Here is the story...
I posted a report last year on this site after a spectacular week of fishing. When I got home from that trip I put in my vacation time request for the same week this year. People at my office were perplexed as to why I would take a week off a year in advance to fish 3 hours from my house. My group of friends that were up last year have disbanded for the most part moving all over the country, some for opportunities to fish new water and others for work. My one remaining friend managed to get up there with me for a solid 4 day trip and I tacked on one additional day to meet up with Cameron. Being a member of a relatively new and growing family I don't get out like I did in the past. In fact my traditional Trout Opener Trip, Memorial Day Trip, etc. have all but dissolved due to obligations. That being said this trip was never in jeopardy and I happily let the other trips slip away while I dreamed about the June trip which if fondly referred to as "the week long". As the trip approached was trying to decide what rods to bring, whether the water temps would be right, would it rain too much... If you have ever tried to hit the hex hatch right in Michigan you know what I am talking about, in fact until my fairly recent successes I spent 8 seasons trying to hit the hatch. Never fully investing in a week long trip but always showing up a day late or a day early or experiencing a cold front, rainfall, or simply being on the wrong section of water on the wrong day. While, this year everything came together for the second year in a row. Not without a few hiccups though. I was hoping that a new rod would arrive in time for the trip, a 8'3" McFarland Juniata #7 and it showed up at my doorstep the day before I left (love the rod). I loaded up the car and double checked the necessities, rod (check), reel (check)... I hopped in the car and rolled to the nearest gas station to top it off before leaving, after filling up I jump back in and fire up the car, nothing... I turn the key again, click click click. I close my eyes and bow my head while turning the key... Nothing.
I end up getting a jump start and the car fires up, I let it run for a minute and turn it off. Try to turn it on again and nothing again. Now I am fully frustrated, I get a jump again and drivback home. I clean the battery terminals up which didn't appear corroded and fire it up with a jump start and that does it. I hit the road for my "week long" at last. I arrive at the camp ground 3 hours later just as my buddy arrives from the opposite side of the state.
We head over the the landing to put the drift boat we rented in and proceed to drift down the river. When we get about an hour in to the drift we start to see some birds and bats over the water, this is a good sign. Next a few hex fly by on their journey up river...
50 more fly by over head, 100 more, a pack of 500 and suddenly we cannot even see the sky, The sounds of their wings in the sky is so loud it sounds like I am under a high tension electric line but louder. I stop staring up as I start staring down to the water below and realize that I am not seeing much water. We are floating on a sea of hex, and I cannot even see or hear any fish rising. I was scooping handfuls upon handfuls of hex out of the boat. We are laughing floating down a river at about 11 PM, not casting, just enjoying every minute of it. We ended up fishing that night but didn't touch a single fish, my theory is the fish were pretty full (gross understatement). We attempted to pull the boat up the launch but realized quickly that the winch was shot. We got creative and got the boat loaded up but realized this was going to be problem. We went back to camp to sit around and have a few drinks.
The next day we went to town and replaced the winch, came back and hit the river. This night the fishing was spectacular (less bugs) and we landed 4 big browns over 20", 18",18", 20" in about 1 hours time without moving from one bend in the river. I wish I had picture of every fish but one jumped out of the net after measuring before a pic could be snapped.
The following day we put in for an extremely long float from 6PM-2AM and hit some pretty rough weather. With rain falling while throwing a big articulated streamer I landed a 15" brown followed by a 17" brown. About an hour later fish started rising as the rain stopped and I tied on a hex dun pattern and caught a real nice brown. The rains came back again and we continued down the river (3 hours left to go) to get back to the campground and get dried off and get some much needed rest.
I checked the weather report the next morning and a cold front was about to move down and bring several days of rain. Cameron was going to meet me on Monday and I realized that the hatch was going to be over that night. My buddy took off for home with the boat in tow behind him and I spent the day hanging out waiting for Cameron to show up. At about 6 PM Cameron's Element comes turning into the campground and we head out to a really nice stretch of water that I had success at the previous year. The air felt much cooler and I was beginning to have some doubts, this was definitely the last night of hatch for my trip. We sat around for hours chatting and patiently waiting for the bugs to come to the party. They showed up fashionable late as usual and the big browns came up to play. Cameron had first dibs and he hooked up with a few really nice fish. I will let him do a show and tell...
I heard one fish rising in a really tough area up against some serious structure, I couldn't resist this area all night and eventually hooked into a real nice brown that flexed the McFarland to the cork, it felt like it might be the biggest fish of the trip but he showed me why he got so big when he boiled to the surface 10 feet from me and threw the hook.
Headed home as the rain fell and arrived to a nice warm shower at 3:45 AM after days of really amazing trout fishing with some really great guys.
Look forward to next year already, I think I will put in my vacation request tomorrow.
PS - The Juniata McFarland is absolutely perfect for big streamers, big dries, and big trout in every regard.
