older. They are getting to point where they also want to explore and discover. I want time to be there with them through that.
I have a partner who is building something out here and needs support. Her business is taking off and requires more hands and eyes, and we work very well together professionally. New opportunities that allow me to continue working in fly fishing without the wear and tear on my body are here. New ways of teaching and learning, new people to bring into fly fishing, and for once I get to be less of a boss and more of an employee, running a business for 10 years is some shit. Especially in recent years. The ability to let the Yakima take care of itself and my clients being the most awesome and supportive booking trips the way you all have is a freaking huge weight off my workload. It is because of all of you I am able to expand.
Lastly, and I guess selfishly, but also just because I need a break. I wanted time off. Guiding takes it’s toll and I’m in this for the long haul. I needed time for myself. I have other things that have come into life that I want to give my attention to. I’m almost 40 and have to start thinking about what’s next and what my career looks like, where I want to be, and what I want to be guiding. It’s a little scary, but it’s what I need, so I don’t burn out. I never set out to only guide one river or one place. This time off was to give myself the break to search that out. I can’t guide like I’m 28 anymore, nor do I want to. I have developed into a different guide and want more and different just as we all do as anglers. I want different experiences in new places. Adventure is the journey of figuring that out and what is discovered along the way. I can’t accomplish that for myself if I’m on the river for others every day. I wanted some time for that. Needed it. This world isn’t always easy. Especially when you chase your passion and try to make a living doing your own thing. It’s a choice I am happy I made. Things have settled a bit here in Michigan. I’m ready to start sharing some of these spaces with anglers and clients into July amd August. The opportunities are vast and diverse here. I’m only just getting into it, and it’s always a good time to explore and experience it with others. I hope to see some familiar faces out east, and meet new and excited anglers here.
I have been an angler for 20 years now. Started at 18 and haven’t stopped. Fishing has been a determining factor of who I am for my adult life. I turned my passion for fishing, teaching, exploring, wildlife, the outdoors, and guiding into a business. It has been a good business that has given me opportunities my 18 year old self would have never dreamed of having. The past 20 years I have spent a good number of those days fishing. It grew exponentially as I hit my mid 20s. Then it plateaued. I became a guide.
Guiding meant I fished less for myself and helped others fish. I spent the past 10 years doing that. I still would fish. But it was much less than before I was a guide. The busier I got, the less time I fished on my own. I loved it. But burnout is a real thing and I have wanted to fish more and more for myself in the past few seasons. I started taking more trips for myself the past few summers. Hitting rivers I fished when I was younger, and finding new favorite ones. I shared rivers with friends, fellow guides, former clients, and anglers. I met my partner riverside and have travelled and fished all over the country the past few seasons. I moved to Michigan on a new adventure and to seek out new water and opportunities. I will be taking most of the summer off to just fish for myself.
Of course there is an underlying reason for the time off and fishing for myself. In my experience, the best way to learn a new area is to fish it. My lifestyle affords me the ability to be a trout bum and do just that. I get to enjoy fishing for a while. Find what inspires me, what fish species drive me to chase them, where will I find encounters with fish and nature, what areas will make me want to keep them to myself, and which ones will make me want to share? These are things I spent my 20’s answering, exploring all over the western trout fisheries. From Alaska to Colorado, and everything in between that struck my fancy and that I could get to. I found amazing fish, met wonderful people, and got to experience fishing in a way I didn’t know was possible.
Before social media mind you, I am that old now. This was back when digital cameras were a brick and we are all about megapixels. A lot of these adventures were captured on actual film or not at all except in memory. I didn’t have a decent camera the first time I hooked a bulltrout in Canada, there is a tattered picture of a greenback trout from Colorado somewhere, and on a sim card in a storage unit in a box, somewhere in Idaho there is a picture of me holding my lifetime steelhead from the OP when I was 22, right around my birthday. I had adventures, I caught fish, I experienced wilds and rivers, and places all before it meant likes and follows or was part of my business. It was just for me, for the joy of it. It had no influence other than I loved to fish.
I settled on the Yakima 10 years ago. I had opportunity to guide all over but I had a new family at the time and my personal off river life kept me close to where I grew up. I fell in love with the Yakima River. I know every inch of that river these days. I became a very good guide on that river and was fortunate to share that river with hundreds of clients over the years. I have built lasting relationships as a guide with people out west and will always return to chase the trout in the big waters out there.
