1. Troutnut Forum
›
2. Photography
›
3. This is pure Michigan if you ask me...

Fishing report: Lake Geneserath on Beaver Island Michigan July 2010.

Simply paradise...I had momma wood-duck & babies, grazing deer, Loons, and Common Terns overhead and a return to childhood plain and simple. There is nothing like Bluegills on a dry fly and a few cold Molsons to put a smile on your face...

Now this is "Pure Michigan"!

Spence

Spence, that first fish almost looks like a bluegill x pumpkinseed hybrid - ?????

I bet those fat fellers put a serious bend in your rod - what size/weight were you using? I had a nice fat 'gill put a bend in my new 3-weight so hard I thought he was one of the smallies!

Yep, that's pure Michigan.

Jonathon

P.S. I had some amazing panfishing (up to 10") on flies when I lived and fished in San Marcos, TX. Down there it was redbreast, redear, warmouth, and spotted sunnies, plus some bluegills, and elsewhere I caught green sunnies and longears. (Also, occasional rock bass - planted down there from further north - and Rio Grande "perch", actually a cichlid.)My best flies for them were, of course, silver KBFs, chartreuse Woolly Buggers, and during evening caddis hatches, a #12 or #14 Elkhair Caddis (and the redbreasts fed just like pods of trout, with their big arched backs coming out of the water...).

I will NEVER, EVER EVER EVER grow tired of catching sunfish of any species on a fly rod!!!

I know...I wasn't sure when I was looking at it myself...It looks like a bluegill but look at the stomach! Compare it to the next picture even.

I went looking for largemouth and got happily distracted...I had two rods in the row boat strung up. There was an outside chance, which didn't happen, that I was going to make it out to the "flats" near some of the other islands near Beaver...Once upon a time it was smallie heaven out there...Now they fly fish for carp there...I didn't take up the 3 or 4 wt rods.

I had my "Montana" rod...Sage 9' for 5wt RPL...An older generation Sage a friend put together for me for out-west in 1995...I had an old Hardy reel on this and this was the rod I used most...I also had a Loomis 9' for 7wt that was meant to toss the bigger bass stuff...It had a Marryatt reel on it...8.5 I think it is...With this last outfit I meant business...I had read of 5-6 lb largemouth in Font Lake...

I had a great conversation with a check out girl at the grocery store where I bought my beer etc...Turns out she lives on Font Lake...I told her I was heading out there with a float tube which got a puzzled look. I asked her where I should fish and she replied, "My dad has a secret spot but I can't tell you where that is...All I can tell you is it's on the other side of the lake from where you will be." You have to love that response! If she were my daughter I would of given her a big hug! The folks up there are extremely friendly but even more loyal..."That's Pure Michigan!"

I was rowing my way back to the access point but there was a stretch I just couldn't pass up it looked so fishy. There were lilies and then a small opening of water between them and the brush along the shore...I heard a nice rise over there and rowed up to the lily bed...I opened up the fly box and just couldn't make up my mind what to use...I finally decided to try a fly that was tied up by Mr. Rusty Gates and it's called "The Not" or "The White Not" and is basically a variation on the Borcher's Drake...Those two in the photos were the result...I didn't move the bass that I think rose just before I got there.

You spoke of a bend in the rod...That Sage was designed for windy conditions out west and is a stiff rocketship type of rod...When that gill went running in to the lilly pads he brought me to my feet in the boat so I could play him through there...I was talking to him all the way...out loud...grinning ear-to-ear. I told him he had earned himself a snap-shot.

Spence

Sounds MOST excellent! What a great trip.

The "ear" on the top sunfish has a red edge to it - charactersitic of pumpkinseed. But it's not as colorful as the average Lepomis gibbosus, but it's most definitely NOT pure bluegill. No redears in there are there??? The mottling on the chest also makes me think pumpkinseed...

Jonathon

Hmmmm, maybe a big FEMALE pumpkinseed???

JMD