PM Warm Up


                                                                January 26
Normally this time year I would be on the Saginaw River fishing walleye or on Wixsom lake fishing crappie and bluegill through the ice but because of the recent warm ups it has caused a lot of snow melt creating faster current and dirty brown water conditions. These conditions reduce the fish’s ability to see your lure under the ice. In these conditions it can cause some very difficult fishing conditions.

One system may fish like crap but there’s always another that can fish well during these weather conditions. These weather conditions led me back in search of winter steelhead Friday morning I headed to the Pere Marquette with buddy in search of winter steelhead. Today’s temperatures started very cold with a morning starting in the 20’s but according to my weather app there was going to be a great warm up throughout the day that was expected to max at 47 degrees. These temps were ideal for a great day of winter steelhead fishing.

Today’s game plan was to fish a new wade section to start the day off and if it produces stay there till dark and see what we can produce out of that section. That was the plan. We got there and we fished some great looking holes. Big deep and dark water, no doubt there was at least a couple fish spread out throughout it but today’s downside was with the recent snowmelt the water went up and when the water goes up a little it allows fish to move into less concentrated spots. In the winter there isn’t a ton of fish, so when they spread out it greatly reduces your chance of your flies passing by an actively feeding steelhead. With conditions being Poopoo down there I started second-guessing myself. I stayed true to my guns and kept fishing. We walked a little way till I found a nice pinch point. I figured it could funnel moving fish so I started fishing. It was my 3rd or 5th drift and the bobber rips sideways so I set the hook. Luckily this time it was a steelhead. It wasn’t a monster fish but a good one. After a little battle we had him in the net and sent him on his way. At this point I was thinking “man we may crush them here” but after 2 more hours without a fish we had to make a move.

We headed up to the fly water which is catch and release and flies only section of the Pere Marquette. We started a lot higher in the system where we found a lot cleaner water and fish seem to be more concentrated. The first hole we fish I was able to hook a very hot anger fish who took me into some log jams where he broke my line. Pretty cool start for the first hole. We continued to fished that hole for another 10 minutes when I made the call that we should move down river. We headed down to a famous spot that is actually one of my favorite spots where there is always a steelhead feeding in there.

We walked down to the spot and to our surprise no one was fishing it. We started fishing with no luck at first. My buddy ran his flies through the sweet spot for about 20 minutes before he slid down river. I slid down into the same spot he was fishing and realized he was just a foot or two outside of the zone where I typically hook a lot of fish. I started casting and working it thoroughly when finally, the bobber ripped down and I set the hook on what felt to be a small steelhead. The fish was not a small steelhead but a fish that wanted to swim towards me. I started pulling a lot harder thinking I was going to end this fight now when he turned away and started acting HUGE. I was holding onto him while he just kept trucking line off my reel. I yelled to my buddy, “grab the net it’s a beast”. We had to chase the fish down river past a lot of trees and a lot of snags that the fish was really eager to get into like he almost has been through this before. My buddy tried netting him once but we couldn’t figure out an angle that he would fit in the net. That issue doesn’t happen much. Looking at this fish while it was in the sunlight I almost thought to myself that it looked familiar. Finally, my buddy had to do a drive at this fish and we got it in the net. My buddy was super stoked. I haven’t had a great look at fish yet so I had no idea the extent to its real size. I grabbed the net and looked at the biggest steelhead i’ve ever seen. On the corner of its mouth was a scar of the giant fish I lost weeks before. Sweet revenge.

 843 words

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