Farewell to a Season

It's mid-April as I write this.  A robin is singing loudly in the pre-dawn gloaming and the grass is greening a little more every day. I should be happy, but I have this faint twinge, a wistfulness. I have had the best steelhead season of my life and it is drawing to a close.  I will share my tale in words and pictures, a homage to a great winter spent chasing the silver ghost.  Some of the photos you've seen before, some you haven't, but I wanted to gather them in one place.  Here goes.

It began quietly mid-November, the carcasses of salmon a reminder of the feverish run pursued by feverish anglers, mostly gone now.

After a couple of fruitless outings, success.

For the rest of the winter I caught at least one of these cookie-cutter fish on almost every outing, all in that 18-22 inch range, all feisty, dime bright, all of them made my day.  Not the big fish I'm after, just fun, and a sign of life and hope in the darkest of months.  I have dozens of pictures of these fish.  They all look the same.

I also caught this small coaster brook trout, 16 inches, spawned out, too silvery to be a river fish.  Beautiful.

Another cookie-cutter fish.

sunset in the Straits of Mackinac

Winter is the dark season, a time for dark contemplation when you examine the shards of your life, the cold air and colder water making you ask those questions you don't want to visit.  "What am I doing out here?"  Fish-less days, or worse, days that I can't stay hooked up, make me question my skills and sanity.  Mid-winter forces a type of mental hibernation, my senses dulled by the muted monotones of winter, pushing my thoughts into shades of gray.  Or black.  Only the bright colors of the fish speak of vitality.  Perhaps this is why I seek them out.

winter scene on the Ocqueoc River

I caught dozens of these little trout until mid-January, at which point they disappeared.  I haven't caught one since.

Mid-February, when the days began to lengthen and the sun began to feel warm again and instill a measure of hope, I ran into this guy.  He claimed to be a guide, but his tales were so fantastic that I wrote him off as a consummate BS-er.  He invited me to fish with him on a private stretch of river he had access to.  I accepted just to put him to the test.  On his second drift a large head lifted off the bottom and followed his spawn bag.  He hooked up a few minutes later.



An hour later I caught this guy- 35 inches long and about ten pounds.  What a great fish.

This was my next decent fish, in mid-March.  I actually hooked up on eight fish before landing this one.  Talk about rusty.

In late March came the big storm of the season.  Alex Cerveniak and I braved treacherous roads and near white-out conditions to hit the Pere Marquette river.  We didn't catch any fish, only some great images.

When April rolled around, the rivers filled with 5 pound bucks, all trying to stake a claim near gravel.  They were aggressive and fought hard.  I caught a lot of these fish.  These are just a few.

This hen I nick-named "the beauty queen".  She was bright chrome and very strong, my most beautiful fish of the season.

another six pound buck

I fished several times with my friend Morgan.  She is a fantastic fly fisherman and a lot of fun to spend time with on the water.  I tried my best to get her into fish and failed.  It was nice to have someone to work the camera for a change though.  She tells me steelhead are her sworn enemies now.  Morgan happens to be dating Matt Dunn, a Pere Marquette river guide, former Third Coast Fly blogger, and current blogger at Fishbeer.com. He's a good writer and good guy.  I'm hoping they'll both come stalk the flats with me this summer.

Alex Cerveniak joined me again not long ago, and we got into the fish.  I landed 5 fish out of 8 hook-ups.  It was a great day, and we captured some great photographs.

Alex Cerveniak photo

Yet another chrome hen.  The spring run has been fantastic for me, and I've landed at least 17 fish in the last two weeks alone.  I'm still pinching myself.

I love the colors on this fish, especially the orange belly, unusual on steelhead.





My season started in November, and unlike some years when the icy grip of winter clamps a fist on your fishing, this year it was gentle and kind.  Too gentle.  The first snows didn't come until late December, and we had 50 degree weather in January, unheard of here.  I worry about the condition our trout streams will be in come midsummer.  We seem to have shifted back into a normal weather pattern and if anything April has been cooler than normal.  Recent rains have blown out the rivers again, giving me hope.

Fait accompli.  It's done.    I can die happy now.  I caught steelhead every month from November until now, and it was wonderful.  I fished nearly every week, and went home empty only a couple of times.  Actually, I never went home empty.  I went home happy and satisfied with days on the water, days spent alone swaddled in wool-poly blend and fleece, while the currents scrubbed away the stress and the silent cedars mutely bore witness to a lone man purging his soul.  I caught fish.  I caught fish in some of the most beautiful water in the world.  I did it alone mostly, and in peace.

I am looking forward to summer, to its long days, the boreal nights echoing to the sound of distant fireworks and the cries of loons, the bug hatches, fishing dry flies again, retreating from the summer crowds into the back country to catch brook trout, hunting big browns at night, and stalking carp and bass on expansive flats under cerulean skies to the cry of wheeling gulls and plunging terns. Nothing ends without something else beginning, there are no voids in nature, only the shifting current of life borne on the seasons.  There is no fighting it.  "Go with the flow" they say, not so much words of wisdom as a statement of inevitability, and so I must, but I know that its current will bring me back to the time when rose-cheeked silver fish, fresh and sassy from a summer of feasting, will enter the streams again and keep me company through the lonely season. I know that I should cherish summer, but I can't wait for it to end.