The East is a different beast. And many have left comments or asked why I came East. As a home grown PNW angler who has fished just about all the good stuff over the past 20 years. I am good. I have experienced it all for what I wanted to fish and see. These days its a little more crowded then before 2010 but I have fished and caught enough trout out west for now. That will surely change with time but for now…I am good. The East has a lot more to offer. A bigger piece of the fishing world. I hit Florida this past winter for a month. It is one of the largest sport fishing destinations in the world. It is massive in terms of fishing. Michigan the the Midwest area are equally as large but more spread out and makes the western side of the countries sport fishing world look very small. Commercial fishing is the big dog out west, as someone who has worked in Alaska and been a sport guide for a while, commercial fishing for consumption is the big player out west. Here in the east its more just the sport fishing. Yes there is harvest, but its mostly for sport with a side of harvest.
I had some confusion with one of my last posts that I compared Michigan to Alaska. Now the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is like Southeast Alaska. Just without mountains. But what really hits me is the local fishing culture. That is what reminds of me of Alaska. Fishing is just older and more engrained in the everyday lives of people in Michigan, much like Alaska. That is the comparison. Here near Detroit everyone owns a boat, most people have fishing gear, and everyone has fished or does fish. Fly fishing is a little less common but the further north your go the more you find it. The west makes fishing out to be a really big deal, and dresses it up in really polished fancy cloths in comparison, takes itself really seriously. And I am from the west and am part of that. The east just doesn’t care as much. Fishing is just something everyone does. Less of a big deal, and with it readily available to everyone just about anywhere even these urban areas, the fishing culture is just very different. I enjoy it because as I just want to enjoy fishing with no pressure…that seems to be the main operating speed out here.
I have been back almost 2 weeks. I have fished more days than not. I have only had one kind of crappy experience, more due to a crummy fly shop encounter than anything else. Some places ain’t all they are made out to be on social media anglers just saying. But besides that, this fishing has been rather good. I can’t complain. A rained out Au Sable River last week sucked but I was able to learn about how finicky that river is and how I don’t want to fish finicky rivers right now….I have had enough of those for a summer. I love bass fishing. It is simple compared to trout fishing a river. I love simple fishing. Bass eat, they like topwater they are easier to track and predict, and when I put effort into catching them…I really catch them. I don’t care about size…I am a trout angler not a bass tournament guy…I care about eats. I want eats. So bass fishing is great…because in 3 hrs of puttering around the lake I can stick 15 to 30 bass when I put effort in. I enjoy that kind of fishing. Move into a zone, hunt the fish out of it, work a grid, depths, angles, lengths, structure, lanes, weed beds, drop offs, ridges, bars, I get to use sonar tools and really pick apart areas. Make my brain work without the pressure of having to produce for anyone or anything. I am just getting to fish the way I like.
For me it is freedom. I have been tied to the Yakima River’s schedule and rhythm for 10 years. Dialed and locked in. My drift boat and I just chunking out miles and working that river. My entire work life has been attached and dictated by the Yakima River. I wasn’t lying when I said I needed a break. Once I got out of Montana on the drive east…I finally felt things stop pulling on me. I love that river anglers…but I need a break.
The Freedom I feel out here is also because I have the 2 things that I need to really make that possible. My trusty guide rig, and my new boat. My new Hog Island Skiff is finally growing on me. I have had mixed feelings about it since Florida. But being here in Michigan I am glad I have it. It allows me to fish as I please, where I please. With my roof top, rig, and boat I can explore and discover as I see fit. Working out here is the goal and will happen sooner rather than later, but for now I am enjoying the ability to just fish for myself.
I enjoy the quiet of the stillwater and rivers out east. It has a different feel than the waters I have encountered out west. The eastern waters speak playfully, filled with life. The bird songs have a different cacophony than those I recall from my younger days. There is mystery in the east. A myriad of abundant species of fish make for a surprise each encounter. There is less pressure out here for me. I don’t feel the need to perform, no one knows me, I am just fly fishing. When I fish I get to be quiet, just enjoy, be a part of it. I missed this kind of fishing. The summer will be filled with days where I can fish as intense or as aloof as I want. A chance to recharge in a way I haven’t been able to in a long time. A chance to fish.
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