Fireside lodge on Little Vermillion Lake

Four of us, Steve, Rick, Gary and myself left for Ontario, Canada on July 5.  We arrived at Fireside Lodge mid afternoon on the 6th. We settled into our cabins, had an orientation on the lake system, was given a warning about the motor eating big rocks just below the water surface and enjoyed a very good evening meal. I'll say now that all of the evening meals and breakfasts were wonderful with all we could possibly want to eat.  The lunches were sandwiches, chips, fruit, and cookies, very satisfying.  If you go hungry here, you're too picky.  That's all I'll say about the food. We then got into our two boats and headed for Chicago Bay on the lower west side of Little Vermilion. Rick and Steve were in one boat, Gary and I in the other.  Rick and Gary use conventional equipment, Steve and I are fly fishermen. Gary caught a small pike, I had lots of casting practice and I'm sure Rick and Steve caught fish. I drove the boat back that evening to be sure I could handle it in an emergency, I thought my arm was going to drop off. Thank goodness Gary was the captain the rest of the trip.



Sunset from our back deck



We had long days, sunrise was about 5:15 and sunset was about 9:15.  Seemed like it was light for about an hour before and after those times.

Monday we boated to Muskinonge Lake, better know as Musky Lake. We had to boat to the west end of the upper lake and then motor up a very windy, over 50 bends, creek. The trip up the creek took up to 45 minutes, depending if you made it over the beaver dam or not.  Rick and Steve got stuck each time up, but not back down when the current was helping. Gary and I made it each time.  After the fishermen knocked part of it down, the beavers built it back up at night. That morning I caught my first pike.

And then later that morning I got a little nicer one.

These were two of the smaller ones I ended up catching, but it was so much fun and tiring that I didn't take anymore pike pictures. I took very few pictures at all once the fishing got hot. As the afternoon worn on, it looked like a storm coming so we left for the lodge about 4 pm.

We beat the rain.  Most of the week, we had nasty looking skies, but except for a few drops near the end of the week, all of the rain came after we got to the lodge and mostly at night.

Tuesday we went to the upper arm of the lake, Gary and I fished Boot Bay and Chairman Bay.  Most of  this will be about Gary and I because we were fishing together.  Steve and Rick, especially Steve, always caught more than we did.  This was Steve's 10th or 11th trip, so he had a slight advantage. Gary and I had a slow day and it turned very cold on the way in.  We each caught nice smallmouth, he caught twice as many as I did.  I don't recall if I caught 1 or 2.  Hey, at least we were fishing and having fun.

Wednesday we went back to Musky Lake.  This time when Steve and Rick got stuck on the beaver dam, we had to pull them off.  Both Gary and I caught several nice pike.  Rick and Steve also got into some real nice smallmouth.  On the way up the creek, we saw 2 beaver and there were a couple of eagles.  We also saw loons and gull every day. The loons calls were just like On Golden Pond.

Thursday we started at Cedarbough Lake.  We had to motor up a very small creek to get there.  Not nearly as long as the one to Musky Lake, but very twisty and narrow.  Gary only put me in the trees once, so that wasn't too bad. No way I was going to complain as long as he was driving. We also went back to the upper arm and fished Ament Bay and then fished Chicago Bay again. It was a slow day and Gary and I quit about 3. This was Steve's best day of the trip: one of the items on his "bucket list" was to catch a Musky on a fly.  Thursday he was successful.  When he sends me a copy of the picture, I'll add it here.

Friday we went back to Musky Lake.  In spite of the long ride, it was my favorite place to fish.  Gary and I led the way followed by several other boats.  We cleared the dam, then had to pull Rick and Steve off the dam.  Then we pulled a couple off the dam.  The next boat tried the other side, got no "running start" and hung up.  Since there was other help there and the small holding area above the dam was getting crowded, Gary and I went on. Here are some pictures of the dam.

Stuck again!!!

This was my best day as I caught 20+ pike, most of them between 30 and 36 inches long.  They were all caught on a single fly, a Murdich Minnow.  Gary did even better than I did. Besides all of the fish, we saw an eagle sweep down and take a pike off the water and then to the trees to have a meal.

I caught a fish on each of these flies, plus another one that I lost due to operator error.  The pike I caught on it managed to undo the snap and I did not notice until the fly went flying off the line. I caught the smallmouth on the fly on the upper right.  I don't know it's name, but Terry Tanner tied one like it at a SMFF meeting and I liked the pattern. The fly at the lower right is the minnow that I used all day on Friday.  This one was tied directly to the wire leader and you can still see the pary I cut off at the end of the day.

It was a very good trip.  Alan and Audrey, our hosts at Fireside are very friendly people and went out of their way to greet us each day.  I enjoyed the company of Gary, Rick and Steve.  maybe all 4 of us can fish together again someday.  I highly recommend Fireside Lodge. The pike had my 8 wt rod bent double a few times, but I still prefer Ozark Trout fishing.