Good Takes- Shane Gray of Graywolf Products

So there I was on the eve of the Midwest Fly Fishing Expo, seated at a table between two strangers, trying to make conversation while not spilling food on myself.  I hate those situations.  On the other side of the table sat Cameron Mortenson talking to two other people I likewise did not know.  At a certain point, my name was said, and the guy  on the left extended a meaty paw and shook my hand.  "I'm Shane Gray, nice to meet you." was all he said.


We talked from there.  One of my missions this year at the expo was to cast some rods, and when I mentioned this to Shane his eyes lit up, as much as Shane's eyes are wont to do.


"Hey, I want you to cast all of my rods" he told me.

In case you don't know, Shane builds custom fiberglass rods for his company, Graywolf Products.  I first became aware of Shane and his work through Cameron's posts on The Fiberglass Manifesto.  I'm not a die-hard glass geek, but I drool every time I see the pictures of Shane's rods.  They are works of art, often featuring agate stripping guides and rare wood reel seats.  There is a waiting list for his rods, and at times Shane has to refuse to take orders until he is caught up with his back-log.


I did indeed cast his rods the next day.  They were a dream to cast, unlike the cheap and clunky glass rods my grandfather had.  I never knew glass could be so light, or cast so delicately.  One of the benefits of glass is being able to feel the rod load, and this made double-hauling a breeze.


Shane and I stepped away from the hubbub of the Expo for a few minutes and I asked him some questions.  Shane is a big man of few words and quiet manner, but when he speaks it counts.  Here's what he had to say.

FR:  What do you do?

SG:  Make fly rods.

FR:  What kind of rods?

SG:  Fiberglass mainly.

FR:  How in the heck did you get into building Fiberglass rods?

SG:  Cameron Mortenson.

FR:  Really? How did he get you into fiberglass?

SG:   He contacted me about a year ago and thought it was something I should try.

FR:  How did you know Cameron?

SG:  Never met him, never seen him before.  Never heard of him.

FR:  Were you into fiberglass rods on a forum or something?

SG:  No, mainly bamboo for a number of years.

FR:  Oh, so you were a builder already.

SG:  Yeah.

Shane sets up a rod for me to cast

FR:  Is it ‘builder’ or ‘maker’?  Someone else corrected me on that.

SG:  It’s either or.

FR:  Okay.  You don’t care?

SG:  Not really.

FR:  You build some really beautiful rods- what’s your formula?

SG:  Simple.  Just try make them simple.

FR:   I cast your Signature rod- it was a sweet casting rod.  How do you make such a beautiful, light casting rod?

SG:  I think it’s mainly in the layup of the fiberglass that we use.

FR:  Are you rolling blanks?

SG:  No, I would like to.  I haven’t been able to release the person that is making the fiberglass blanks yet, because of an exclusive deal we’ve got set up.  I was hoping to do that a month ago, but still, I can’t name the blank maker.

FR:  It’s nice having your own proprietary source huh?

SG:  It is.

FR: It keeps your stuff unique.   How many rods are you building a year now?

SG:  I just added it up before the show; around 100 rods a year.

FR:  How long does it take to do one front to back?

SG:  About a week or so to build and about a week to finish.

FR:  I take it you do multiple rods at a time then?

SG:  I try to.   I try to do things in stages, such as turning the grips, or mounting seats, finishing them.  I try to finish three rods at a time, that way I can move them right up to the drying rack.

FR:  Do you have rods on the shelves, or do you have a waiting list?

SG:  Well, right now I’ve got a few rods that I built just this month right before the show, but I’ve got about 28 rods on the list to build yet.  I’m not taking any orders right now.  I definitely want to get the back-log done. (Editors note- As of today, Shane has no finished rods in stock and 23 rods on the back log list and he is taking deposits for new rods.)

FR:  So if someone were to order a rod from you right now, how long would it take to get one?

SG:  Well, you’re looking at probably August.  Maybe September.

FR:  Do you ever get out to fish yourself or are you too busy building rods?

SG:  I’ve been fishing three days this year.

FR:  That’s pathetic.  Are you going to take some vacation and use one of your rods?

SG:  I think so.  June I’ll try to go out. And definitely September and October for salmon.

FR:  Thanks Shane, I appreciate it- I love your rods.

Casting Shane's rods at the Expo made a believer out of me, and I'm trying to figure out a way to finagle one.  He says he's coming up to salmon fish with me this fall.  Maybe I can make him a deal.  If you're curious or interested in Shane's rods, check out his website.  They are definitely worth a look.

http://www.graywolfrods.com/

or contact Shane at graywolf-products@netzero.net

You'll be glad you did

the Graywolf at work

Monday Morning Coffee- April 16

Auuuugggghhhhh!!!  Yawn, stretch, scratch, repeat.  Roll on out of bed, shuffle to the kitchen.  It's time to make some coffee.

Coffee is made, so let's have a cup.

This last week felt a little disjointed.  My car blew a brake line when I was fishing with Steve Martinez the previous weekend, so I had it in the shop on Tuesday.  Not wanting to work on Saturday I worked long hours the rest of the week to make up for it.

one fish from Tuesday

I did get to fish Tuesday evening with my friend Morgan.  She's a local reporter and a good angler and it was nice to have her along, especially since she was driving.  We fished one of my favorite rivers, and I did my best to get her into fish.  As I said, Morgan is a really good angler who grew up fly fishing, so she didn't need any coaching from me, and I just put her on the best spots I knew of and fished the marginal water around her.  I mention this because I did manage to catch a couple of fish.  She didn't.  I've been accused by others (you know who you are Mortenson) of cherry picking the water.  I must defend my honor.

