My family has finally come to grips with my newfound love of Trout fishing. Whenever, however I can get to my home away from home I’ll be there. As always when we go to the river there is one certain spot that is always fished first. Daring not to be too descriptive of this place, I’ll skip out on the location of this spot, and just say that if you want to catch Trout this is the spot as long as the Beaver and Otter that frequent this stretch of river stay away. Otter love Trout as much as I do, and you can guess that if he was there first there will not be any fish in there for awhile. Luckily for us Mr. Otter did not pay this hot spot a visit because my first cast yielded a nice 18-inch Brown. Their fight during the winter is somewhat lazy, but they do let you know that they are there. After checking out the color I quickly put her back into the water to grow up and most importantly save such a beautiful fish. I would have kept her but one thing stood between dinner and me and that was Brown Trout are not in season. So there you have it not much stands between food and me; I love the taste of fried Trout and Corndodgers. But state laws are state laws and I will always abide by them. I had a few more hits in that hole but I guess that with all the commotion with the Brown it made them skittish.

When fishing in the river like I do, spawn either from Steelhead Trout or Salmon is for the most part bait of choice. Tied in a sack with 5-6 eggs is the ticket. Put on a number 6 Steelhead or Salmon egg hook with a number 7 sinker preferably a split shot about 12 inches to 18 inches from the hook. The hook is also a short shank rigged weedless. My fishing rod is a Browning Mirage nine foot medium heavy, with a Quantum spin cast reel. I also use Maxima Floro-Carbon six-pound test line, which seemed to do the trick. You can and will lose fish, but with the smaller diameter line, in clear water, like it is here, you can’t see it. If the fish is played right with the drag not set too tight, but not really loose catching Steelhead and even Salmon can be done. Spinner bait is also popular, like the size 0 Martin and what is called a FireTiger design. This color scheme consists of neon yellow, red and orange with or without bucktail really doesn’t seem to matter. I have used both spinner bait and spawn and have produced some nice fish.

Steelheads do stay in the river pretty much during the course of the year. Not like during the spring run but they can be had. Like the Brown Trout that I caught in the Hawg hole, some hundred yards from there is a place where Steelies hang out. On this day I wasn’t fortunate enough to land, or should I say catch one. But my mentor and good friend/brother-in-law Jim did, and I was lucky enough to witness it first hand. It all started when Jimbo made a nice cast about a foot or so from the opposite bank. Nice cast meaning little to no noise when the rig hit the water. Some ten yards from he shelf that drops from 5-8 feet for a mere fifty yards of curves and undercuts in the bank. The line drifted bouncing the bottom just like it is supposed to. You can see the drop off with polarized glasses, but anything that looks like a fish was not present. They usually stay back and down a bit for the same reason, if you can see them eagles and ospreys can too, and in the mind of the Trout that is not good. If they are seen, dinner (the trout) has been served!

The first pass yielded nothing just the ticking of the bottom. The second cast was a different story, in the words of Jim it was a tick, tick, BANG! Either the Trout didn’t see it the first time or the bait wasn’t close enough to waste energy on is really not important. The important part of this situation is that he was on and landing the fish was the ultimate goal as far as we were concerned. The reel sounded with a growling scream, as the fish stripped line from the bail. Then without any warning a jump and a splash, “It’s a Steelhead" Jim said, out loud and with a smile on his face. Loud enough for the whole river to hear, and with a smile that well, kind of reminds you of a child teasing another, that one and only smile that says “I have a Steelhead and you don’t!”. Jim played it for about 15 minutes up the river it went and back to the whole from which she came. Finally she gave up, with net in hand Jim netted her. A beautiful fish in a bright chrome color with a hue of pink down the center. “ Nice fish!” I announced. “Keeper too” said Jim. 27 inches and at 7 pounds rough estimate on our part. Still smiling from ear to ear “Your turn, Mike” said Jim. “Yeah, my turn” I said. And we went on fishing the entire river; my turn never surfaced so to speak that day, but at least I wasn’t skunked either. That Brown, my Brown is still swimming around out there somewhere growing bigger. The Trout, that beautiful chrome on chrome steelie made it to the fry daddy. Another trip to the Jordan will be in the works or maybe the Boyne River, found some good holes there too.