Fishing with Nick

Midnight Brown Trout It's a fact, most people are afraid of the dark. For many people, turning off the basement light forces them to not only walk up the stairs, but sprint in fear of what the darkness behind them holds. Imagine being in the dark at night, in the middle of a national forest, all alone, and having to keep that trusty headlight on your head turned off. Sitting on the bank you stay quite. Listening for a "Gulp" while in the distance you  hear the birds of night, coyotes, and everything else that stirs in the night. If you hear a swarm of mosquitos and trout rising, You're fly fishing. 8:00 Pm I arrive at the river with a plan. I throw my waders on, get out your 9 foot 4 weight fly rod and start peeling out your fly line to feed through each loop till your line come out of the tip of your fly rod. I attach my premade nylon leader to my fly line then tie and additional section of 5 pound tippit to the leader. Me personally, I don't tie a fly o...

Innovation In the world of fishing there is always space for innovation. In the industry there are millions of anglers but very a small percent of people are doing the work to change the game.   In any situation, there are the leaders and the followers. Big time players in the industries are always coming out with new flies, new ideas, new fish, and new ways to catch them, that’s innovation. Lately it seems there is a growing number of followers ripping off ideas that the true OG’s crafted in their career as a fisherman. To be a leader in the fishing career, you got to be either an engineer, outside the box thinker, or straight up crazy. Bright ideas don’t come from dull minds. Playing it safe will hinder your ability to grow in the fishing industry. To innovate the sport of fishing, you must do stuff that no one has ever done. With doing stuff no one does, you do not have a predetermined outcome. Every day can be a mystery! You must accept failure as a place for growth. Yo...

It will be all worth it. Why would you spend that much time and money for a stupid fish? You don’t see any other kids driving around the state by themselves to fish every weekend, why don’t you just start being normal? Why does it matter? These questions have been asked and my answers have thousands of hours, thousands of days, blood sweat and tears all backed behind them. My answer is “I only get one life to do as much as I love in this short period of time”. It’s the truth. Many people find excuses for the truth but it is what it is. If I must face death one day, I’d rather have the most completed resume with things I love. We all die, that’s the truth, but its our job to pack as many good people, good times, and best of memories in it. I fish because that’s my life dream. I’m not in it for the fame but rather the ability to be remembered. I want to improve myself and innovate the sport and then one day pass my knowledge down. Fly fishing to me is happiness. I don’t ...

As most people know, with the recent rain and run off most rivers and streams are experiencing flood stage water levels. fisherman hope for coming rain and warm weather to induce the push of migratory steelhead. A little bit of rain and run off is a good thing but a lot of rain and runoff isn't. In the past week, rivers like the Manistee, Rifle river, Meskegon river, White river, Kalamazoo river,  and the Grand river all are experience extreme floods. With an inch-two of rain that fell over nearly the whole state, combined with the plentiful snow amounts and a frozen ground preventing filtration the odds of a flash flood were very high. Why are floods good? Floods and higher water conditions not only clear out reminding shelf ice in some rivers but the rising water levels and temperatures trigger a fish's response to swim up into a river in search of spawning grounds which they either spawn on or hold in the river to await optimum water temperatures for their spawning ritu...

Dues to the Fish I remember being 12 years old going into my local fly shop craving knowledge about fishing and how to be a better fisherman. I would ask the big questions, questions like “How do I catch more steelhead” or “How do I catch bigger brown trout” and could remember hearing honest answers referring to different flies and tactics but one reply I was a little too young to understand the power behind it, “If you want to catch more fish, go fishing more, you’ll learn the rest if you pay your dues”. Me being twelve years old I pushed that comment to the side and kept digging for more than people were willing to give. They put the hard work to obtain such knowledge and it only made sense to make me do the same.   Everyone can watch a video or hear a story as a source of knowledge but the first-person experience is unbeatable. In a video, you see what they do, what they use, and how they do it, but what It lacks is the whole experience. Sight, sound, touch, smell, an...

           Fishing is what gives my life meaning. Something about the ability to spend the rest of my life improving myself and expanding my horizons in many aspects of fishing nearly promises happiness for the rest of my life. The second someone believes they know it all is the second they proved to be foolish. Michigan alone has 10,000 lakes and 10,000 barriers for me to overcome. To learn every single one in Michigan would take many life times to achieve. A fisherman could spend their whole life learning one body of water and will never know everything there is to be known. The area for growth is endless.               My love for rivers has to do with the fact that if you stand in one spot for any given time, the water in front of you is continuously rejuvenated. With new water comes new change. Sediment is deposited, and sediment is carried away. The river is always chang...

                                                                 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...