Fishing the Wisconsin River with Steve and the Jacquish Hollow Angler

Elephant Trunk Rock, this marks the turn to the B & B
 

Got an invitation from my friend Steve to go to the Driftless area of Wisconsin to fish with him.  No way could I pass up an invite like that! We left early Monday morning and arrived that evening.  Steve introduced me to his friend David Barron and Dave's wife Nancy. They operate the Jacquish Hollow Angler, a Bed and Breakfast and guide service near Richland Center.

The next morning, after a night of rain and a breakfast of blueberry pancakes, sausage and fruit, we headed for the river.  In route we passed deer, several sandhill cranes, and upon arriving at the put in, an eagle. The heavy rain the night before caused the river to be dingy and rising, but if you could put the fly within an inch of the bank, the smallmouth were eager to strike.

After a long morning, we had a nice shore lunch on a sand bar. The morning was made long by both good fishing and several trips to the shore to retrieve flies that ended up too close to the shore.

Along with the fishing, I enjoyed the listening to, and sometimes joining in with, the back and forth teasing  between Steve and David. I was laughing most of the day. Later that evening David gave me some much appreciated advice on my casting.  Whenever I remembered the next day, they helped.  I just need to remember...more forearm, less wrist until the final flick at the end.

Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning we got very heavy rain and lots of wind. At breakfast: quiche, homemade English muffins, and fresh fruit, we decided to wait until lunch time to start our float.  When we did go, the river had risen quite a lot and was moving fast.  The fishing wasn't as good as the previous day, but still lots of fun.  I managed a small smallmouth. We again had lots of trips to the shoreline to retrieve our flies.

 

 

We saw some different dragonflies. This one on my pants.

And a snake, a diamondback watersnake? that was trying to swallow a fish. I believe the fish was a grinnel. Unfortunately when the snake saw us he stuck his head and the fish behind the rocks.

Wednesday evening, we all went out for supper. The walleye was delicious. This was a very good trip, thank you Steve for the experience. In just two weeks...Canada!

Taneycomo in May

Its been too long since I went down to Taney, so when I saw the water was scheduled to be off Monday, I was up at the crack of dawn and headed down the road. In reality it was a little before dawn and I should have taken the time to check on the water release. No, probably best that I did not or I would have stayed home.

Arrived at the access, took the customary visit to the restroom before donning my waders. On my way back to the truck, I noticed the water was moving rather quickly.  Yes, they were running water. That was not scheduled until 2.  Instead of putting on my waders, I walked down to outlet #3 and watched the water. It was slowly receding.  They either shut it down or reduced the flow. So it was back to the truck and get ready for some fishing.

When I reached the water, the gravel bar I like to fish off of was still submerged; I entered the water and slowly fished my way toward where it should have been. Timing was either good or lucky because I reached where I liked to fish just about the time the gravel bar appeared. It was cloudy so I started fishing my favorite spot with a purple and starling soft hackle and a tan g-bug tied on as a point fly. The fish liked this combination.  When the sun poked through and the skies cleared, I replaced the purple and starling with a caddis green soft hackle.  The fish liked this combo even better.

I fished about two and a half to three hours, that's about how much I can take at a time. Caught and released a few more than a dozen fish.  Most were very brightly colored, only one or two of the "silver" bows.  The fish were healthy and had several that wanted to jump.  Lots of fun! All but one of the fish were in the slot limit and had to be released. I had one time when I made three casts and released three fish. The only "keeper" and I released him too, was a beautiful rainbow and was about 21 or 22 inches. I got him on the reel and had a great time before bringing him to hand.

Great day at Taney topped off with lunch at Danna's.

Spring 2014 MSU Class

Most of us have heard the expression "that's why they call this fishing and not catching." When I asked one of our experienced fishing students how he liked the fishing at our Thursday evening outing at Mountain Springs Trout Park, he replied: "this isn't fishing, its catching." Last Thursday was one of the most productive nights I've ever seen anywhere. We had 24 people fishing, 18 students and 6 members.  Everyone caught fish, big fish and lots of them.  Larry estimated about 700 pounds of fish.  He might have been a little high, but not much!

Today we went to Roaring River State Park.  The fishing was slow, but I believe everyone caught fish. One student decided she wanted to take her fish home, so Joe took her to the cleaning station and showed her how to fillet her trout.  Later, she told me how much she loved eating fish and proudly showed me the fillet.  Then took about 15 minutes to tell me how much she enjoyed the class. Most of the students expressed their desire to follow up on their fly fishing, so the class was truly a success.

My thanks to all of the members of MTFA that helped with the classes, or the two fishing trips or all of the above.

