A Fish for Fontinalis

Cofisher made me do it.  'Good luck with that schedule', was the gist of his comment.   A long hot day at work, then rain, just enough to keep me from accomplishing all that I needed to, and still I got home late, dirty and tired.  Did I make dinner and go to bed? No- Cofisher's comment burned in my mind- "You can't do it" was what he, in effect, said.  Howard- you're right- I can't do it.  I didn't fish Saturday, I didn't fish today.  But yesterday I had to do it, push myself, however foolishly to get out there.

Now let me tell you the pitfalls of video.  You see, in times past I would have already had my gear in the truck and would have just gone.  But I was covered in dust and stain and a three day scruff, none of which look good on video, and so I went home and showered and shaved, gathered my gear and cameras, and headed out.  If you look close you'll see how tired I am.  The lack of coherence.  The disorganized gear.  (Today's tip- I wore the raincoat, not for rain, but so that I wouldn't have to put on much insect repellent.) But I gave a pledge to the fine people at TakeMeFishing.org and to you my readers, and Cofisher double-dog dared me. Or something like that.

So I went.  I had one hour.  I bushwhacked through a miserable little tag alder jungle gym.  I screwed around with the video camera, and I must say- my Joby tripod saved the day in spades, as brook trout streams in tag alder swamps are almost completely devoid of flat hard surfaces.  To be honest, doing the video was what made it fun.  Oh yeah, and this fish.

a fontinalis for Fontinalis

This next photo is a shout-out for both Take Me Fishing and National Fishing and Boating Week and Joby- thanks guys- for the cam, and to Joby for making such a great tripod.

I pythoned this thing to the bush-cool

I think in that hour of fishing I got four fish to rise.  The mosquitoes were fierce.  The thunderstorms that rolled through had put a damper on fish activity, and the beavers had changed what was once a familiar stretch into the dark side of the moon, piscatorially speaking.  But I'm glad I went.  I forgot my hunger, the heat, the fatigue, my bills, and all the reasons I won't say no to jobs right now, even though I've only had two days off in the last month, I forgot about all the personal things that plague me, the things I kick myself for each day.  I forgot about it all when I first got a whiff and then a glimpse of trout water, when that first fish rose, just a boil, the first rise to my fly, my first brook trout of the year.  I was again, there, in the moment, in my natural environment, where I needed, desperately, to be.  I caught a fish.  I clowned for the camera.  I had a great time.

By the way, I didn't catch a fish on camera, but I did lose one- here's the video.  You may have to turn the volume up to hear all of my ridiculous gems, or turn it off depending on your valuation of verbal  gemology.  It was a pretty cool strike- typical of the frantic fight that brook trout give, and why they can be a worthy challenge.  Check it out.

So again my thanks to the people at TakeMeFishing.org for letting me participate as a blogger in National Fishing and Boating Week.  Get out there folks and enjoy it- the outdoors is waiting for you.  Remember- here in Michigan, the free fishing days will be this coming weekend, June 11, 12, so take your family fishing and have a great time.  More posts to come.

Monday Morning Coffee- June 6, Truck Payment Edition

That's right, the sixth of each month is when my truck payment is due, so what a great reminder.  Except I'm not going to pay it today.  I'll wait til Wednesday or Friday, sometime within the grace period.  I only have a year left to pay on it, but if the rest of the summer goes well I'll pay it off so I don't get bled monthly all winter.  That gets old.  It's been a great truck, but It's starting to show its age, kind of like its owner.  It started leaking fluid (I'm not leaking fluid) last week; I got it fixed and it's already leaking fluid again (I'm still not leaking fluid).  I'm torn between putting it down and keeping it alive indefinitely sans payment.