I posted a report last year on this site after a spectacular week of fishing. When I got home from that trip I put in my vacation time request for the same week this year. People at my office were perplexed as to why I would take a week off a year in advance to fish 3 hours from my house. My group of friends that were up last year have disbanded for the most part moving all over the country, some for opportunities to fish new water and others for work. My one remaining friend managed to get up there with me for a solid 4 day trip and I tacked on one additional day to meet up with Cameron. Being a member of a relatively new and growing family I don't get out like I did in the past. In fact my traditional Trout Opener Trip, Memorial Day Trip, etc. have all but dissolved due to obligations. That being said this trip was never in jeopardy and I happily let the other trips slip away while I dreamed about the June trip which if fondly referred to as "the week long". As the trip approached was trying to decide what rods to bring, whether the water temps would be right, would it rain too much... If you have ever tried to hit the hex hatch right in Michigan you know what I am talking about, in fact until my fairly recent successes I spent 8 seasons trying to hit the hatch. Never fully investing in a week long trip but always showing up a day late or a day early or experiencing a cold front, rainfall, or simply being on the wrong section of water on the wrong day. While, this year everything came together for the second year in a row. Not without a few hiccups though. I was hoping that a new rod would arrive in time for the trip, a 8'3" McFarland Juniata #7 and it showed up at my doorstep the day before I left (love the rod). I loaded up the car and double checked the necessities, rod (check), reel (check)... I hopped in the car and rolled to the nearest gas station to top it off before leaving, after filling up I jump back in and fire up the car, nothing... I turn the key again, click click click. I close my eyes and bow my head while turning the key... Nothing.
I end up getting a jump start and the car fires up, I let it run for a minute and turn it off. Try to turn it on again and nothing again. Now I am fully frustrated, I get a jump again and drivback home. I clean the battery terminals up which didn't appear corroded and fire it up with a jump start and that does it. I hit the road for my "week long" at last. I arrive at the camp ground 3 hours later just as my buddy arrives from the opposite side of the state.
We head over the the landing to put the drift boat we rented in and proceed to drift down the river. When we get about an hour in to the drift we start to see some birds and bats over the water, this is a good sign. Next a few hex fly by on their journey up river...
50 more fly by over head, 100 more, a pack of 500 and suddenly we cannot even see the sky, The sounds of their wings in the sky is so loud it sounds like I am under a high tension electric line but louder. I stop staring up as I start staring down to the water below and realize that I am not seeing much water. We are floating on a sea of hex, and I cannot even see or hear any fish rising. I was scooping handfuls upon handfuls of hex out of the boat. We are laughing floating down a river at about 11 PM, not casting, just enjoying every minute of it. We ended up fishing that night but didn't touch a single fish, my theory is the fish were pretty full (gross understatement). We attempted to pull the boat up the launch but realized quickly that the winch was shot. We got creative and got the boat loaded up but realized this was going to be problem. We went back to camp to sit around and have a few drinks.
The next day we went to town and replaced the winch, came back and hit the river. This night the fishing was spectacular (less bugs) and we landed 4 big browns over 20", 18",18", 20" in about 1 hours time without moving from one bend in the river. I wish I had picture of every fish but one jumped out of the net after measuring before a pic could be snapped.
The following day we put in for an extremely long float from 6PM-2AM and hit some pretty rough weather. With rain falling while throwing a big articulated streamer I landed a 15" brown followed by a 17" brown. About an hour later fish started rising as the rain stopped and I tied on a hex dun pattern and caught a real nice brown. The rains came back again and we continued down the river (3 hours left to go) to get back to the campground and get dried off and get some much needed rest.
I checked the weather report the next morning and a cold front was about to move down and bring several days of rain. Cameron was going to meet me on Monday and I realized that the hatch was going to be over that night. My buddy took off for home with the boat in tow behind him and I spent the day hanging out waiting for Cameron to show up. At about 6 PM Cameron's Element comes turning into the campground and we head out to a really nice stretch of water that I had success at the previous year. The air felt much cooler and I was beginning to have some doubts, this was definitely the last night of hatch for my trip. We sat around for hours chatting and patiently waiting for the bugs to come to the party. They showed up fashionable late as usual and the big browns came up to play. Cameron had first dibs and he hooked up with a few really nice fish. I will let him do a show and tell...
I heard one fish rising in a really tough area up against some serious structure, I couldn't resist this area all night and eventually hooked into a real nice brown that flexed the McFarland to the cork, it felt like it might be the biggest fish of the trip but he showed me why he got so big when he boiled to the surface 10 feet from me and threw the hook.
Headed home as the rain fell and arrived to a nice warm shower at 3:45 AM after days of really amazing trout fishing with some really great guys.
Look forward to next year already, I think I will put in my vacation request tomorrow.
PS - The Juniata McFarland is absolutely perfect for big streamers, big dries, and big trout in every regard.