Morgan mends her line

She did manage to hook up on a really hot double-digit fish that took off on a scorching run downstream.  It was the last hole, right at dusk.  Morgan only had her indicator rod with her, and I had made her use my chucking rod because I know where the fish lie in this run.  My crappy running line got wrapped around her arm as the fish made it's way downstream and that was end of story.  It was nice to have someone run the camera for my fish but I was really hoping to get some good shots of her with one.  Next time Mo'.

big mean buck from Sunday

Alex Cerveniak with one of the day's fish

I didn't fish again until Sunday with Alex Cerveniak.  We headed out at 6:30 and got started early and fished all day.  I landed 5 steelhead out of 8 hook ups, better than my average catch ratio.  I peeled 3 bucks and a hen off of the back edge of some gravel.  They all kept running down to the hole Alex was fishing and you would think he would get tired of having to stop fishing and wait for me to land my fish, but honestly we both enjoyed photographing these fish and got some great shots, and it's not my fault he also insisted on indie fishing.  On our way back out I spotted a small pod of fish and got another five pound buck there.  Then I worked a pocket in some fast water that always holds fish.  Sure enough, my line came tight and the water erupted but just as things were getting frantic my line came flying back to me.  When I checked my tippet it was badly frayed, probably from the last fish running me through the rocks.  Oh well, it was some fantastic fishing.  With all of the local runs winding down rapidly I have a feeling this is the end of my steelhead fishing until November.

  Well I was negligent, or overworked, you choose, and didn't get the next interview done last week.  I'll do my best to get my interview of fiberglass rod builder Shane Gray done this week.  I have two others besides- bamboo rod builder Lou Burhart, and Au Sable river guide Kelly Neuman.  Kelly has put up a half dozen streamers and a really nice fly box to give away, so be sure and look for that one.

Monday Morning Coffee Reader Loyalty Giveaway.
Speaking of giveaways,  it is time for me to reward my loyal Monday Morning Coffee readers.  The trout opener is coming up in two weeks here in Michigan and I want to help you get ready. The good folks at Rio have sent me 4 Power Flex tapered leaders in 5X and 6X and some hats and visors from Fishpond.  Enter your name and email address in the form below and I'll draw four winners tomorrow after 5 PM.  The short entry window is to reward my loyal MMC readers. I know you're out there.  If your name is Sanders and you never read this before Friday- sorry dude, I'll send you an FR sticker as soon as I get around to making them.





Okay, it's time to go to work- let's get after it.

Monday Morning Coffee- April 9

Yaw-aww-awwn!!! Errrggggppphhhh.  Yawn stretch scratch repeat.  It's Monday again.  Let's have some coffee. Here, let me pour- is that good? Great.

Well, I saved all my fishing for the weekend.  I worked all week at getting the April Vokey interview finished and then it took two nights for me to get my gear together for the weekend.  I had a trip lined up for Saturday with Pere Marquette River guide Steve Martinez of Indigo Guide Service.  I drove down to Baldwin Friday night, and we floated all day Saturday, from 8 AM t 8 PM.

Steve Martinez

If I ever wanted to know what the limits of my fishing skills are I found out Saturday.  I blew so many chances at fish that I felt sorry for Steve.  Mind you I got cheap-shotted by a bunch of fish.  For instance, I hooked up on a very large fish while indie fishing which subsequently swam straight at the boat leaving me with my rod high in the air and my line stretched all over the place.  A little slack and presto he was gone.  Then there were the two big browns that hit my streamer as I began to roll-cast.  With all my line arcing through the air there was no way to set the hook.  A whole bunch of fish hit when I had my streamer stripped back in and had paused it while I looked for my next cast.  This kind of thing happened many times over Saturday, but on at least six big fish I missed the hook-set plain and simple.  A couple of these fish were real dingers.  Finally I hooked up on a decent fish toward the end of the float- it started flopping around on the surface, and then I lost hold of my line in my rod hand.  Slack = no fish.  So if you've ever thought "that Fontinalis guy is a great fisherman" the answer is a firm "no".  I'm just a regular guy who fishes a lot.  Even a blind pig sets a hook better than I do.  I want to thank Steve for taking me out and putting up with me.  I really had a good time, the river was beautiful and it was a lovely spring day, I just couldn't keep up my end.  Sometimes that's fishing.

1st consolation prize

I'm not beating myself up too badly though.  I went steelhead fishing Sunday in my home waters and caught four.  The first hen was about six pounds, spawned out and tired.  I let her go without a photo- most ladies don't like to be photographed when they're not looking their best.  The next fish was a very small hen, about 20 inches, that I hooked up on 60 feet below me while indicator fishing.  She fought like a fish twice her size, and was beautiful chrome bright.  I went a ways up stream and got another hen, this one about six pounds, chrome bright and beautiful, easily the beauty queen of my spring fishing.  It took about ten minutes to land her.  For my last fish I stopped off at a hole I had already fished and changed things up a bit.  On my second cast I hooked into a 6 pound male that took me round for round for more than ten minutes before finally sliding to rest on the sand.  He was colored up but still fresh and strong.  It was a cool way to spend a Sunday.  It had started out cool and overcast, but the sun came out and lit up the place.  The fishing was a little slow actually, but made up for by the fish I caught.

the beauty queen.

