Steeldrifter

Oh yeah,i forgot to mention i also carry $200 in a ziplock bag SD

I never have saltwater fished but thats just because i have never had the chance to do it. Here in michigan it seems like i am always busy traveling within the state chasing runs from river to river and havent been out of state much,come to think of it i think i have only left MI twice in the last twenty some odd years. Once to canada for a trip for browns and 2 years ago to NC for rainbows. I would like to try fishing the flats somewhere for bone fish though,i always have thought it would be a big "rush" to have a guide pole along on a flat and see a bunch of fish "tailing". Even though i might not get a chance to do it for some time to come i will still read this forum though because i think the saltwater aspect of fly fishing/tying is very interesting! SD

Oh man what a question well here go's: box of dries box of nymphs box of streamers box with terrestrials and odd flies WAY to many tippet spools split shot/wieght floatant spray "shake" fly dry mini-mag light LED head lamp cigareets/lighter cigars small canteen of water leader wallet spare spool with FS line complete spare reel cell phone "pelican" style flash light with clip for hat sandwich tape measure wipe cloth for polarized sunglasses water proof matches tolit paper hand sanitizer 5" buck knife gerber multi-tool forceps small box of indicators dig cam .......huh whys my neck always hurt? i've got 34 pockets and use em' all! if you ever fish with me i guarentee if you need somthing i will have it.......it just might take me 20min's to find it! SD

Well smallie thats kinda a hard question to anwser,i voted trout but thats just because trout season lasts from spring thru the early fall.Plus you can fish for trout every year without having to worry about the "run" like you do with salmon/steelies. Now if the question was worded as what species i "enjoy" fishing for it would be steelhead! But because of poor runs,bad weather,and just plain not as long of a season i dont get to fish for them as much as i do trout. SD

Hey Dornug like OSD said bootfoots are much warmer but if you have stocking foot waders like me theres a couple things you can do. I know what your talkin about with the snow clumping up on the felt,i went through a year fighting that problem,walkin 6" higher on one side than the other If you dont have a pair of bootfoot breathables then you can do what i do in the winter. I have an old pair of wading boots that the felt was just about worn off and the uppers were a little worn. Well after getting a new pair i scraped the rest of the felt off the old pair and bought some strap on clets from bass pro. now i dont have to worry about the "clumpin" snow and i still have a decent grip on snow and ice. Plus you can unstrap them in the boat so you dont ruin your boats floor. SD

Would like to give ya a few tips Smallie,but after going to breathables i never looked back! even on the coldest days. Although the older i get the colder i find my feet getting SD

I know there are alot of fellow michigan boys on this site and also a few of you folks from south of the MI. state line who enjoy the beautiful Pere Marquette river so i wanted to post a letter that was sent to me from the Baldwin ranger station. The ranger for the town of baldwin(Leslie Russell) was nice enough to forward this letter to me due in part to some work i have been tryin to do with them on getting more trash cans at public access. The letter i recieved is as follows:UPCOMING MEETING CONCERNING CHANGES TO THE PERE MARQUETTE.......... In 1978 PL_625 designed a 66.4 mile stretch of the mainstream of the Pere Marquette river as a Scenic River under the Wild and senic rivers act with managment responsibilities delegated to the U.S.F.S. The designation included a corridor of approximatly one-half mile in width totaling about 13,000 acres. Also in 1978,the state of Michigan designated the entire Pere Marquette River and its tributaries as a Michigan Natural River under the authority PA231 of 1970. This resulted in implementation of zoning regulations that restrict development adjacent to the river to safeguard enviormental and aesthetic values. The Pere Marquette is a naturally productive,free flowing,high quality stream that maintains large populations of brown trout and provides spawning grounds for steelhead and salmon. The watershed includes an abundance of wildlife habitat that provides opportunities for hunting and wildlife observation. These qualities are the reason that the Pere Marquette was designated a Scenic River and must be managed under the law to mantain these unique values. SCENIC RIVER PLANNING In 1983 the USFS approved its first managment plan for the Pere Marquette corridor. The plan was updated in 1990 based on an updated process recommended in the 1983 plan. The 1990 update recognized and focused primarily on the increasing recreational use of the river and accommodating that use in an environmentally sensitive manner. It included "hardening" and better screening of some public access sites and campgrounds,placing designated parking areas 100 or more feet from the river,providing walk-in access to better distribute fishing pressure,and developing watercraft user rest stops without public vehicle access to reduce tresspass on private lands. 13 years have passed since the last update to the river managment plan. Many of the ideas for accommodating river use in the 1990 plan have been implemented and are in place today. However,use has continued to increase. Changes in use,concerns about impacts on the qualities for which the corridor was designed(both social and environmental),and a need for continuous planning are the rationale for an update to the USFS Pere Marquette River Scenic Managment Plan. THE LIMITS OF ACCEPTABLE CHANGE PLAN The plan update will be developed using a process called "Limits of Acceptable Change"(LAC). This process was initally developed for planning in wilderness areas. However the LAC process applied to the managment of the Pere Marquette will help mantain the soecial values and beauty of the river for which it was desugnated a Wild and Scenic River. LAC is a six step process that revolves around compromise and identifying the priority of multiple managment goals, making it an ideal way to update the managment plan. The steps are: 1. Identify concerns,issues and goals,agreeing that some goals may be in conflict. 2. Establish that all goals must be comprimised to some extent. 3. Decide which goal(s) will ultimatly constrain the others by establishing their effects on one another. 4.Define indicators of goals(e.g. dissolved oxygen levels as potential indicator of water quality and the ability to support aquatic life)and standards(lowest acceptable level of dissolved oxygen based on standard sampling practices) and monitor the goal in relation to these indicators. 5. Allow the ultimately constraining goal(s) to be compromised until the written standard is reached(the limit of acceptable changes). 6.Compromise the other goals so that the ultimately constraning goal(s) limit of acceptable change is never violated. With all that said..... There is a meeting for anyone that uses the Pere Marquette river on November 19th at 7:00pm at the Pleasent Plains township hall in baldwin michigan. To be discussed at the meeting: Water Quality fish populations Presence of liter Public access Number of river users level of regulation sence of personal security SD

LOL i have seen that before OSD thats funny as hell! Thanks for the Dam post SD

DAMN CHRIS.....BABY GOT BACK!

