Finally a few salmon are showing up out around the islands. A couple of my friends fished out there over the weekend and while they didn’t have big catches they had some action. It’s always like this at the beginning of the salmon months as fish filter into the area.

It was against this backdrop that I met Kelly and his family at the dock very early this morning. My plan was to  head out to North Manitou and do some salmon fishing, but the brisk east wind wouldn’t let us go. In the past I’ve made the mistake of going to island on an east wind and it wasn’t comfortable after the wind has a chance to build waves over 10 or more miles.  So instead we fished along the first bank and caught some trout on salmon baits. As the morning advanced the wind dropped and we trolled out to the second bank and caught a bunch of trout.

 

Brenda is confident that Nebraska will have few problems in the new conference. She held back her real thoughts which I read as the Nebraska boys are going to stomp the Michigan schools. She didn't say as much, but you could tell that was what she was probably thinking. By the way, nice trout Brenda.

Steve caught some good trout. He’s a University of Michigan guy who moved to Nebraska and will be rooting for Michigan when Nebraska plays Big Ten football.

When I wrote that the salmon were knocking at the door maybe I was a too wishful. This is the latest they’ve every been in my 30 years of fishing at Leland. I’ve looked for them this week on the first bank and out in the passage near the crib and didn’t see any. I did catch good number of trout with the biggest pushing ten pounds. The surface temperature is still in the mid fifties and it breaks to cold down thirty or forty feet. This cool rainy weather hasn’t helped, but warmer weather is coming soon. Maybe those kings will start knocking again.

The trout were hungry as the photos show and we quit fishing for them about half-way through our two-boat trip so we could see if we could find a salmon somewhere off the first bank. Surface temperature was good in the mid 50s, but no salmon bit, although the lead core line did take a hit, but who knows what that was, a trout probably.

The best story came off the other boat when the captain told the young girl who had just caught a trout that she had to wash the slime off the deck with the hose. Without missing a beat she told one of the boys to lay down there too and she would wash all the slime at once. That girl is going to be dangerous when she grows up. Hell, she is already.

The report is that no one fished for salmon today, choosing instead to take advantage of the plentiful lake trout. I did not have a fishing charter this morning and decided to take a final stab at bass and trout on the fly rod before I have to get serious and go get the big lake fish. The inland lake was dark sheet-metal smooth for most of the morning and it was easy to slowly drift in my 14 foot boat and cast. irst giF

The wind was light, the sky blue for the most part, and Craig called to see if we wanted to take his kayaks and chase carp with our fly rods in West Grand Traverse Bay. Sounded good to me and before long we were paddling down the shore looking for “golden bones.”  I remember catching carp as a kid in a little lake in Birmingham, MI. and they came out of dirty, often suspect water. For a kid they were fun, but a game fish?

Then a few years back fly fishing outdoor writers started hyping carp as a valid quarry on a fly rod.  As the notion gained some acceptance the writers kept extending their literary reach by making comparisons to bonefish, the silver-bullet powerhouse of tropical waters. Granted both carp and bonefish are sight-fished, but for my money that is as far as the comparison can go and I say this from having caught more than a few bonefish in my career. Anyway,  I climbed into Craig’s yak and off we went to chase the golden bones.

We saw a lot of carp along the shore, and I had one on very briefly, seconds actually, before the fly came loose. And then there was a short follow from another. Finally I cast to a fish that picked up the brown zonker fly and took off on a long run. The reel didn’t scream like it does witha bonefish, but it did take me well into the backing and the carp did pull the yak a 150 yards before slowing to a give-up. I have to admit that it was fun on a six weight rod.

I’ve changed my opinion of carp. While I still laugh at the notion they are at all equal to salt water gamesters, I have to admit that they are fun and that first run they take is strong if not fast. Carp, are a good time.

Bruce sent this picture of a recently caught salmon. Maybe he'll post a comment and tell us about it.

A reliable report from Frankfort said they are getting some good salmon catches. Now if the kings would just move north a little we’d be smiling. The surface temperature on the first bank was 53 degrees yesterday. That’s just right. If you have your own boat and don’t want to trailer to Frankfort it might be good to Fish out of Leland this weekend and post your results here for other to see.

The first fish of the morning.

Mike is an old friend, avid bird hunter and fisherman. We got together this morning and fished the first bank looking for that first king of the year. We didn’t find one, but did find some good trout.

The heat wave is over and the ice age has returned. Too hot, too cold, I feel like a complainer. So it was good that Craig called and insisted that we go fly fishing even though the conditions weren’t optimal. We headed to the Manistee and started looking for signs of  bugs or fish in the CCC bridge and Three Mile Bend areas. The only bugs were mosquitos  trying to feed on us and  a lonely Isonechia (not sure how to spell that one) that passed near as we watched for fish.  We jumped from spot to spot and saw almost nothing, so we decided to head back to the Boardman and check it out below Sabine dam as the evening grew late. Again nothing and the water looked high from yesterday’s rain and we were hungry and thirsty so we went to Sleder’s and drank draft and had dinner. All in all it was a good fishing trip and we both went home feeling OK.