One other detail about my weekend was that I was very sick the whole weekend.  I had a fever and chills and muscle aches, and that feeling you get like you're starting to hallucinate.  I tried not to let Steve know how sick I was, but he could tell and kept asking about it.  I tried taking cold medicine, but it didn't help much.  The defense rests its case.



If you haven't already, make sure you check out my interview of April Vokey.  Nothing to win this time, just a good interview.  My next victim will be Shane Gray of Gray Wolf Products, builder of fine fiberglass rods, so look for that to post later in the week.  And congratulations to Steven Ebling for winning last weeks drawing.  He won a signed copy of Eric Stroup's book "River Pimp".

nice buck

I've had several Michigan guides invite me to fish with them lately, including Steve Martinez, so I'm starting a new series of articles called The Guide Line in which I profile Michigan guides.  It should be very interesting.  If you've ever wondered about what a guides life is like then stay tuned.  I'll highlight the fisheries, the business, and the men and women who toil at the oars every day living the dream.  With my back-log of posts to get done it will be at least a couple of weeks before I finish the first one, but I'll keep you posted on progress.

Okay, well, it's time for work and I must run out the door.

Let's get after it.

Good Takes- April Vokey

I first became aware of April Vokey two years ago.  I was researching my dream kayaking trip- paddling with the orcas on the British Columbia coast.  Since I have gotten more and more into steelhead fishing, I thought "Why not combine the two?".  We have lots of steelhead here in MI, but who wouldn't want to chase them in their native water? Aprils website was near the top of the Google results.


My first reaction was much the same as every red-blooded guy.  Who is THAT?  Because let's face it, April is quite beautiful.  I don't think I'm breaking any new ground by saying that; no one I know of has ever seen a picture of her and said "Wow, what a nice fish".  After my heart rate returned to normal I composed a friendly email including 15-20 questions about the fishing out there. Much to my surprise she got back to me, sent me her phone number and we talked BC steelhead for about an hour.  I've tried to stay in touch since then in case I'm able to make that trip happen- I'd like her to at least be aware of who I am.


I've made it no secret that I'm an admirer.  My interest in April isn't simply that she's beautiful- there's plenty of beautiful people in this world to admire, nor is it the woman-in-waders fetishism that seems to be so rampant among fly fishermen.  I have been fascinated by steelhead since childhood, and April fishes for big wild steelhead in their native waters. She pursues them via a method that likewise fascinates me- swinging flies with spey gear.  Add in that British Columbia scenery that has always fired my imagination, and you bet I want to fish with April Vokey.


April hasn't been without her detractors ( "She's not that hot", "The only reason she get's clients is because she's hot", "She really can't cast") but hating April for being beautiful is like hating LeBron for being tall.  No one would suggest he should quit basketball because he has an advantage.  Both are using the gifts they were born with.  You really don't want to see me on those magazine covers.  Give some credit where it's due- if Kelly Galloup looked like April Vokey, we would all still be fishing Zoo Cougars.  I think in her early days there was a tendency to dismiss her as "wanting attention" or worse- a cupcake in waders.  Let's face it- if Ape didn't know her crap, she would have washed out long ago.  All of us guys like getting our picture taken with a pretty girl, but when you've spent that much money to fish for BC steelhead your guide had better get you into fish no matter who it is.  There's plenty of better ways to make a living.  We talk about living the dream, but guiding is a hard life- you trade normalcy for that dream.  If April didn't love the fish, the fishing, and the life she wouldn't be doing it still.  April has withstood all of that, continues to grow her business, and her reach in the world of fly fishing seems to grow exponentially each year.  She writes for or sits on the editorial staff of more publications than I can mention here, and she has worked with and continues to be involved with many charities and conservation issues, all while operating her outfitting and guiding business Fly Gal Ventures (http://flygal.ca/).

who do you want to see on your magazine covers?  The choice is obvious....






I spent quite a bit of time with and around April at the Midwest Fly Fishing Expo.  She very generously spent most of an evening answering my questions, and at times I wondered who was interviewing who.  April is not just nice, she's hilariously funny (just try to photograph her- she's a real cut-up) and the life of the party, and not in a party girl kind of way either. I got to witness some of the behind the scenes sophomorish behavior of the guides and others at the hotel, and while I won't say April is one of the guys, she is definitely one of the guides.  She made me play poker.  While our conversation was long and rambling, I did make her answer my prepared questions.

FR:  April- you overhauled the Fly Gal website last year.  It seems you’ve taken a lot of focus off of yourself.  Was this the result of your business maturing, or a personal shift in focus?

AV:  It’s both actually.  It is a result of my business maturing, because I am maturing as a woman, and ultimately I was/am my business.  I only put the focus on myself initially to market myself so I could have a business.  Now it’s been done, and now I can step it on back.  That was my mission from the get-go.  Not because I need people to look at me on the internet and say “Oh, what a pretty smile”, I don’t need that.  I need people to go “I know that face, I trust that she catches fish, maybe we should book with her.”  Granted, okay, maybe I was a little bit off-color when I first did this and I was 22 and didn’t need to have blond hair and fake nails, but that’s who I was.  I was the best woman I could be back then, so I have no regrets.

