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Undertow

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About Undertow

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  1. If I have to be in the stream or river I always wade upstream. I learned wading the hard way. I've been dunked before but once in the St. Mary's rapid I took a tumble and my waders filled up and pinned me to the bottom sending me thrashing downstream while slamming into boulders. I thought I was done for. I managed to get my head above water but I did lose a 500$ fly rig and a phone. Actually, I've lost a lot of phones. Everything written above is good advice. Just use your head when wading. If it looks like a strong a current be cautious and never get cocky. Currents and rivers change with every step. Also as Mikechell wrote wearing a inflatable life vest is a good idea. Undertow
  2. So me and my buddy got into some fish night fishing last weekend. My friend lost a monster. Anyways we are hooked on night fishing. My friend is now looking at buying a 8wt and rio's glow in the dark line. I'm kind of skeptical of a glow in the dark line. Seems to me everything I have read about night fishing is the less light the better. Anyone have any thoughts on this line or perhaps used it? Thanks Undertow
  3. I'm meeting up with a friend (the one previously mentioned that is to busy to fish but lives around some great water) Saturday night in Grayling to do some fishing. The plan is to get up early and fish the morning bite then go out and scout some water for night fishing. I haven't been keeping up with the hex hatch so far this year so I'm not ruling them out but I want to throw big streamers and wake patterns after dark. My question is anyone want to point me in the right direction for some wadable night fishing water on either the Manistee or Ausable. Also any recommendations for a campsite on or near any of those rivers. Saturday we are staying in a hotel but Sunday we want to have a bonfire and drink under the stars. Pm's are welcome and I hate to ask without giving so if anyone needs any info on the Eastern Upper Pennisula, the rapids, or Canada feel free to shoot me a pm so I can give a some back for all the help I've received on here over the years. Thanks Undertow
  4. natedubay, Thanks for the info and we will definately stop by the Northern Angler. I can't really blame my buddy for not fishing. He's very business minded and this is his first "real" job after graduating college. He's been working really hard to get a business off the ground and as we all know you gotta make that chedda. Thanks again, Undertow
  5. Hello, A good fishing buddy took a job and moved from the U.P to Frankfort Michigan in January. I got a text from him the otherday saying he hasn't fished even once this year. I like most on here feel that is horrible thing so I gathered up the gear he left up here and driving down there Sunday to flyfish. We're planning to chase trout in the morning and throughout the day then try to hit Traverse City Bay for carp later in the day. Can anyone on here give me any help? The trout are not to hard to find. Lots of trout water around there (platte, betsie, pm, manistee are all within driving distance) and our maps can get us to public access points. What I'm really wondering about is access on the bay. I went down there last summer and it was a mad house. I turned around and headed north. Is there any public access to the carp flats on the bay? We will be wading. Anyone have any experience with Hawkins outfitters that is based in the TC area? If so do you think they would point us in the right direction cause we are too poor to hire one of their guides. Thanks Undertow
  6. “Music has always been a matter of Energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel. I have always needed Fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio.” ― Hunter S. Thompson I'm with the Dr. on this one. I have music playing from the time I wake up to when I fall asleep with my headphones on. I need music even when fishing. I understand the majority voice on here that they use fishing to get away from the world but I don't. My phone which has all my music and all aspects of my life is with me while I fish. I try not to text much and It's a rare day when I communicate with an actual phone call but I do use my phone on the river to listen to music, take notes, track the trips expensives, and of course with take really cool pictures with photo software app that is on it. Not to mention that my phone also has gps and mapping software. If I wonder what the river looks like a couple miles up I can pull up the satellite images on my phone. Fishing even with all of these distractions does allow me to focus my thoughts and fishing also brings about inspiration. I'm a teacher and I have an app that allows me to send mass texts to all of my students and parents. Often when fishing I'm thinking about teaching and if a good idea pops into my head I can send it to all of my students right then and there. If I take a cool pic while fishing I can send it to my students via their phones, ipads or put it on my class website and have them post their thoughts on it. But back to the original thread question. When fishing I listen to everything from scratchy gritty delta blues ripped off a 45 through all kinds of metal (TON, Tool, APC, Browning, DKM) then Lil Wayne to all sorts of classic country and all the way to completely digitally made dubstep. The only music I will not listen to is Classic Rock (Van halen, AC DC, Led Zep and etc). All due respect to those bands but they have been beaten into my head since I was a kid. I also try to stay away from the current pop music. I forgot my headphones on a recent fishing trip and had Taylor Swift in my head all day singing "I knew you were trouble when you walked in.Trouble, Trouble". It was horrilble. Undertow