Adventures in Port Aransas

Let me begin with a summary of the fishing: the fish were not hitting anything. I landed everything that hit one of my flies. Unfortunately, that was a single flounder. We had as many as 7 fishing, some for 5 days, and I believe we landed about a dozen fish between us.  Two were flounders and I believe the rest were sea trout.  The main thing though, we all had lots of fun. Now for some of the details of the trip.

Paul and I decided to take two days driving down, so not so early Friday morning I loaded the car and attempted to pick him up and head south. Car would not start, tried again and again with similar results.  Battery was good, engine was turning over, but would not catch. I called and told Paul I was having problems and may have to take the truck which would not have been as fuel efficient as the car.  I went outside to reload the truck, then decided to try the car once more.  This time it started and off I went. No more car problems, for me, the rest of the week. The rest of our trip down was uneventful and we saw a crested caracara, a bird I've never seen before.  We saw another on the return trip. We made it to Temple, TX the first night and had an east drive on Saturday.

Paul and I arrived too early to check in, they charge $50 per hour for early check-in and late departure, but we drove by to find it.  We then found a nice little coffee house that was also an internet café. Tom, who had been in Corpus Christi for a few days, met us at the coffee house and we did a short tour of the immediate area. We drove by the pier and went to the University of Texas Marine Science Institute.  They have a nice little museum and this very nice bronze tarpon outside.

 

 

 

As we were fishing up, Lou called and said she was in the condo, so we went there to unload our gear and settle in. After deciding were we three four were going to sleep we went to a nice sea food/pasta place for supper. we were still eating when Lee called and he met us on the parking lot when we were finished with supper.  Back to the condo where we waited for the remainder of the group to arrive. After a few hours, the remaining members of our group, Joe, Sharon and Isabel, arrived and we all gave Sharon a hard time for the late arrival.

 

Sunday morning, the three ladies went shopping, Tom and Lee were enjoying the view from the deck, and Paul and Joe napped until the shopping was done.



 

 

After the shopping was done and things put away we headed to Rockport, Texas and the Swan Point Landing Fly Shop. We were greeted by Peggy who was going to spend one night and fish with Sharon and Lou.  As we entered the shop we were met by the owner with a "there's cold drinks in the cooler, help yourselves". He then spent several minutes giving us the rundown on how-to, where-to and when-to. Most of us purchased a fly or two, and anything else we left at home or couldn't get there and headed out to fish. Sharon, Lou and Peggy headed out together and Lee, Tom, Paul and I went out.  We fished for a couple of hours and, as I said in the opening, the fish didn't bite. We met back at the condo where Sharon, our chef, made one of her very tasty suppers. After dishes were done, the ladies played Farkle and the rest of us relaxed and laughed at what we were hearing of the game.

 

Monday, Sharon, Lou and Peggy went out in their kayaks; Lee, Tom, Paul and I went fishing and tried a couple of places.  The last place we fished was the surf and I decided to walk the beach instead. Tom joined me on the hike.  We picked up a few shells and small pieces of driftwood.  Passed by something that was at one time alive (picture will follow), and on the return saw two on horseback riding on the beach.

 

 

 After we passed by the riders we found Paul at the item I mentioned before.  He was attacking it with pliers, removing the items that were entangled. The major find was a Go-Pro camera.  I don't know if it will work when he replaces the batteries, but the card inside was good and we all watched the video the young man had taken. Here are pictures of Paul and his fine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We returned to find that no one had caught anything.  Joe and Isabel had gone to Corpus to tour the USS Lexington.  That night we just relaxed and talked about our day. Forgot to mention that we saw

a young man who was trying to dig out the car his sister got stuck on the beach the night before. After Lee helped clear some sand from the chassis, we all pushed and got him on his way.

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday Lou and Sharon were supposed to go out with a guide, but the weather was so bad, he asked to put the trip off.  Their new plans were to ride along with him Thursday afternoon to scout and fish a little, and then go out for a longer trip on Friday. Because of the cancellation, they joined the men on shore fishing.  Joe stayed at the condo and Isabel took my car to explore the island.  We loaded into Lee's car and his battery was dead.  Lou helped Lee jump start his car and we went fishing.  Tom and Lee dropped the rest of us off and then went to replace the battery. Everyone except Paul and I caught fish that day. Back at the condo, we all played "Catch Phrase".  Had lots of fun and laughs.

 

Wednesday was a non-fishing day. Joe, Tom, Isabel and I went to the King Ranch Museum.  Learned a lot about the family and, from photos by Toni Frissell, about the cattle drives and history of the family. Paul and Lee went to the Lexington. Lou and Sharon went to the aquarium in Corpus..

