Southern Michigan Steelhead

A friend and I floated a river in Michigan last week for the first time and managed to find a couple fish.  Fishing new water is both exciting and challenging.  Not knowing exactly where fish are in the river makes finding them seem more rewarding than returning to your favorite “go to” spots time after time when you know where the fish usually lie.  It was nice to finally find ourselves away from the concrete valley’s of southern Wisconsin and in a semi-wilderness setting searching for steelhead.  It was also nice to get out on my new Creek Company pontoons again.  I had been eyeing these boats for awhile, and I finally caved and bought two in October.  So far, so good.  Dave has had little to no time on the oars and really tested the boats structural integrity.  Small rivers in Michigan usually have many fallen trees and other obstacles to maneuver around, or in Dave’s case bounce off of.  Both Dave and the boat survived.  The first hour of floating we had to share the water with shore anglers and one other drift boat so we didn’t spend much time with our flies in the water.  Once we found some solitude and really started to fish Dave hooked into a fish.  After he felt that unmistakable head shake for a few seconds it was gone.  A couple hours later I was swinging an olive sculpin and a chrome hen smashed it!  I worked the fish to my feet only to  have it shake off while I was digging for my camera.  No fish pics today but with this mild weather there are still opportunities awaiting.