FR:  You were kind of young back then.

AV: 23 is young.  Those photos are like 19 and 20.. You were expecting to meet me and I was going to look really young and…..

FR:  Today?

AV:  Yeah.

FR: No.  There was a couple (of pictures) I thought (laughing) “Okay, she shouldn’t be on there.

AV:  Yeah- out of control.  A lot of people see those photos and think that’s me today.  I’ve read people on the internet who are like “What can she know, 21 years old, there’s no way..” and I’m thinking “Dude, I’m 29”…There’s a big difference between 21 and 29.

AV:  Excuse me.  Uh, yeah, that is what you think it is.

FR:  What is that- cookies?

AV:   YEAH

FR:  Dang, I’m having cookies with April Vokey.

AV: It’s awesome.  Now I’m going to get into that salsa.

FR:  That salsa is going to melt your face.  Okay? Just so you know.

(authors note: I brought gifts for all my interviewees from American Spoon Foods, a local gourmet food manufacturer specializing in local and Michigan products.  April chose the Peach Cherry Salsa.)

FR:  It seems you have gone very quickly from being a hard driven up-and-comer to being an icon in the world of fly fishing.  Was that your goal, or was that a by-product of survival?

AV:  Has that happened?

FR:  You’re an icon, yes.

AV:   No, not yet. 

FR: No, you are.

AV:  I...

FR: No- I’m on this end of the magazine.

AV:  I still feel like an up-and-comer.  I am still- in my head.  Today was a shock to me.  I didn’t expect anyone to know who I was.  Not to that degree.  You have to understand that I don’t watch TV with myself in it, I try very hard not to Google myself, though it’s very hard not to.  People do send me links and I do read them.  My friends know that I don’t like talking about it so we don’t talk about it.  So, I’m just a girl that fishes, and I’m so busy that I just don’t notice.  I don’t believe that I deserve to be an icon figure.  In fact I will tell you that I don’t deserve to be an icon figure, not yet. 

(At this point she tries the salsa, and yes, her face melts.)

AV:  that’s not right.  I’m going to dip everything I have in here.  I’m going to eat the entire jar.

AV:  Was that my plan, to be an icon?  I don’t even know what icon means.  What the hell is an icon? 

FR:  Well, in the fly fishing world…

AV: yeah, but what is an icon in fly fishing…

FR:  Well, I think Kelly Galloup, I think Joan Wulff, I think John Gierach, I think Yvon Chouinard.

AV:  No, my goal was never to be an icon for being the best caster.

FR:   No, no, nope, I did not ask about casting or fly tying…

AV:  I want to be an icon on a do-good level.  I wanted to be able to show people that if you have a voice- do you want to know what my goal was? Can I be honest with you?

FR:  Yeah, you can be totally honest with me.

AV:  I’m so sick and tired of people telling me constantly how great they are.

FR:  (laughing) That’s why I’ve fished alone all these years.

April giving a lesson to a young fan

AV:  I’m tired of it.  I wanted to be that person that just was real.  Because I am real.  I just wanted to always be the same and just be me.  I’m not perfect at anything, but I stand behind what I believe, and what I believe in is a lot of conservation issues.  And I always promised myself way back in the day that if I ever became quote “famous”, for anything, granted I thought it would be in music, not fishing, that I would do just that.  This (fishing) is my hobby.

FR:  Music?

AV:  Yeah, I was way more into music. I thought that I would use that voice for (garbled).  When I was really young I wanted to make a lot of money.  The fame I could do without, but I wanted a lot of money, because I wanted to buy up a whole bunch of land in Africa.  And I wanted to be the next Diane Fossey.  She was my idol. 

FR:  Diane Fossey?

AV:  Absolutely!  Diane Fossey was my idol, I mean I would have done anything to be a Diane Fossey.  That’s what I wanted to be my whole life you know, twelve years old, that’s what I wanted to be.  And then it just so happened that a series of events put me to where I’m at now.  I never wanted to be that girl that everyone recognized because of her photos.  In fact it hurts a bit when people say “Oh, you’re world famous for your photos on the internet.” But I did that to myself you know.

these girls traveled three hours to meet April

AV:  Was it a plan? No.  Did I want to make a living doing what I love?  Yes.  And did I need people to know who I was?   Yes.

FR:  You’ve traveled all over the world from your home in BC to Iceland, the Seychelle’s, the Bahama’s, Belize, and all over the US- what destinations do you still dream of?

AV:  BC.  I need mountains to live.  If I don’t have mountains I’m not myself.  If I don’t have rapids and grizzly bears, that kind of grosses me out. 

FR:  What grosses you out?

AV:  It doesn’t really gross me out, but when I don’t have mountains and grizzly bears…. I need BC, it keeps me alive.  It’s the epitome of life.  Look around you.  Human beings are not made to be sitting in buildings from 9 to 5, with fluorescent lighting. 

FR:  That’s why I go fishing every night after work.