  7. Well I didn't let the snow stop me. I stumbled and trudged my way through at times waist high snow. Not only was hiking hard but the snow spooked all of the fish. As soon as you'd take a step and crash through the crust of the snow the fish would scatter. When we did get close without spooking them the fishing was slow. The fish were very lethargic. I think we got six total and all were dinks. I think it's a little early. I did see a few hendricksons flying around. I'm heading south to the Ausable area in the morning to throw a few feathers. Undertow
  8. 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
  9. 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
  10. Chefben4, Thats exactly what I've been tying up. I have one in all white, white and grey, both with grizzly hackle running the entire length. I bought and tied with the EP fibers prolly 6 years ago but I never really fished them. I have the same kind of eyes as you and I'm worried about how it will fish. Do they spin or will it track straight? I plan to use various sink tips to get the flies down but I've been considering using large lead eyes to make sure they track right. Undertow
  11. Thanks fellas, I'm going to give all of it a little try. I've got a few weeks to experiment before the long days of endless casting begin! Undertow
  12. Hello, With fall approaching quickly I've started tying up large EP fiber streamers for pike and muskie. Any suggestions on EP style materails? J. Stockard has a bunch and I know there are alot of products on the market that are alot cheaper than the EP fibers. Thanks Undertow
  13. Jfish, I live in the Soo and yes the rapids are only on the Canadian side and you will need a wading staff. I almost drowned in them in early April chasing steelhead. I've see your recent posts on MS asking about the rapids. I went accross to Canada to fish Brookies up in the Algoma highlands yesterday and there were a few guys fishing in the rapids when I crossed back over. My guess is they were fishing for steelhead, I'm sure there are still a few around in there. I've never fished the rapids for Atlantics but I have a few friends that fish for them trolling. It's different every year from what they tell me but June may be a little early. Usually they start fishing for them in early July, but this year it has been warmer. I plan to try the rapids this year also for Atlantics but I will waiting for the Hex to hatch. Get on youtube and google St. Marys rapids fishing. There are a bunch of videos. One of them suggest caddis emergers and stonefly nymphs. Soo Canada does have a little flyshop and they may be able to help you when you get up here. Undertow
  14. Druce, I forgot to mention that there is a flyshop in Soo Canada. The owner will probably be able to give you more info on the area's flyfishing. There is also a camping store and the owner will give you info also. Undertow
  15. my plan was to stay on the canada side as i have a ontario licence. I heard about every even year being good, but do they still run enough yearly that they are target-able? I have a 6 weight and really like that kind of light tackle so i wanted to target pinks as they seem to be catchable on a 6. On another note, are there trout on the st. mary's river? My new place is walking distance from the river and on my little bit of off time some bird watching and light fly fishing would be really nice. Thanks for the info undertow. Druce Hard to say what the run will be like this year, the first year me and my buddies caught hundreds when they ran, the following year we only heard of 3 getting caught, then last year when the run was good we caught over 200 in one day between 3 of us. This year who knows, Im sure there will be a few around in the rapids but not schools of 50 or 60 cruising by you like in a good year. A 6wt will be fine, thats what I used last year and it was a blast. Dont get to fancy with flies, I just tied all pink woolybuggers. Cast in front of a cruising school and 3 or 4 will break off the school and chase. Pinks are nice because they actually bite. There's lots of fish in the rapids, in late may early june the steelhead will show up and its not hard to have double digit days, just get there early and secure a spot, by early I mean 4am cause it can get crowded down there. In the summer the atlantics will show up, but being atlantics there finicky when it comes to biting. I know some guys flyfish dry flys during the hex hatch for them on the st. marys. Kings will show up in the fall also but your going to need at least an 8wt with a good reel if you want to try to land one, downstate in the Pere Marquette and Manistee rivers we use 9 and 10wts for kings. I havent made it over to try but there might be some smallmouth in the rapids during the summer. The rapids are about the best your going to get for flyfishing in the immediate area, the rest of the river is not flyfishable. Some of the bays on your side might be flyfishable for pike or smallies. If you head north and into area's like the Superior provincial forest or whatever its called you will find good brookie fishing, also just about all the rivers recieve a run of steelhead in the spring. The garden river on your side is great fishing but access is iffy unless your native. I've heard you can get on it upstream a ways but certain area's unless your native require a native guide. There's lots of water on yourside of the bridge and if you get out and explore, especially north you will find good fishing, I'd be over there exploring more if it was wasn't such a pain to cross back into the states. Undertow
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