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throwinflys

MICHIGAN TROUT OPENER! whats in your box?

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ok so plans are all set up. the weather looks like i'll be stretching my fishing trip out till wednesday! as i said earlier, i'll be with my grandpa and i'm wondering if you guys know any good shallow stretches to wade?

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THOSE ARE BOTH GREAT PATTERNS! i just found a 3 person drift boat that i rented for monday and tuesday in mio! i'm pretty confident this will be the best year of fishing i've ever had! i've learned so much in the last year that i was missing in 6 years prior. Thank you to this site for being a GREAT resource for learning.

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My box for opener will have....night crawlers, hooks, sinkers, and....a snowshovel. We still have 3 ft of snow in the woods up here in the U.P. Now I know what your thinking....why is this guy posting about worm dunking on a flyfishing website...well, don't freak out. If I was anywhere but this over grown wasteland that we call the Eastern U.P I'd be flyfishing. The brookies up here live 3 ft up under the banks and logjams. Drift any fly you got to them (trust me I've tried them all) and they won't bite. Drift a crawler to them and you will get a bite. Opener for me is Sunday. I will drive 30 mins to the creek, walk another 5 mins, and leave 10 mins later with my limit of brookies between 13-16 inches and that is just at the first hole, they're prolly a dozen more within a mile on this particular creek all full of the same size brookies so it's not even worth the walk. I'll break out the fly gear and institute my no kill policy for all fish and head to L.P or up into Canada in a month or so when the opener crowds have left rivers like the Ausable and the bugs start hatching good.

 

Undertow

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Undertow, you failed to mention the particular creek. We have a place between Munising and pictured Rocks on Sam Adams trail (Kingston Lake), and there are many of those places in that area, and I agree, little pearlies with worm are the ticket!

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Actually fellas I'm a little worried about this trip. I haven't worm dunked in years. I wonder if I still got it. Oh wait....it's worm dunking. I got this. I'm also kind of concerned about killing and eating a few brook trout. What follows is a true story and one of the main reasons I gave up killing brook trout.....Let's flashback a few years. It's a normal mid-August day up here in U.P. Cloudy and a little windy. For the past few months I have been woo'ing a lady and it's time for her to head south for the school year. I figure as one last hoo-rah I would cook her a brook trout dinner. I shoot down to the creek and I'm back on the road in ten minutes with two 13 inch brookies. Two drifts, two fish, didn't even lose my crawler. All standard for this creek. So I get back home clean the fish, clean the house, set up the table..yada yada. Text comes through that my lady friend is on her way and I remember the guts in the trashcan. Well this girl may be a yooper but she's squimish (now a full on vegan) about fish guts so I run them out to the dumpster in the back of house. Well I'm walking back from the dumpster and out of nowhere lightning strikes the ground not 15 feet from me. It scares me sh**tless. I even stumbled backwards and trip. My neighbor who seen it from his porch came running thinking I got zapped. I wasn't smoking and I didn't have any new super powers so it missed me. Me and my neighbor couldn't figure out where the lightning came from since it wasn't storming. I left my anti-mind reading tin foil hat inside. So my only conclusion is that whatever ju ju or karma or whatever pulls the strings on all things doesn't want me killing brook trout. I haven't killed one since. So Sunday I will be keeping an eye to sky. If you read in the newspaper Monday morning that a freak lightning strike killed a guy in the U.P you will know I filled my creel.

 

Undertow

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Nice story Undertow. See I would have taken the lightning to mean that I should tell the lady that she shouldn't be coming to the house after all and then go catch some more fish.

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I'll be south of Lovells, where the North branch and Big Creek cross North Down river road. Family cabin there. I'm a bit worried about the water because here in Grand Rapids we were at a record high the other day. I'm switching tactics this opener and only going to nymph. (Ok, I have some Hendricksons in the box to make me feel better, but it's 90% nymphs)

 

Undertow... the rest of my family is like you, they drown worms on the opener, and then fly fish the rest of the year. I have one 10 year old cousin that will probably join me with a fly rod, but the rest are going all in with the worms. And even though I'll only cautiously admit it, I eat the hell out of trout. I know that is sacrilege for alot of people, but I only eat wild game so I have to work for it if I want to eat meat. I am also that guy who willingly shoots and eats mergansers, it's that bad...

 

Throwinflies... if you can grease it (and it's not weighted), you can fish it as a dry. It can be a really productive technique. Float it until it swings, then strip the heck out of it back to you. Try it with a woolly bugger with shorter stiffer, hackles and no beadhead, or a crackleback fly. Can be savage on the take. Unless you're throwing pike streamers with your 4 wt, you're fine. The great thing about this site is how even experienced guys can learn a thing or two.

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