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3. Late Fishing Report Mid-May Small Mouth Outing Michigan Fly Fishing Club

We go up and fish the edge of Saginaw Bay/Lake Huron for small mouth. It is a great time!

I went up a couple days earlier and birded a bit.

Spence

My stepfather is 83 and in poor health. He decided to give me one of his old rods. It's an old Lamiglas wrapped in an old shop called Geake's we used to have here in Michigan.

Geake's was a big deal for us "older" anglers in the Detroit area. It was on Woodward and when it closed up we all were in mourning...After we cleared them out of everything they had put on sale as they were folding up shop.

I was on a mission to land a nice fish on that rod for my stepfather and pulled it off on the last day. I had a larger fish on just before this one that got off.

One time I was casting towards some rocks and one of the rocks headed out to sea! It was a weird effect. What I thought was a large rock was probably a large carp I had disturbed. :)

We had one day, when we were out in the Bay, where the fog rolled in and we couldn't see shore. Interesting!

Spence

Looks like a great trip there, Spence! Yep, it's smallie time, I need to get to Cooke Pond and see if they are sipping dries off the surface out there yet. What flies were you guys using?

And, I'm glad you guys chose not to wear the neon chartreuse member shirts out there on the flats in that crystal-clear water!

"Not sure what this look is?!" Why, Great Lakes Flyrodder!!

Jonathon

Spence great pictures, smallies are such a blast. I have to admit to liking vintage rods, and I have become enamored with the fiberglass rods. Built a epic 5 wt. and tl Johnson 3 wt. fiberglass rods this winter. Now looking at a lami 4 wt. or steffen 3/4. The wonderful about flyfishing is all of the cool things you make for your and enjoy the every aspect of all year long. As for the bay, I fished walleye tournaments for many years there and some really weird things can happen on that body of water.

Mike.

Mike,

That pic of the different colored stones was from the pier/break-wall. We watched as huge schools of minnows swam along it in numbers beyond belief! I was talking to some "hardware" guys there and they said that at night the small-mouth and walleye move in to those areas and just slam those bait fish. I would of liked to have seen that.

The walleye guys show up on the pier early to stake a claim on a good spot and the fishing starts around 9:30.

The guy that got me in to fly fishing built my first rods. He told me recently that he had stopped at a yard sale on a whim and found in a bin the exact model fiberglass rod that was his first fly rod. He bought it and had re-wrapped it. He says it's a bit of a club, but somehow touched a nostalgic cord he didn't realize he had. :)

The first year I went up to Port Austin I had purchased a Rio Outbound Short line. I took a couple steps in to the water and did a practice cast.My line started to move away from me and I couldn't figure out what was up...I played with my drag and finally a fish as long as my arm made a left turn out there and my fly came flying back at me...It was a Gar Pike! The only one I've ever hooked.

I still have an old-school aversion to Carp, though they are becoming popular here. That first year out I had a school swim in and they saw me and turned on a dime and shot out away from me in a second. I had this bias that they were lazy sloths that lounged around all day. Never had I seen them swim like that.

I'm the corresponding secretary for the Michigan Fly Fishing Club. We have put on the Midwest Fly Fishing Expo (formally the "Rod Show") since the 70's. At the show the last couple years a guy has set up a booth and gave talks on the new interest in fiber-glass...I'll try to find his card and get you some info.

Glad you liked the pics...It's a fun time. If you go to our web site www.mffc.org you can look up the outing and I think there maybe a link there to a vid the guy who runs the outing did.


Spence

Looks like a great trip. Glad you found some fish too, Spence.

Spence would that guy be Cameron Mortenson from the fiberglass manifesto? He has done more to for the resurgence of fiberglass as a rod building material than anyone. I need to check your club out, Im a little gun shy about clubs as I was on the board of very popular bow club near flint and the the Saginaw bay walleye club for some years. Talk about getting burned out. Most people do not realize how much work board members and officers do for there clubs and often are criticizes for what they do. My hat is off to you for the work you do for your club. I talked to Mark Steffen Monday and now have 8ft. 3/4 wt blank on the way, cannot wait.
Mike.

Yes that's him. I usually walk one of the headliners at our shows around between where they are supposed to be...Author's Booth, Casting Pond, seminar rooms etc...I introduce them etc...A few years back I had AK Best on day one of the show...So I could actually see some of the show the next day they gave me some intros for the smaller seminar rooms. I introduced him and listened to his talk. He's into it for sure.

It is a nice thing about our sport, there's so many aspects of it we can be obssesive about. :)

Spence