Got Water?

I was able to get out and do some fishing this week. I was able to fish an hour or so in the mornings. The creeks are very low at this time. The fish are concentrated in the deeper pools. Here is a fine steelie that I caught on Sunday morning. We covered a lot of water that would normally hold good numbers, but the water was so low no fish were to be found. We finally found them in an old standby pool.

The fish gods were also good to me on Tuesday morning. This fish had three awesome jumps. I was very lucky to land him.


Wednesday morning I landed a Coho and a steelhead in less than a half hour of fishing.


This Coho smashed one of my flo. pink, #3, custom spinners. This fine fish took on my first cast into the hole.


Here is John with a real bruiser.


As usual the Meppsman is putting in a ton of time on the water. He has landed some very nice fish over the past few weeks. Here he is with a real magnum steelhead. This monster took a #3 pink spinner.


Here is 20 month old Caroline with her first custom fishing rod. She is already showing fine form and may be ready for her first encounter with a bluegill soon.

How Far Can You Cast?

I had the opportunity to attend an American Casting Association long distance casting tournament this past weekend. The Chicago Casting Club put on the event in my home town of Valparaiso. Casters came from all over the Midwest and Kentucky. I went wanting to compete in one event and then to watch the other events in anticipation of getting my feet wet and doing a little research for future competitions that I might enter. The events included; 5/8oz. 2/Hand Spin, 5/8oz. 2/Hand Rev. Spool, 1/4oz. Spin, Angler's Fly, Single Hand Fly, 2/ Hand Fly.

All the competitors were very friendly and eager to help a newcomer out. These guys were all veterans of the casting games and all had highly specialized custom rods for each event. After seeing the rods these guys were pulling out of there trunks I decided to leave my tackle in the car and just spectate the rest of the day. Then one of the guys offered to let me use some of his tackle. Needless to say he did not have to twist my arm.

The 2 hand reversible spool (bait casting) rods, consisted a small custom reel, minus the level wind and line guide, and a 13 foot rod. The rods were extra fast and needless to say built for long distance casting, not fishing.



The spinning rods were also very long, fast, and held reels with custom spools, made for long casting. The reels had no bails to avoid accidental closing during a cast. The guides on the spinning rods were also highly customized. The tip tops were approximately 20mm and the guides closest to the reel were 60mm to 80mm. The large diameter guides are too big to have the rod fit into a rod tube, therefore casters have removable guides on their spinning rods, some even had them on their casting rods. The large diameter guides keep line to guide friction minimal during the cast. Both spinning and reversible spool reels had a 20 foot length of 20 pound spectra-fiber braided line attached to 6 pound test diameter monofilament line. The braided line could handle the torque the caster put on the line at the release of the cast.

Fly casting events consisted of 2 handed fly, single handed fly, and anglers fly casting. The competitors also had highly customized rods. I casted in the anglers fly event. The rod I was loaned was a 9 foot 2 inch rod, that was the equivalent of a 14 weight. The line consisted of a 300 grain shooting head and leader combination and a running line of .015 diameter. The flies at the end of the tippet were simple flies, with yellow hackle. The hook was cut off at the shank, before the bend.

I competed in the 2 handed spinning event and the angler fly event. In the 2 handed spinning event my longest cast was 287 feet. The winning cast for the 2 handed spinning event was 310 feet. My best cast in the anglers fly event was 108 feet. That was a bit disappointing for me, because I had done much better in practice. The winning cast in the anglers fly event was 140 feet. With the proper tackle and some practice I think I could be very competitive in these events. I think I did ok considering I had never touched the rods I competed with before and have really not done much fly casting, especially double hulling, in the past 4 or 5 years.

Here is a really neat reel the one of the casters was showing off. It is a custom Mitchell 300, with a 13:1 gear ratio. Now that is a true high speed reel.

Why I fish for Steelhead

The fish pictured below is a muskie, not a steelhead. Catching other fish species gives me a greater appreciation for steelhead. I have spent a fair amount of time in pursuit of esox and have become fairly good at catching them. I would say that per angler hour chasing muskies, I can catch as many as the top pro's out there can. I have not fished for muskies for many years, but it only took me a few minutes to get back into the swing of things. I think most musky anglers go overboard with heavy tackle. I my opinion lighter tackle will catch more muskies. Light tackle will also not fatigue an angler as quickly. Just like any other fish species, muskies can become very line and lure shy, when being pressured by many anglers, over the course of a summer. Muskies become educated very quickly, especially on popular muskie lakes.