AV:  Yeah.  We're made to survive.  This is why I’m so fortunate.  Everybody is trying to be happy in life.  Think about it. What makes you happy?  I know what makes me happy.  Excitement.  There are a lot of things that makes me happy, but one of them is excitement.  And what excites me?  Survival.  I looove surviving.  I love surviving!  And I have to kind of play make-believe really when it comes down to it because, unfortunately every time I turn around there’s a car going by, and another building I have to look at.  So the only way for me to be able to live my life the way that human beings were supposed to be living, is to take myself to the river and get lost in it, do what I’m supposed to be doing.  This isn’t natural.

FR:  Do you have any fish still on your wish list?

AV:  A permit.  Oh my god, they’re making me go crazy!  Or go broke.

FR:  (laughing loudly) You haven’t gotten a permit yet?  I thought you had.

AV:  Two eats.  I’ve gone everywhere for them, I’ve – oh my God, I cannot get one to hook up.  Permit.  Permit is on the list.  Until I get a permit I’m not even going to (garbled)  I won’t even entertain another fish.   It wasn’t that recently that I had a trip that messed me up- the Seychelle’s.  I did it for the permit. For me, that was it. 

FR:  There’s permit in the Seychelle’s?

AV:  Oh my god, I must have had a hundred shots.

FR:  I did not know that.  I knew that there was bonefish and other things

AV:  I could not get one to hook up.

FR:  It’s like that one fish that eludes you huh?

AV:  I’ve fished for permit before, but always with a guide.  I love guides; I am a guide.  But, I need to have my own space.  That’s why I fish, is to be alone.  So I'm in the Seychelle's annd I’m with my buddy James and I’m fishing with (him) and he’s big- 6’4”.  We’re on the coral, and he’s too loud.  I’m 5’5” with little size seven feet, so it was like alright, just do it, you’re on your own.  There were these three huuge permit, and Seychelle’s permit are huge, over twenty pounds.  When we see these big, huge fork tails and he leaves me and I go away for the next half hour and it’s just me and these three huge fork-tails and- this is going to sound really sappy, but just bear with me here.  The sun was coming down and it was literally like gold was just lighting up, it was like arrows of gold pointing…

FR:  “HERE IS YOUR FISH..”

AV:  They’re the love of my life.  They were circling me, feeding around me, and it was truly like waltzing.  I say that because I was so concentrated on the positioning of my feet, because of the coral, I felt like I was dancing with them, and literally playing an instrument, because every time I would dance and waltz with my feet, I would play my instrument with my hands, casting to them.  It was truly like playing the violin and dancing with these fish.  It messed me up for half an hour waltzing with them.

FR:  It would.

AV:  And I, I fell in love, I totally completely fell in love with these things.  And that was it.  James was… at one point we were casting at these fish, and there was a 90 lb. GT(Grand Trevally).  It was seriously close to a world record GT that came right in front of us.  He almost fell over.  I couldn’t even, I didn’t care.  I didn’t care.  I didn’t even take my eyes off of the forktails.  And that’s how he knew we needed to go for permit.  We spent all week fishing for permit. 

FR:  I read a recent quote by Yvon Chouinard in which he referred to the dying fly fishing industry.  Is the industry dying or is the sport dying?

AV:  That’s a really good question.  Good question.  I don’t know. 

FR:  I mean, he has a company, and so he has stats that he can track. I mean, he’s looking at his wader sales and saying “Why am I still doing this?”.  I mean, to say that out loud- right?

AV:  Yep.

FR:  So is he talking about his own business, or is he talking about the sport?

AV:  It’s hard because I don’t know what it was like once.  I think that it’s just changing.  What does that mean?  Break that down.  You mean less sales?  Less people fishing?

FR:  I don’t know, I’m just… it’s his quote. 

AV:  I hear that from a lot of people.  I’d have to know what it was like back then.  I only know what it’s like now.  I think that it has definitely changed.  A lot of people are trying so hard to break the mold, that statistically it has to look different on paper, so naturally it’s going to look different. 

FR:  Are we relying on a business metric instead of what’s actually happening out there?

AV:  I think so actually. 

FR:  We’re going by wader sales rather than what’s going on out there?

AV:  I do believe that, yeah.  I believe that we’re not taking into consideration that now it’s grunge and cool to patch your waders and have glue all over you.  It’s different now, it’s not as....

FR:  “I’m a working class fly fisherman”

AV: Yes!  Exactly, it’s become affordable, and it is working class, which is what it always should have been. 

FR:  That’s actually kind of the point of my site.

April ties it up at the Expo

AV:  Good.  But that’s a good thing.  Maybe it’s not so bad.   I think that, to sum up your question properly, I will tell you that the outdoor industry as a whole is going to be running into problems, because of the internet, because of TV shows, and because of people not wanting to leave the house.   I take it seriously when I run into people, even in my own age group and I say “what’s your hobby?”  They don’t have one.  “Well, how can you not have a hobby?”  I don’t understand.  When I was a little girl we all played outside.  I don’t see kids playing outside like they used to.  The world is changing,  I think that we’re giving the fly fishing world too much credit and not looking at the rest of the world. Everything has changed...

FR:  You make a good point there.  So are women the future of fly fishing?

AV:  No.  Are they…

FR:  Is that a false hope by the industry?  That they’ll find that demographic that’s gonna ….

AV:  It’s not women.  It is and it isn’t.  They’re not the future.  Are they in the future? Yes.  To imply that they were the future, means that men are not going to be in the future.  Are they going to be equal in this sport, so that it’s almost matched one to one?  I’m going to predict that yes, in the next twenty years this is going to be, for every man that you see, or for every two men that you see fishing, there is going to be one woman.  I’m going to say that with confidence actually. 

