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3. A bit more history

Exploring the site I found this picture of the J that I'd never seen before (or had forgotten). Jason and I fished the riffle downstream that day, but the real treat were the spinners we found later that evening. PM me if you know where this is.

That evening rise was fun!

Pretty spot!

I have only fished the Little J that one time when Tony and Bruce took me to that spot that may be called "The Gorge". There is a train that rolls across the ridge behind you.

Saw Bruce go under and pop back up with his fish still on. :)

They had set up a breakfast for me with a guy called the Dean of the Little J...He discussed the high and low marks in the history of the Little J and then he took us out and showed us some spots.

Spence

Bill Anderson. Spence, did he mention the day he spotted for me from high on a cliff as I fished for a big brown during a Darth Vadar hatch? "A few inches to the right," he would say--"no a bit more to the left." He still likes to take partial credit for that fish. And I'm glad to grant it. Prince of a guy, and a very good friend of my main fishing buddy, John Dunn. They know the J like no others. The spot in the photo isn't in "The Gorge."

We did have some fun, how about it,Spence.

Bruce,

Yes we did. It's fun following the good doctor through the mountains chasing trout.

Louis,

The meeting was arranged because it was thought he was a guy that would remind me of Rusty Gates. The both of them love their rivers! It was a wonderful breakfast and it was nice hearing his enthusiasm. It was his idea Bruce and Tony take me to the Gorge.

Hope all is well with both of you! Get tying sirs, opening day fast approaches. :)

Spence

Opening day? What's that?

You are right! This once quaint angling holiday is slipping into history here. With expanded fishing regs more and more water is becoming year round water, and the traditional opening day is disappearing.

I am not so sure we should be hounding our trout year round, but that's for another topic...

Here in Michigan it was always the "Last Saturday in April"...and that phrase had a special ring to it for us.

My fishing mentor Bill and I always said that it wasn't truly "opening day" until we had an omelet at the Grayling Restaurant...This meant, that if we had missed opening day that year and didn't make it to Grayling until May, all those anglers who had fished the last Saturday in April were actually in violation and needed to have their licenses revoked! :)

Spence

With regards to Opening Day, four of my six favorite trout spots are closed right now and won't be open for almost three months. (Of course, according to a friend, they get poached by the locals out of season...) Two of them are iced over, but one of those is open year-round and I've already pulled my first trout of the year through the ice, another nice fat 16" rainbow from Reid Lake. Plus a few perch...and a couple of small pike from Tawas Bay yesterday, and watched my buddy Tim pull in a nice one on a jigging rod, got to fight it. And my local bait shop will take the y-bones out for him!

Trust me though, I will be happy to put the ice drill away and get the fly rods out again. Need to fire up the vice here soon.

Jonathon

Opening day for most of my life has been ice-out. And it doesn't take much...

Where I live in PA there are many all tackle streams that are open all year except for a short period in March when they are stocked. There are also streams with wild trout that are never stocked, like Spring Creek in Bellefonte, that is open every day of the year.

I'm also pretty sure, but not positive, that the WB of the Delaware where my cabin is located is also open all year long with modified limits after September 30.

Therefore I don't have the excitement waiting for Opening Day like I used to have when I was living in New Jersey. The older I get the later I am making my first trip to the Delaware. I used to go up around April 15 but the last few years I rarely get up before May 01. I have to wait for the water to get up to 50-52 degrees for a few days to get some bugs emerging and fish rising.

Growing up in Michigan opening day traditions meant a lot to me, with trout and bass season for fishing and pheasant and deer season for hunting, my used to take out of school for opening day of pheasant season, and then for a week during deer season. Things have certainly changed a lot and I don't feel for the better,

For those of you not familiar with Michigan regulations, about 90% (or more) of our trout waters are closed right now. There are many sections of larger rivers that are open right now, especially if salmon or steelhead runs are present. What's closed are all the smaller streams and tributaries...so almost all of the Pine River is closed right now, but almost all of the Rifle is open (excepting all the tribs). [REDACTED] Pond is currently closed (it is heavily spring-fed so ice fishing there would probably be pretty risky!) but Reid Lake is open year-round. Size limits differ too, on tribs and the most of the Pine you can keep brookies at 7" and browns at 8", but on most of the Rifle the browns and brookies have to be 15" (as do the brookies at the Pond). We have extensive trout stream maps online:

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10364_63235-211883--,00.html

As I said, many of my favorite spots do not open until that last Saturday in April...not too far away now.

Jonathon

P.S. More often than not, though, my fly-fishing season starts downstate on panfish and bass over Easter weekend - my real opening day.