It's just too heavy for this kind of thing.

things you can load in a truck

Truth be told, it's an awful outdoors truck.  True, you can stack a lot of deer in the bed, but it doesn't get around that well off road.  It's too big for a lot of access trails to rivers, and is too long to turn around handily in the woods while hunting.  I've had some bad experiences with this truck.  Still, I do love it.  Horsepower wins out in the end I guess.  That, and it's fulfilled its purpose to haul large loads of equipment and material to jobs.  It's also very comfortable.  I'll keep it as long as practical.  Which is to say until gas hits $5 this summer.

another story for another time

Yawn, stretch, scratch, sniff... I mean repeat. It's Monday.  Today's coffee is again the Colombian Supremo from Woolly Bugger, but I'll have to go into town and buy more today, or it will be a sad Tuesday indeed.  Today's mug is again courtesy of Sanders over at Up the Poudre.  Lovin' those Fontinalis colors.  Speaking of which, I think it's time for Fontinalis Rising to go chase some fontinalis.  I haven't even tried for brook trout yet this year.  I mean, cummon.  So, after work, and Take Me Fishing Flipcam in hand, I'm going to find some Known Brook Trout Water and see what I can do.  I guarantee I'll catch at least a couple.  Guarantee.  Up goes the pressure, but I'm good for it.
I'm working on a couple of little pieces, but with this weeks work schedule, not to mention my pledge to the National Fishing and Boating Week, we'll see what gets posted.  Of course, if I live up to the challenge then I'll have lots to post.  I'd better get into fish, because I know you can't take too much more of my maundering into the camera.  So here's hoping for all of us.

I'm trying to decide where my next getaway will be to.  Probably somewhere into the Upper Peninsula, but there's other options.  Some day I want to explore the Algoma District of Ontario outside Sault Ste. Marie for brook trout.  There's monsters up there in that back country, but it's something you'd have to find on your own. Nipigon and Colorado are both on the table for an August trip, but I'll have to choose.

In my continual efforts to improve this blog I've ordered a camera lens and related equipment, which I can't wait to get and put to work.  It should be here within a couple of days.

Well, I'm still waiting for the caffeine to kick in, so I'm going to wander off and make breakfast.  Have a great week.  I'll go find you some fish.  Keep an eye out for more video from the Take Me Fishing Flipcam.  Let's get after it.

gratuitous fish picture

It's Here! National Fishing & Boating Week

I'm a day late and so forth, but I have indeed gotten out on the water this morning.  I live on the water, a river that's very popular with boaters and anglers.  My point this morning was that there's so much opportunity around us that we often overlook.  All we have to do is take notice and get out there, make time for it.  My plan for National Fishing and Boating Week, sponsored by Take Me Fishing, was to fish every day in as many places and settings for as many species as possible, even if for a short while.  It appears that my work load this week will keep all my sessions short, but I think my foray this morning proves my point- I caught no fish, but I had a great time.  It was beautiful, refreshing, and I felt a lot better just being out there.  If you have kids, get them out there.  Video games and the internet are firmly embedded in our culture and world- they're not going away, nor do I want them to, but they need to be balanced with some outdoor activity. (Incidentally, the June issue of Outside magazine had a great article outlining our need to get outdoors, read it here.)

The following video is me monologuing- some live, on-the-water philosophizing if you will, and my intro into National Fishing and Boating Week.  I'll have to find some fish for you somehow this week. 

Here's some things to know about National Fishing and Boating Week-

• Take Me Fishing has coordinated this event to coincide with Free Fishing days in 37 of the 50 states.  This includes Michigan, which will have free fishing on June 11 and 12, click here for information.

•  Take Me Fishing has launched a "Memories On the Water" video contest that runs through July 1 2011 with lots of prizes including a grand prize of a fishing trip for 4 to one of four destinations.  Take your video cam with you this month and share it- you could end up in Yellowstone.

• Take Me Fishing reminds us that a portion of the money we spend on boating and fishing- everything from boats, to tackle, to bait, to licenses- even fuel- goes towards conservation, so getting out and enjoying the outdoors is good for you, good for your kids AND good for the environment.

So, I highly encourage you to take a little time to check out Take Me Fishing's website, "Like" their Facebook page, check and see if your state has free fishing this week.  Then get out there, take your kids, have fun.  Take your video camera and enter the contest.  The weather is gorgeous and it's all waiting for you.  I'll be posting some more of my mini adventures as the week goes on.