I have caught most of my muskies on medium bass tackle. My reels are generally spooled with 8 pound test monofiliment. I normally do not use any kind of steel leader to my lures, but if I am fishing a short bodied lure, like a spoon, I prefer lighter 30 pound test titanium leaders. On my last trip over Labor day weekend to Minocqua Wisconsin, I made a 15 pound test fluorocarbon leader for a bit more protection from bite offs. I have personally never had a muskie bite me off while using longer twitch baits. My favorite is the 7 inch floating Rapala that is hanging out of the pictured fishes mouth. That lure is about 15 years old and has the battle scares from many encounters with esox.


I have caught my fair share of muskies over the 40 inch mark. While catching a muskie is exciting, the fight is a bit anti-climatic. The most exciting facet of musky fising is that most of them strike near the boat on the first change of direction of the lure on a figure 8 maneuver. After the initial strike muskies fight poorly, even on light tackle. I have brought the Villon of the north to hand quickly on 4 pound test momofiliment. Ultra light tackle makes fighting muskie more challenging, but in the end the bruisers are still bested easily.

Pound for pound the streamlined steelhead out fights the mighty muskie every time. If I were to tie a 10 pound steelhead and a 10 pound muskie tail to tail, the steelhead would drag the musky all over the lake. Steelhead have explosive speed and powerful jumps. Steelhead continue to fight hard until the bitter end. It is true that steelhead do not grow to the enormous proportions that muskies do, but their shear fighting power more than makes up for it.

Fishing for other species is a nice change of pace and muskies are a great challenge, but I prefer to spend most of my fishing time hunting steelies. Steelhead will smash a spinner at the bank, just as a muskie will engulph a bucktail right at the boat. A muskie will jump on occaision, but a Skamania steelhead will put on an arial display that can only be bested by a stunt pilot in an air show. A steelheads speed, power, and stamina, are hard to beat.

Spinners for sale.

I am getting back into the tackle business on a small scale. I currently have spinners availible in #3 french blades. Color options include brass, brass/green, silver, silver/pink, silver/flo.red, chartreurse, orange, and pink. Painted blades are painted on both sides. The blades are have an .025 inch thickness and spin effortlessly. I sell them 4 for $10.00. I am also building rods again. I can build any rod to anglers specs. Coming soon I will have number 4 blades in the above colors and I will be adding a few colors. For those of you that liked the old single siwash hooks on your spinners, they are also coming soon.


This is an extra small business. I will take orders over the phone between 6am and 6pm 219-916-4429. You can order by email Daveatcreekside@yahoo.com. I will have them up on Ebay soon.

Thanks,

Dave

The Run Has Started!

This summer was one of the worst summers I can remember for steelhead fishing. Warm harbor temperatures kept the fish out in the lake for nearly this entire summer. Pier fishing was only good for a few weeks in early June and then the fish fled to more comfortable water temperatures out in the lake.

Here is a real creek report. There are fair numbers of fish in the Indiana creeks at this time. The bulk of the fish are Skamania Steelhead, but there are a few King and Coho Salmon coming in. I wish I had more time to fish for them.

Here is Meppsman with a nice steelie from a few days ago. This fish slammed a silver/pink spinner.

The water levels are low at this time and the streams are clear. Small neutrally colored presentations will will hook the most fish.

Here is Meppsman with a nice King from a few weeks ago.

The steelies are very healthy and running large from the extra time they have spent in the lake eating this year.

It took me all of five minutes to hook into this beast this morning. This fish took a wax worm presentation. I like to thread one or two waxies onto the hook shank and then I hang one off the point. This method hides the hook and produces more strikes.

For spinner guys the best spinners are smaller black, brass, or orange #3's. The fly guys should fish #10 green caddis larva and black stones. Egg patterns will be best in a few weeks as the salmon start to spawn. Small bait presentations are most effective now. Dime sized spawn bags, pea sized shrimp, wax worms, and small squid strips will be most productive.

A big thanks to the DNR for putting us on these fish. :D

White Lake

Lisa and I spent this past weekend in Whitehall Michigan at the Michillinda Lodge. Michillinda is located on Lake Michigan close to White Lake in the town of Whitehall.

