Greetings everyone!
I am happy to announce that the 2011 Spring Collegiate Steelhead Classic was a great success! We had great weather, a great turn-out and great fishing conditions. Teams from all across Michigan came to compete, including MSU, UM, Ferris, CMU, Aquinas College, OU, KVCC, NMU, LSSU, and GVSU all showed up, plus a team from Ohio University, and for the first time Army actually sent a team! And, I swear I have some pictures, of both the project as well as some fish pictures, and I swear I'll get them on here ASAP since they're on my friend Donny's camera.
I got up to the Pine River corridor on Thursday evening, and got right to work chopping wood and getting tables set up for the tournament, as well as setting my new tent up. The weather was perfect, and my fishing parter and fellow club-member Donny Richards decided to hit the river a little early to see how the fishing was. We opted for the Little Manistee River off of M-55, and it is a special river indeed. The Little Manistee is one of the more iconic names in steelhead angling due to the fact that it is the "mother river" for Michigan's steelhead. It is on this river that all the spawn used for planting steelhead smolts across the state are taken from, and the "little man" has 100% wild fish, no stocking is done. We found the river to be low and clear, but there were indeed steelhead spawning and holding in pools. However, they were very uncooperative, refusing all presentations from egg and nymph flies, to spawn sacs. We returned to camp defeated.
Friday dawned chilly and clear, but we were on the river by 7:30, again headed to the Little Manistee, but this time to the water below the DNR Weir (where the spawn is taken from the fish) to see how many fish had stacked up below the weir or were trapped there, awaiting release upon having a few eggs and milt removed. There were fish below the weir (as well as heavy angler pressure) below the weir, and Donny manage to hook into a nice steelhead, but it broke off seconds after. It then proceeded to jump in front of us, haughtily mocking our efforts. When we looked into the weir to see how many fish were there, I was astonished to see hundreds of steelhead trapped in holding tanks, shoulder to shoulder and fins peeking above the surface. THAT was why there weren't many fish to be seen, they were all in the weir! However, once we got back to the Corridor, we found it occupied by more teams from across the state, and a fire was roaring. In addition, several more members from WMU's fishing team arrived, and Billy Madej pulled in bringing his brother John who was visiting from his home in Taiwan, completed our fishing quartet. We planned an early start to try a different river, the hallowed Pere Marquette.
Saturday was again chilly but gorgeous and we arrived at the Pere Marquette river (a national scenic river) at 7:45 am to find high water conditions, making the prospect of wading the stream suicidal! We only fished a few holes before returning to the Little Manistee, hoping our luck had changed...it didn't. All four of us hadn't had even a bite, and we even gave up entirely on steelhead, instead trying for trout at around noon. Again, nothing. Frustrated, sitting on the river bank with our feet in the river, we pondered what to do next. We decided on trying the Pere Marquette again, this time going to the flies-only waters at Claybanks. There were alot of anglers there, and we finally found a spot that presented some nice pocket water, a spot that usually holds decent amounts of fish. Some anglers down stream from us around 50 yards were hooking fish, the splashes echoing off the stands of white pine, and the scream of a drag could be heard too. We began fishing with no success, but then as evening grew Donny gave sang out with the long-awaited "Fish On!" Soon enough a silver explosion took off down the river, leaping and boiling at the surface, running around 100 yards down river! We finally landed the fish, a magnificent male "buck". That set the tone, with Donny hooking up several more times, and eventually landing a gorgeous female "hen" that was adorned subtlety with pinks, purples and magestic blues that only a woman can bring out in full splendor. She was released, and none too soon because Billy landed another male on a streamer, and I myself hooked into six fish, having exhilarating battles with two, both ending in heart-breaking snaps of the line. I didn't go home skunked though, I managed to bring in a nice 12 inch brown trout, who engulfed the egg fly I drifted through the "pocket". But the steelhead were making mincemeat out of our light leaders. We limped home with sore arms from holding on for dear life on our rods to plan the next day.
Sunday was tournament day, and started with literally a bang, as thunderstorms rolled through at about 4:30 am, complete with wind, hail and copious amounts of rain. The show stopped at around 7, and by 7:30 Donny and I were back on the Flies-Only water of the Pere Marquette, anxious to continue the explosive action we experienced the night before. We arrived at the same pocket water as before, and before too long, I had netted a pretty 11-inch rainbow trout, undoubtedly a future steelhead. It began to drizzle as we moved downstream to the next pocket where I rolled my two egg flies along the bottom, when my fly came to a smashing halt, I set the hook and the steelhead exploded into the air. My drag screamed as it cartwheeled in the air, boiled the surface and streaked from bank to bank in flashing runs. I have never, before or since, fought a fish like this. Words cannot describe the awe and power I witnessed! There were times when I could literally NOT move the fish an inch. It just sat there, wondering what to do next before ripping line out downstream. After many tense minutes, I managed to land a chrome and pink hen steelhead, weighing about 9 pounds! She was everything I'd ever dreamed of, and on a fly rod to boot! I posed for a quick picture, revived her, gave her a farewell kiss and bid her adieu. The satisfaction of watching her swim powerfully away to deposit the next generation of steelhead was one of the most rewarding things I've experienced as a fisherman, and it's something I plan on witnessing for a long time to come. Plus, Billy's brother managed to hook and land a dandy brown trout measuring 17 inches. It was great to see him come all this way from Taiwan and actually land a fish!
I'm also happy to report that we didn't have much trash to clean up along the river. While it was still there in quantity, the amount of monafilament line found on river banks has dropped, since line manufacturers have begun making 100% biodegradable line, so that it disappears from the system instead of hanging up. We did find regular line though, collecting approximately 500 yards of it from JUST WMU's fishing team. Other schools retrieved less amounts, but we ended up collecting roughly 1700 yards total of monafilament line. that's well below the 3-mile goal, but when you think about it, that's a GOOD thing we didn't meet our goal. We did however, pick up lots of spawn-sac cases and netting, as well as aluminum cans and chip bags. In the end, WMU walked away with the Trash Bash trophy, but MSU won the Spring Tournament with the most overall inches. Congratulations to MSU! In all everyone had a great time on the river. I'm already looking forward to the fall tournament! I hope you come with me!
keep that rod tip high!
Brian
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