The Angler's Year- June

June in Northern Michigan begins lilac scented, a perfume so heady it will make you think you're in love, even if you're not.  On the outs with your dearly beloved?  Fill the house with fresh-cut lilacs and see what happens.  Everywhere I go right now it's all I smell, and so I drive around, love-drunk and irritable, trying to figure out why I'm so giddily happy.

If you're an angler you should be happy and in love- it's June.  When I started this series it was February, a month in which my best advice might be "stay in and watch TV" or "go to Florida", a month in which any comfortable notion of fly angling is laughable at best.  I think I gave some sort of "there, there" advice, we always do.  "Tie flies" we intone, "spend time with the wife", "get caught up on your reading".  Thin comfort to the fly angler whose bamboo 4 weight stands mouldering in a closet. 

nice June rainbow caught while waiting on the hexes in the Cascades

But now- now it's June.  Diametrically opposite in nature to that time, now it all lies spread before you, a great angling feast, a gluttony of piscatorial pursuit, a surfeit of opportunity.  It's not just that the bugs are hatching and the trout are looking up.  It's not just the perfect river temps, the Hex hatches, the verdant green.  It's not just that the bass and bluegills are bedding and feeding, the pike are still up shallow and aggressive, and the carp are on the flats.  It's that the days are so long, the sunlight so seemingly interminable- June is the month of the summer solstice and here the daylight will last 18 hours give or take.  You suffer Seasonal Affective Disorder in a good way now, or at least you'd better, after all that grousing you did in January.

June is the month of sulfurs and drakes and March browns here, but really, when it comes down to it we're just piffling with those flies, amusing ourselves, catching little plippers and hoping that nice rise at the tailout is an 18 inch brown.  We're all waiting now, our anticipation close to boiling, like kids trying to sleep on Christmas Eve, keyed up about one event- the Hex hatch.  Hexagenia Limbata.  Words that roll off the tongue of every fly angler with a satisfying smack, the one Latin name everyone has memorized.  If most of us had our way, June would be renamed Hexagenia.  This goliath mayfly haunts the dreams of many a fly fisher, that annual event perhaps your sole opportunity to land a truly large brown trout on a dry fly.  There's a price of admission- they don't usually show until well after dark and dark doesn't arrive until after 11.  Some nights you stand out there and wait, and wait and wait until you realize nothing is going to happen.  Other times you go out there, and the bugs come, and the fish mysteriously won't feed- yes, this has happened to me.  But every year it does happen.  You stand in a spot you think most likely to hold good fish and hope that the bugs come off, waiting while the mosquitoes drone in your ears and bounce off your face.  Then you see them, one, then two, lifting from the water like angels ascending, silent and pale.  Trout feed here and there intermittently and still you stand on your sandy flat, patient for what's to come.  Then, just as the darkness descends it happens, a whirring of wings like static on the radio, and the river comes alive, the surface boiling with feeding fish.  Every fish in the river comes out, from two-incher to two-footer, and for awhile all you can hear is the continual smack, slurp and gulp of feeding trout.  If you focus on one fish you can time him and usually come up good, but the smart angler waits, he waits for the activity to die.  The hatch after all, will last into the wee hours of the morning, and you're not there to catch foot long fish.  Bide your time, catch a couple, wait for the noise and frenzy to subside, then listen, listen for one sound. "Sip.... shlipp.... shlurp... ship".  It's the sound of a fish too big to fill up in that initial madness, the sound of a truly large trout, still feeding long after lesser fish have sank to the bottom to rub their swollen bellies and moan in feted pleasure.  Those big fish feed differently, they feed in measured cadence, setting their own rhythm, unhurried as the river conveys bug after bug to their jaws.  This is your moment, but it's not just about timing.  You can hear the fish, can tell that he's right there, but you can't see anything, and so you must learn to gauge the distance and cast by sound and just hope that your fly drifts over him at the moment that he's ready to feed again.  They're not going to move two feet right or left when the river is delivering a flowing feast right overhead.  Then you have to time, by sound, the sound of the feed with where you think your fly is.  If it all comes together, then the real fun begins, as you battle a giant trout in a small stream in the pitch dark, not wanting to turn your light on and spook the rest of the river.  This night, and all the nocturnal aggravation and an annum of waiting is yours, your shot at holding a truly large brown.