One of the most noticeable features of the drive up to to Michillinda are the decorative light posts that lead up to the lodge.
Here is a shot of the Michillinda Lodge. In the picture the lodge looks grand, but on closer inspection it is really badly in need of a paint job.
Here are Lisa and I on the landing down at the beach. The lodge sits up on a bluff about 100 feet above the beach. The weather was pretty bad. It rained most of the weekend and we did not spent too much time outside.
The first night we stayed in another building next to the main lodge. Here is the view off our balcony.
Here is a great shot of a rainbow, I got in between rain storms.
Here are a few shots of the lodge's interior. The pictures make it look nicer than it really is. Most of the furniture is well worn and the carpet needs to be replaced.


The restaurant was very nice and all the windows overlooked Lake Michigan. Here is Lisa at out breakfast table the first morning.
We spent most of the weekend sight seeing and visiting places that I had been to as a boy over 20 years ago. Here are a few shots of the White Lake Lighthouse.

Here are a few shots of the view out of the top of the lighthouse. In this picture you can see the White Lake Channel. The end of the far break wall was my favorite boyhood smallmouth bass spot. Many smallmouth bass met their demise off the end of that breakwall.
Here is a shot of the the Lake Michigan side of the channel. Waves were breaking over the pier heads all weekend long.

The Pigeon Hill Family Resort and Old Channel Inn are still there and have not changed in 20 years. The cottages I stayed in as a boy were still there and had not changed a bit.
The folks The Old Channel Inn still cooked up a great cheese burger.

Here are some pictures of Armstrong's Bait and Tackle in Whitehall Michigan. Lisa called it Shitty's Bait Shop. She was so grossed out by the place that she had to shower when we returned to the Lodge. This shop was awesome. Bass Pro or Cabelas have nothing on this place. It is the way tackle shops should be. This shop was exactly the way I remembered it from 20 years ago.
There are thousands of fishing rods thrown around everywhere. I spotted at least 6 old mangy dogs laying around on the dirty floor. Most of the dogs were by the three wood burning stoves that heated the place.
If you wanted a specific rod it would take hours to find it, but I guarantee they had it. Everything was covered with a healthy layer of dust.
There were thousands of lures hanging from the ceiling and anywhere else you could hang a lure.
More Lures.
There was not enough room in this shop for everything they had in there, so they just threw the overstock on the floor. Every angler should stop in and buy something at Armstrong's. We need to keep small town shops like this in business for our kids to enjoy. I know I could have spent at least 2 full days in there.

Here are a few shots of nearby Duck Lake State Park. It rained most of the weekend, but we snuck out to Duck Lake to hike a bit. Duck Lake SP is just a few miles from the Michillinda.

Sweet Caroline

The big news this month is that Lisa and I are going to be having a baby girl. We have decided to name her Caroline. We should be meeting her around the first of February. Here is a picture of Caroline's most recent ultrasound. If you notice the small line above here body, I think that is a tiny fishing rod that will be growing along with her, so she can start fishing right away.....Just Kidding.



The other big news in the Northwest Indiana region is that we got nearly a foot of rain in a 24 hour period last week. The bad news was that it caused extensive flooding. Interstates were closed for nearly a week, basements were flooded, and schools were closed. The good news is that the high water brought in a tremendous run of Coho Salmon. The average Coho has been around 16 inches, but the numbers more than make up for the small size. An average angler can catch 40 Ho's in a day. A good angler can account for 100 in a full days fishing. One in ten Coho will be over 20 inches.


The Coho fishing has been great and the steelhead fishing has also been good. There are also a few King Salmon in the streams. There are so many Coho that I think it it hard for the other fish to get the bait. The Crew and I have been having a great week. I never thought I was going to land this magnum steelhead.


The Meppsman has been hitting the creeks hard this week Here he is with a fine King.


The Badger has been playing hooky from work the fishing has been so good. Here he is hard at work with a fine King.



Here is John with a fine steelie.


Skein Jesus has been has been spotted on the creeks again. He has been putting up big numbers with his float rod.


Bruce emailed me this pic of his Godzilla Steelhead. He caught the great fish somewhere in Wisconsin, but would not give me the exact location.