Hey smallie ya back? how'd ya do? Hope ya got some good reports & pics! SD

ROTFLMAO 200#test Thats great OSD i had to watch it twice...hehe! SD

Hey dornug i do have a seat in the back and want the setup to be as "convenient" as poss. The adapter is just so that you can take the mount on and off easily right? SD

You know this just gave me a good idea OSD,i have a very tight brushy stream down in this part of the state that i like to fish early in the spring and there are some parts of it that are only 10-15' wide(alot of parts actully) so some trips i just take a ultralight outfit and use tiny panther martians since i havent bought a 7' fly rod that i've been eyeing yet. But the bubble trick could give me a shoot at drifting some nymphs past the little browns that live there next spring if i still havent broke down and bought that rod by then. SD

Hey OSD i just took a look at that link you put up,and thats a great way to rig up for panfish with a fly. Its been some years now,but i used to use a small "bubble" on my ultralight spinning outfit with a "tiny" white jig for crappie's in the impoundments on the au sable. Did very well with this method i must say so i can see how replacing the jig with a fly would be deadly. Great tip! SD

No problem SH69 i have seen those mounts on some of the boats on the rivers around here but i didnt know what they were called and i seem to have miss placed my cabeleas and bass pro catalogs right now Thanks again guys! SD

QUOTE (Big Daddy Hubbard @ Nov 1 2003, 07:36 PM) am I correct in assuming that with a name such as your real name, that you are of Scot or Irish descent, therefore you are like myself and millions of other white boys...ain't got no shaft length to begin with!!!! How did i know that was coming!.....i tried to word that question so it wasnt to easy of a target for you BDH.lol Dornug....very cool,i checked that out and it looks like just the ticket for what i need. Thanks much for the link! SD

Sorry i have steelies on the brain SD

Thanks SH69,yupp its a glass boat and it will accept a motor up to 10hp. As far as the rivers here in michigan we dont have the type that you have out there,theres only one section of the pere marquette that has "white water"(rainbow rapids) but the rest of that river and the others are pretty much just a decent moving current nothing to fast. And we have the same deal with registering boats here also. SD

Red you use a rod that is about 9'-11' and most are called "noddle" rods,then you run about a 6# main line down to a small #14black 3 way swivel. On the dropper part of the 3 way you tie about 6" of #4 line and put your split shot on that or some guys run a stick type wieght instead of the normal shot. Than you run your leader of about #4 from the swivel to your fly(s) usally this will be about 4'-7'. Thats pretty much it,you can just drift it in a normal way and do very well on steelies with this method. SD

Yupp there's certian places on rivers here in MI (and i'm sure you know where i'm talkin about OSD) where thats the way you have to fish if you want to fish those spots just because of the elbow2elbow conditions! I also would rather fish with fly rod in a gentle brezze if any.....but here in the great lakes basin the spring winds comin in off the huron/lake michigan can be more than just a nusence! I'm with ya on this one OSD,ya just have to do what you can with the conditions at hand. SD

Hey guys,i know some of the members on this site own or ethier have exp. with drift boats(shoe,dornug) so i have a question i could use some advice on. I have a 97' hyde high side drift boat and i'm gonna be lookin into putting a motor on it before the winter since theres a few rivers i plan to fish this winter for steelies that dont have a takeout futher down stream. So i have heard some different opinions on different sites over the last year on what works for certian boats and am a little confused as to what i should look for. One thing i am wondering is if i will need a "long shaft" motor? My buddy has a short shaft 5hp and i'm not sure if the motor will sit in the water far enough or not with the short shaft. The other thing is will a 5hp be enough to push a 17' drift boat up stream against the current on say the au sable or big Mo? Also my anchor is mounted right in the center of the back of the boat so i guess it will need to be moved so that it's offest? will that effect the way the boat holds position in the current when anchored? Thanks fellas,just tryin to get the boat ready before the snow hits here in MI SD P.S......Big Daddy if i hear one comment about my "shaft length" from you...IT'S ON!! lol

Congrates Jim,and i agree with OSD i have always thought that having you here was a huge bonus to all of us here on the site. Also i just checked out your site and the first thing i saw was the "send a thank you to the military" link......I gotta say Jim i am a huge supporter of our troops and seeing that on your site was enough to let me know that you are the kinda person that i will be glad to help support by getting equipment through! One question Jim,since you are closed till feb 1st can will still get stuff through you? SD

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Damn now i feel sorry for myself stuck home all weekend! Oh well,hope ya have some stories about tyin into some fresh silver bullets when ya get back smallie. SD

Hey guys i'm a proud uncle so bear with me for a second here..lol. Just wanted to share a pic of my niece kristina(6) and my nephew cody(9) in their holloween costumes tonight. I dont have any kids of my own but i am lucky enough to have a beautiful niece and nephew that live only a few blocks from me so they wanted me to go with them and my sis tonight since my brother in law had to work. ahhhh to be young again!