 

Thursday, all of the people who had been fishing, except me tried again. The ladies with their guide, the guys were shore fishing...no fish were caught. The ladies reported seeing redfish, but the fish had tight lips. Isabel and I drove to Corpus where we toured the Art Museum of Southern Texas, the Texas State Aquarium and Heritage Village.  The art museum has a wonderful display of Ansel Adams photography, which in itself made the day very good.  Heritage village is a group oh homes from the late 1890's to early 1900's that had been moved to one location.  The aquarium was small, but well arranged.  Isabel held a sea urchin and touched a small shark and ray.  I had a laugh when the ray, that was relaxing moved at her touch and she jumped. I had a great day.

 

 

 

 

 

Lee left very early Friday morning to head back to the Springfield area. Lou and Sharon went with their guide.  Once again they saw redfish, but couldn't get them to take anything. Among the wildlife they saw were five whooping cranes.  They said they would be glad to use their guide again. Tom, Paul and I tried one last time and I finally caught a fish.  The only fish caught that day.  That night we ate out and went home early to pack. Lou and Tom were extending their stay in Texas by visiting friends, Sharon, Joe and Isabel left to once again drive all the way home and Paul and I decided to take two days again. Paul and I also decided that before we left Texas, we needed to stop by Whataburgers.  It was good, but too much meat. Saturday was not a bad drive at all. Sunday there was ice and snow along the way.  We saw a couple of cars that had gone off the road.  Once we got to the turnpike, it was easy going.  The only really bad spot I hit was in Ozark, but we all got to our destinations okay. This was a great group to spend time with. Below are the only two fish pictures I have.  Tom and his sea trout and my flounder.

January Fishing, etc.

January turned out to be a busy month. On the first, I broke from my usual fishing to swimming with the fish at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa. My sister, nephew who works at the aquarium and my grandson joined me in this experience.  They all seemed to do better than I did. I had a difficult time getting used to the mouthpiece and breathing through my mouth.  After just a few minutes, I swam back to the platform to adjust this and noticed the very large shark swimming toward the same area...yes their was a barricade between us, but I still took notice. The rays kept swimming toward us and I kept trying to avoid them.  The fish were beautiful, especially the flying gurnard. We followed this up with a visit to Universal Studio and Hogwarts. Harry Potter and Dr. Seuss were great. Unfortunately we got caught in the near blizzard on the way home and had to spend an extra night on the road.

The weekend after I got home Tri-Lakes Fly Fishers had a program with John Berry scheduled. Wayne drove down for the program and we both enjoyed the Saturday with John.  On Sunday Wayne and I fished Bennett Spring and on Monday we fished Roaring River before attending the Tri-Lakes meeting Monday night.  Both days fishing were slow, the water a little high and dingy.  Wayne outfished me both days, but we had a good time.  We saw two eagles on the Roaring River trip and a king fisher at Bennett.

This last Saturday, MTFA had a flying event at the Nature Center.  We had about a dozen tiers and lots of visitors stopped by to talk. Some of these visitors tied their first flies and, hopefully, we've shown others some of the joys of our sport. Sunday several members of SMFF met at Roaring River for lunch.  Most of fished either before or after lunch or both.  I had a much better day than the last visit.  Most of my fishing buddies know I love soft hackles, but this time I only caught one fish on a soft hackle. I was fishing a tandem...a caddis green soft hackle followed by a tab G-bug. A good new-bad news item, I ended with the same two flies I started with.  The goods news is my knots were properly tied and I lost no flies to bad knots; the bad news is I didn't catch enough fish to ruin any flies. Had one small fish of about 10 inches, a few in the 12-13 inch range and 2 about 16-18 inches. One of the larger fish was beautifully colored.

It looks like February will also have lots of fishing related events. What I'm really looking forward to is the end February trip to Port Aransas, Texas with about 6 fishing buddies to try the salt water of the Texas coast.

A Fall Day in the Ozarks

Beautiful earth tones, bronze, orange, yellow, rust, the evergreens, as their name implies, adding green and the occasional splash of a bright red; that was the view on an early morning drive to Lake Taneycomo. A perfect start to a day on the water with friends from home. Meeting up with Marty and Jim by what use to be called the Rocking Chair Hole. Of course with the storms of the last few years, the only hole(s) seem to be the ones in front of and behind the large rocks that where put in the water to trip unsuspecting waders.  So far I've avoided that, but I have a feeling my day will come.

I'd love to report that the fishing was great. Although we all caught fish, in general it was slow.  I did have a few times when I had takes on two or three consecutive casts.  The fish were a decent size, probably only one keeper and he was in the under 12 inch class. Some of the fish had good color, too bad I'd left my camera at home and my phone in the truck. I know that I don't have to say this for my friends...soft hackles with a g-bug dropper.  Most of the first fish were on the dropper and then later, most on the soft hackle, so go figure.

As Jim said, it was a beautiful day to be on the water and then we caught fish to make it even better. To top it off we went to Dana's and were met by Cheri and Jan for a nice lunch.  Good to see friends from home and get to fish with them.