FR:  Yeah.  Do you acknowledge the fact that I have not asked you one question about your sex appeal?

AV:  I’m thankful for it- thank you.

FR:  So what’s next- are you in a happy place, or do you still have more of this world to conquer?

AV:  I’m in a very happy place.  If I died tomorrow I’d be happy.  Do I have more of this world to see and experience?  Hell yeah.  I’m going down fighting. 

FR:  The Pacific Northwest including your beloved BC is faced with a barrage of challenges from farmed salmon, energy development in in your beloved headwaters, the Pebble mine, and a proposed oil pipeline from the tar sands to the coast- what keeps you awake at night?

AV:   Right now my big battle is the big Shell battle. 

FR:  And that’s the headwaters issue? 

AV:   Yes, the Sacred Headwaters.  The Enbridge issue- I don’t like to conquer too many issues at once. 

FR:   Is Enbridge the one that wants to build the pipeline across..

AV:   Yes.  After we get through with the sacred headwaters, that will be the top of my list.  I just simply can't challenge too many issues at one time. If I cannot be the best that I am, that I can be… I’d rather give it all I’ve got. 

FR:  Dilution of force..

AV:  Absolutely.  So we’ll work on one, and after we get through that one we’ll find out soon, probably within this year, and then we’ll move on to Enbridge.

FR:  Do you kind of wish that they would have built the pipeline through Nebraska so you wouldn’t face this issue?

AV:  I guess that’s technically not my backyard.  But it’s painful to watch either way.

FR:  Enbridge is the same people that, you know, their pipeline broke on the Kalamazoo river last year and spilled a ton of oil.

AV:  I don’t know a whole lot of what happens there..

FR:  Yeah, it’s too far away.

AV:  I know that by us with that Skeena issue (regulation change) now where Americans cannot fish on weekends, all of a sudden we’re starting to lose the support of the Americans with these issues and we need them right now.  And that’s hard for me to watch.  It’s painful to watch all of us slowly fall apart because of politics. It just makes me want to go fish more. 

FR:  Yeah, I’m the same way.  We’re in an election year, it’s painful.

 I want to thank April for spending some time and granting such a great interview.  I hope you enjoyed it.  You can keep up with April at her website which includes her blog at

http://flygal.ca/


Make sure you visit her Flies for Fins Website through which she raises funds for conservation efforts.  Shop for flies and gear, or make a donation and help April preserve our rivers. Check it out at
http://www.flies4fins.com/

Monday Morning Coffee- April2

aaaauuuuwwwwwuUUGGhh!!!  Yawn stretch, scratch, repeat.  It's Monday.  This  is starting to feel like groundhog week.  With a busy week coming up we'd better start it off right with some coffee.

Here, have some.  Is that better?  Good.

Well, I didn't fish at all during the week last week, but made up for it on the weekend.  I ended my steelhead snakebite by landing 4 out of 7 fish this weekend. All of the ones I got were smaller bucks, about 4-5 pounds; the ones I lost were all larger, in the 7-8 pound range.  I got a good look at all of them.  There's lots of shiny gravel, but not enough to convince me the run is over.  April should be a good month.  I ran into and fished with a couple of local guys including charter captain Don Mapes of Rodzilla Fishing Charters.  This explains how I got some better pictures of fish this week.  It's tough to handle these fish and shoot them by yourself.

captian Don Mapes with a good fish

In thinking about some of the trips I want to do I sat down and banged out a post last night so be sure and check it out.  With all the interviews I've been posting, it was nice to sit down and actually do some writing.  I have some really cool trips I'm planning, which I can't wait to share with you.  With Isle Royale being my next big trip, I may just stay in Michigan this year, but I have a long wish-list even here, and want to poke around a few places and fish some new rivers.  I would also like to poke around in the Algoma district of Ontario, seeing that it's basically in my backyard.


I finally finished transcribing my interview of April Vokey and nearly have that piece put together, so look for that to post Wednesday.  Don't forget to read my interview of Eric Stroup and enter to win his book "River Pimp".  All of these people have some good and important things to say about their piece of the fly fishing puzzle, and I hope you're enjoying these interviews as much as I am.

I don't know what else to say  except it will be a busy week.  I have a guide trip on Saturday on the Pere Marquette river, which  is supposed to be a streamer trip, but with the steelhead bouncing in and out of the rivers I will definitely have a shot at them as well.  I'm looking forward to a good float and fishing the PM again.  I plan on taking lots of photos and should get a couple of stories out of it.


Well, it's time to go to work.  Have a great week.  I'll leave you with a couple more shots from the weekend.

Let's get after it.

my first indie fish, caught yesterday

a nicely colored up buck

no, this is not an action shot

Dirtbag

I'm driving north in my little car in the chill and fog, eyeing the spreading crack in my windshield.  I've stuffed a ratty pair of wool gloves onto the defroster vents hoping to get them dry before I have to wear them again.  They smell of yesterdays fish, an aroma which fills my car.  I find comfort in this, it reminds me of my success.  I hope today is just as good.  I love this little car- it gets 32 mpg, and despite its age and hints of rust, it's a tight little machine.  I'm out to do a little dirtbag fishing- fast food breakfast, smelly wet gear and no real itinerary.