The hex hatch lasts ten days or more, tapering off typically by July 4.  Towards the end most of the fish are so full that they fail to feed, no doubt suffering an annual case of Hexagenia indigestion. So all of you dry fly snobs- rejoice.  This is your month.  You've earned it.

Having said all that, it seems anti-climactic to mention June's other pleasures, but if you're not the nocturnal type and hate the annual conclave-and-pig-roast that the Hex hatch has become, then June is still your month.  Get out your 8 or 9 weight and chase carp on the flats-  this is the peak month, there's no mosquitoes typically on Lake Michigan, and you can find all the solitude you want.  Large- and smallmouth bass feed greedily in June, and will smash frogs and poppers with abandon.  Pike and musky are still up shallow and will scare the bejeezus out of you if you take the time to throw some giant minnow patterns (note: wear eye protection please). Get out the 3 weight, take some foam spiders and a kid with you to the bluegill pond- it's easy work, and you'll hook a kid for life.

So, my fellow fly anglers, June is your month, your time.  The days are long, the nights are crazy and love is in the air.  Pick your quarry and choose your fly, it's all happening right now, in June.

Wednesday Morning Coffee June 1

Yeah, that’s right, Wednesday morning coffee.  You all were out having fun this weekend anyway so what did you care?  Let’s see, Kirk Werner was fishing Yellowstone, my buddy Tim went and fished the Payson area in Arizona,  The River Damsel fished various lakes all weekend, Kirk Deeter, Third Coast Fly, the Roughfisher guy and several others were just 25 miles from my house on Beaver Island (sort of like Treasure Island) fishing for carp and bass.  Even Cameron Mortenson of The Fiberglass Manifesto snuck out the  back door and caught a couple bass.  Where was I?  Did I go on my camping trip exploring for carp and brook trout on the Garden Peninsula? No, I stayed home and worked all weekend.  So I hope you all enjoyed your long holiday weekend.  I hope you had fun.  Stupid work.

Ok, so I did fish a little.  I took my kayak with me when I finished my

Walloon job Saturday and tried for smallmouth again- no love, but then Sunday night after chores I drove to a local lake with Coyote Luke of Most Things Custom and fished foam spiders for bluegills and caught some beasts.  I also caught a couple largemouth bass and a rock bass.  It was great fun, until lightning chased us off.  I mostly fish trout and salmon, but at least once a year I have to make the pilgrimage for bluegills.  Have you ever played an easy video game, one that lets you win?  That’s what it’s like fly fishing for ‘gills.  For some reason I never anchored the other night, and these fish would actually pull my kayak around.  And catching largemouth bass on a 3 weight?  That’s some action.  This lake is so lousy with them, they’re practically a pain.  I would like to get out in a good boat and throw some bona fide bass and pike flies- pike in the mid thirty inch range are common here as well.  The scenery is pretty cool too, with lots of loons, ducks and eagles to round out the picture, and the cedars and spruce lining the banks make you think you’re far to the north in Canada, which you practically are eh?

I’m still on a full court press with work, so I don’t know how much posting I’ll do.  I’m getting a little worried about the Take Me Fishing National Boating and Fishing Week deal I signed myself up for- I’m still not sure how to post a video, much less edit one, but I’ll do what I can.  Also, I have a face made for telegraph, so I think I’ll keep the camera pointed the other way.  At least I know which lake to hit for some species.  I’ve been experiencing technical difficulties with this computer- I think it may be time to order a laptop soon.  Next paycheck.  This computer is an ’02 model, I’ve made several upgrades to it and it’s still not bad, but it’s showing increasing signs of wear and I think it may be time to p-u-t h-e-r d-o-w-n.  Don’t tell.  Due to the tech troubles, the June installment of my Angler's Year series will be a few days late also.

Largemouth on a bluegill spider?

Usually I start out by talking about the coffee- yes it is good, and starting with this week I’ll be featuring local and regional coffee roasters.  What better way to start, than with coffee from the Woolly Bugger here in Harbor Springs?  It’s a great little local shop that roasts their own, and with that fly fishing theme it fits with this blog.  Today I’m drinking their Colombian Supremo, and truth be told Colombian is not my fav, I’m a Sumatra kind of guy, but this is very good, and I’m told that Woolly Bugger will have some Sumatra in soon, so I can’t wait to try it.  You can visit them at their locations in Harbor Springs or Charlevoix, of visit them online at http://www.wbcoffee.com/. (psssst- this Colombian is excellent, with hints of chocolate and caramel in the flavor, and wonderful aroma.)

Also, check out the mug, sent to me by Sanders of Up the Poudre fame.  Sanders, in a fit of gratitude after last weeks Blog Love, packaged it up and mailed it out.  He'll get over it.  Thanks Sanders, very cool.  A brook trout mug for a brook trout blog. (Bob- I love the cow mug, it will still make regular appearances.)

solid!

I increasingly find Fontinalis Rising listed on blogrolls- thank you all- and so I'm working on putting together a blogroll page.  There's so many great blogs out there, ones that I regularly enjoy now, and I think my blog list will get too cumbersome if I keep adding to it.  I've promised to add a couple of people to my blog list and haven't gotten to it, so look for that to come soon.

All right, I must run off to work.  I'm working on this beautiful lake right now.  It's big, 17,000 acres, and holds most of the Great Lakes species.  It's tough some days to stare out there at all that water- so close, so far away.  Have a great week, I'll see you Monday.

French Farm Sunset

Fish Break

I'm buried in work right now.  Buried.  I'm working long days, sometimes 7 days a week trying to keep up.  I'm not complaining, I need the money.  It does tend to put a cramp on blogging and fishing.  And writing.  Writing takes time, takes thought, energy.  When I have the details of three jobs swirling through my brain, not much in a creative way gets processed.  When I'm this tired creativity shrivels on the vine.  It's not writers block, it's just a lack of mental energy- it's all been spent elsewhere.

Today I've determined that no matter what, I'll take my lunch on the water somewhere.  All my work is on or near water.  Today lunch found me in Walloon, on lovely Walloon Lake.  Walloon Lake is a bastion of old-style up north summer cottages.  Hemingway had a cottage there.  They say Michael Moore does.  I've heard Jeff Daniels does too, but who knows?  Walloon Lake is one of the most beautiful lakes in Michigan, period- from a main body sprawls radiating arms, its crystal clear waters run about 100 feet deep.  It hosts good populations of trout and smallmouth bass.  I grabbed two slices of pizza at the general store, scarfed them down, donned my waders, grabbed my 8 weight and flies and waded out at the public beach.  While doing this I finalized another customer appointment for 4 pm. This gave me 45 minutes before I had to leave.

I waded out, facing into a stiff north wind.  The wind made casting tough, but it also tends to drive fish to the windward shore, cruising for food churned up in the chop.  I waded across fine yellow sand to the edge of the color break, stripped out fifty feet of line, started my double haul and watched the wind pile my line 20 feet left of my aim.  Strip, strip, strip then cast again, harder this time, eyeing the ruffle pattern on the surface, trying to time my forward cast between the gusts- still 10 feet of line left on the water when I cast.  Strip, strip....strip, strip, strip...strip, strip.  Cast again.  Still 10 feet left.  This wind is killing me.  I count to 15 this time, willing my fly to the bottom.  Short strips, 3 inches at time, strip, strip, strip.... strip, strip... the line comes tight, arcing through the water as I strip set.  There's a substantial, angry weight on the other end of the line.  I've worked hard already today, gotten a lot done.  I have two other jobs that need attention, and more to bid.  But at this moment, the only thing on my mind is 3 1/2 pounds of angry smallmouth.  We tussle it out for several minutes before she comes in, fat bellied and ready to spawn.  I love this time of year- the fish have come up shallow and can be caught on a bright sunny day like today, right on the public beach.  I take a couple of photos and send her back.  Ten casts later I catch another, slightly smaller, just as fun.  In water this clear these fish are beautiful, their blazing orange-red eyes stark against pale bronze.  I love these fish.  I'll be back.  This is why I live here- you can take a fishing break.  I make my way back to my truck, one leg damp from the seeping leak that has developed.  Oh well, it should dry enough by the time I make my way north and meet with my next customer.