I've always thought of myself as a dirtbag fisherman.  I don't mean a hick or a low-life, but someone who loves the sport and always finds a way to get out there.  When I moved back north after having been gone for ten years, and after having been through an ugly separation and custody battle, I was pretty much broke and on the mend.  I managed to fish about  5 days a week that year, squeezing it in after work and on weekends.  Even while I still lived in the soulless hell of Detroit I managed some dirtbag fishing- catching pike off the jetty at Nine Mile road on Lake St. Clair, or catching perch on a Saturday morning at the Coast Guard Station with my daughter.  She was only 3 then, and very cute.  She helped me reel in some fish before curling up inside my oversized parka and napping in the warming April sun.  I was catching jumbos that day.  It is one of my favorite memories of her.

I took a dirtbag trip that summer, driving from Detroit to Baldwin to fish the Pere Marquette river.  I stopped at Dragonmead near Roseville and got a couple of growlers of beer and then headed it west, stopping at an Outback steakhouse near Lansing and getting into Baldwin at nearly 10 pm.  I looked around and finally found a launch, parked my truck and got into the passenger seat.  The beer in my growler was still cool and went down with a slickness.  I drifted off to sleep with my seat reclined as far as it would go.

I woke two hours later to the sound of thunder and the hot flash of lightning.  It had been so hot that I cracked a window, and now rain was pouring in on my face.  I rolled up the window, and the humidity was stifling.  The storms lasted for hours, but I finally got some uncomfortable sleep.

I woke in the gray light of dawn.  All was quiet, no one was at the launch, and I had the river to myself.  As I first waded into the river, a large dark, snaky figure swam up past me- it was a Skamania, a big summer run steelhead.  I would see quite a few this weekend, but I was spinner fishing for trout and didn't have a chance at them.

The rest of this trip- the driving through endless fields of asparagus (who knew Michigan was the asparagus capitol?), the girls at the bridge on the Little Manistee, my nap on the beach at Arcadia, and a second night spent in a road-side park are all dirtbag gold to me.  It was a rough trip, and still one of my favorites.

After I moved back up north I did a similar trip, this time in an old nasty Ford work van.  I removed all the tools and paint buckets, loaded it full of my camping gear and headed north.  I crossed the Mackinaw Bridge in this creaking behemoth, pointed it west down US 2 and made it as far as Black River State Forest campground.  As I turned off of 2 and made my way down the winding road I kept seeing this sparkle in the air like glitter.  "I really hope that's not..."  Yes it was- mosquitoes, and they nearly ate me alive.  I got my fire started, which put an end to the bugs- they were attracted to the heat and CO2 of the fire, and I could see them falling in faint curlicues as they were sucked into the flames and shot skyward.  I didn't get bit from that point on.

The next morning the bugs weren't as bad.  I fished the river for a short time, coming up with a couple of small brookies, before packing it up and heading north and west.  My goal was the Fox river, a goal I made in no short order.  When I got there, the mosquitoes were even fiercer.  I fished for a time, and even caught a couple of fish, but the clouds of bugs were downright menacing.  They were for some reason drawn to my neoprene waders, and I was killing them fifty at a swipe.  It was disgusting.  The bugs, and thunder in the distance made me get back in the van and head further west.  My goal was the Keewenaw.

I never made it.  I had researched the Sturgeon river and believed it held fish.  I drove for over three hours before reaching Sturgeon river campground.  It was beautiful.  The river is set in a deep gorge and you drive down in under a high bridge that crosses it.  I fished as soon as I got there, and even got one decent fish to follow, but it had been raining, and now it was starting to rain in earnest again.  The river got noticeably dirtier and began to rise.  I went back to camp, set up my cot in the van and napped through the rain.  I don't know what I had for dinner, I only know that it rained all night, and that the next morning the river was threatening my camp and was the color of chocolate milk.  I moved on to Emily Lake, where I caught jumbo bluegills, a trout or two and a couple of bass.  This trip was a dirtbag classic- lot's of unknowns, sleeping in my vehicle, bad food, bad weather, rivers blown out, and fish where I least expected them.

My dirtbagging hasn't been as dramatic since.  Sure, there was the San Juan river with Tim- lot's of burned meals and beer, broken off fish, snow and sleet, and the occasional fish landed.  I've spent weeks on the rivers at night, in hopes of the sound of the rivers surface erupting under the assault of a big brown.  I love to drive around in my work clothes, paint on my hands, the smell of work sweat hanging heavily around me, on my way to a river after work, but it's not the same.

My fortunes have risen and fallen with the economy.  I had some good years and made a lot of money.  My business tanked with the economy and I've been scraping by the last four years.  I don't care.  I live in Northern Michigan, the rest is window dressing.  I went fishing today and hooked up on four steelhead, landing two. I'm back to dirtbagging, and I love it.  My expensive Simms boots are falling apart, my car is a piece of crap, all but one of my rods are broken and repaired as cheaply as possible.  I'm going to do at least one trip this year where I sleep in my crappy little car.  It will be fantastic, my best trip ever.  I may stay at one of the upper Fox river campgrounds, or Pretty Lake, or who knows, cross the border and fish the Algoma district.  I just want to go, I don't care about food, or comfort, or the niceties of life.  I just want to be out there.

Dirtbagging.