Monday Morning Coffee- May 23

 Monday...morning...cofffff...eeeeee.... Wow, that was a stretch.  Today's MMC is brought to you by Starbuck's Cafe Estima blend, and reader Robert Vaughan, who supplied the cup.  I'm still drinking coffee from a ceramic cow's udder.  Do they make these in Brook trout colors?  I'm going to start ordering specialty coffees from different roasters around the country and featuring them on this.  Starbucks doesn't need any advertising from me.  It's just become convenient to stop there and buy rather than go downtown to the local shop. I know Starbucks has become passe, but they still offer a consistent product.  There's a couple of good local roasters and I think it's time to support them.  I also have a friend I met in Colorado who is a genius of a roaster, I'll have to order some from him.  If you have a favorite local roaster, forward a link to me at fontinalisrising@gmail.com. and I'll feature it and mention your name for referring me to it.  I'm a bold roast kind of guy, no flavored coffees, so keep that in mind.  Remember, support your local roaster.

It was not a quiet week in Northern Michigan- I was drawn in OBN's Take Me Fishing contest, I got a night float in with Phil in the CC Drifter, I helped the local TU chapter do bank stabilization work on Monday, I went to 3FT Friday, and fished in The Northern Angler's Carp Derby on Saturday.  I got sick toward the end of the week.  And I worked a full schedule.

my derby partner on the interminable flats of Grand Traverse Bay

I should add a note here about my participation in the carp derby this weekend.  I didn't catch, or even see that many fish, but the ones I did see looked like mini-vans.  It's been a cold spring here and the fish are just getting started.  I saw the least amount of fish, and only one team actually caught fish, but they reported seeing over 200 fish, caught two carp and several beautiful smallmouth, this in an area where the one angler saw 2000 carp a few days before.  It really is gorgeous flats fishing on a grand scale, sight fishing to large schools of big fish, fish known for taking you well into your backing.  The winning fish was 31 inches long and he said it took him into his backing twice.  If you love fishing for carp, or would like the flats experience without the price tag then Traverse City Michigan definitely needs to be on your list.

I have basically two forms of posts- reporting and writing.  If you are new here (welcome!) and you enjoyed  my article "Floating Away", here's a list of "written" posts.  What do you think, should I start a page that lists the writing posts only so they are easier to find?  Here goes:

Local Sausage

Ice

Hardcore

On Letting Go

So There I Was....

The Ravens I Know

An End to Fish Pouting

So there you go.  No one read the pieces on Ice and Raven's, but I thought they were really good, or at least I worked hard on them, so check them out if you get the chance. 

It's time to send out a little more blog love.  I've really been enjoying posts from Sanders at Up the Poudre.  I like the fact that the blog world continually gives you these glimpses of other worlds, worlds I may not experience myself, or even know about if it weren't for your blogging.  Sanders packs in some good writing with great fishing tales from the Cache la Poudre river near Fort Collins Colorado.  His photography is solid (how would you take bad pictures out west?) and he openly admits his ongoing recovery as a former North Dakotan.  Keep posting Sanders, I want to see more cutthroat.

All right, it's time to get something done.  Have a great week.  I have several posts rattling around in the pipeline, so keep checking back.  Or just come back Monday and see what damage got done.  Time to make another pot....