Northeast Steelheading w/pics

[MSUICEMAN]

Well, scottyhoover and myself went up for an extended weekend of fishing in the Northeast Lower for steelies. First off i want to thank scott for putting me on some steel, even though it took one full day of fishing for me to get ahold of it. What a blast though. Heres a few pics of our adventures...

Thursday we showed up EARLY to make sure we get the spot we wanted as you can see I was definitely tired, but very excited to be out fishin...
http://www.egr.msu.edu/~daleyst1/EarlyBird.jpg

It was a good day with many hookups, with a few fish being landed (yeah, scotty got his limit, I got the stripe)
http://www.egr.msu.edu/~daleyst1/scottlimitsteel.jpg

The second day, after picking up pointers from scott, and getting a little sleep, we headed back there, and I was able to get into a few including this one:
http://www.egr.msu.edu/~daleyst1/stevesteel1blue.jpg

And scott got into one large male (30.5" 8.75lb)
http://www.egr.msu.edu/~daleyst1/scottylargesteel2.jpg

The final tally for the day:
http://www.egr.msu.edu/~daleyst1/stevescott3steel2.jpg

Saturday was a day of adventure, and I took a pic of the Foote Dam crowd in my travels. A few fish were caught, along with a walleye or two.

http://www.egr.msu.edu/~daleyst1/footedam5-3-03.jpg

We then did a fishing/hiking/sightseeing trip on a spot that we were told about, no pics as the walk was long, arduous, and not camera friendly.

All in all, a great time for sure. I musta ended up 2 for 15 or something like that, with one going in between scott's wickets, and another one that a guy snapped me off of when he casted over my line after it was jumping around, argh. Sorry to hear that most of the people planning on going up there had to back out, but that would explain why i couldn't find ya that easily, LOL.

Steve

[northern_outdoorsman]

Great report and nice pics...Some of them backrounds look familar...LOL:D

[MSUICEMAN]

had to do a little doctorin on the photos to keep the exact spot unknown as it can easily be overrun by people. plus it wasn't my spot to be giving away anyways, decided it would be better to err on the side of caution.

was kinda cool as we needed a person to take a pic of both of us, and when we arrived to the parking lot, the first lady we talked to was a DNR creel survey lady, so we got to know exact weights and lengths and what not of our fish, pretty cool.

Steve

[MSUICEMAN]

oh yeah, we threw everything at em, spawn bags (a few fish on these), flies (a few on stone flies), and nymphs.....

we got a few on everything, seemed like you had to throw something that the fish either hadn't seen before or was a natural food for them in that particular stretch.

Steve

[Steely-Head]

NICE JOB STEVE-O!!!! Finally hooked some chrome, did ya? You wil never go back.

[scottyhoover]

Ok here's my 2 bits about the trip:

That first pic of iceman getting out of the car was stamped 3:49am. Are we crazy or what?

Thursday started a little rainy but it was dry by noon and from then on we never saw another raindrop. It took me about 6 hours to finally land a fish, and then I had 3 in the next 3 hours.

Lost a lot of fish Friday, but Iceman got some hookups. His first fish went like a bullet between my legs and SNAP. Bummer, still sorry about that one. So I was very relieved when he landed the next one, the pressure was now off. I got my big male, finally one over 30 inches.

Steve catches a steelie with a stringer already in its mouth. Crazy stuff. Fish were hot for black flies and latex wigglers, or nymphs.

I was on the Ausable Saturday and Sunday for early morning ventures only. I walk about 10 minutes from one of the popular parking lots to a really long and deep hole. I'll say this to the people who fished with the masses.....I had 1/4 mile of river to myself. I had a bald eagle chillin' over me both mornings. Both mornings provided awesome sunrises, but few, very few, fish rises. Each day I hooked one fish from the hole, and lost both battles, one very long, and one very short. Steelhead are funny like that. These last 2 fish will burn in my mind until I get to tackle some steelies again. My spot may be below where the masses gather, and hence there may be less fish, but the view is priceless.

Also tried our small stream skills to no avail, managing one 3 second hookup that ended with my rig in a tree branch. A long walk in the hot sun and we were trying to sneak up on the fish, but they were too smart for us that day.

We ate good food, and fished ourselves into exhaustion. I figure I went about 4/17 on the trip, losing 2 because I was trying to get fancy and beach them instead of netting. Probably lost another 50 shakers on the hookset.

[Walligator]

Looks like you guys had a good time! The pics are real familiar and I can only assume where your 'hot spots' are. It's a great place to fish isn't it? In the fall it's just as great too....don't forget!:)

[steeldrifter]

Looked like a good time guys, ya gotta love those pre 4am ventures in the cold, hard to do for work but simple to get up at that time for some fish aint it;)

Scotty i know what your talkin about man, gettin away from the crowds a wise thing to do...........but i'm 0/1 for the whole year so far(sad isnt it) usally i've landed over 30 by now, so i guess i'll deal with the crowds for one more weekend then say screw it and move on to trout.

Congrats on some nice fish guys:)

STEELDRIFTER

[MSUICEMAN]

yeah, it was a blast. ditto on the getting away from the crowds. half of the ambience of fishing the au sable and what not is the scenery, not the bickering and the thoughtlessness of others. Nothing like getting to the spot before 4AM on one hour of sleep, especially when you haven't slept the entire week before because projects are due for your masters degree. was so thankful for being able to have a mini-vacation the second i was done with everything.

Did we know how to pick the nice weather days or what? No matter what the forecast said (most days rain), all of them turned out sunny and warm (not in the morning though, really chilly). Scott and I have the sunburn to prove it.

No worries about losing fish, as the fight is what i'm more after than the meat, though that is nice from time to time also. Even better is just being away from the hustle and bustle of the city and taking it easy.

Steve

[JWF]

I haven't fished the Ausable in a long time, and your pictures brought back some good memories. Have to be careful with those steelies that take off between your legs. I had one to that to me last year. I wasn't as concerned about losing the fish as I was about it snapping my rod. Fortunately, my tippet broke rather quickly. Your rod gets bent in a way that I do not think it was designed for when a steelie pulls that manuever.

[east bay ed]

scotty,
did you guys hit the small stream you asked me about before? i heard some guys got fish there this weekend.
the nice thing about living up north is being able to fish the river during the week when the crowds are not bad. my last trip to the au sable i was the first car in the parking lot a high banks, then drove to the boy scout hole and seen no one there.
will be there this evening. yaaa

[scottyhoover]

Ed,

We actually skipped that one this time, we were hooking too many fish at the other spots. I saw a guy hook one there last week by the bridge too.....The smaller stream we fished last week is down-state quite a ways. I would bet they are picking up fish up there now though.....I wonder how the water clarity is...that thing has been stained bad all spring.

By the way, yes we are jealous of your location Ed. Each time I see that sign "<-- spruce, hubbard lake", i just shake my head because you're right smack in the middle of it all :)

[east bay ed]

it's not all gravy. i'm from clio and the deer hunting down that way is pretty darn good. also the walleye in the saginaw river get a lot bigger then our fish here.
but i was watching guys on the thunder bay at ninth street after i got a hair cut. and on the way home took a run by the little stream and it is up a little. we have had rain all day yeaterday and on and off today. i will be on the au sable tonight and wednesday morning. i hope the rain will cause them to let some water out of the system.

[davemillertime]

hey guys good to see you got into some fish also sounds like to both had a great time hope your still commin U.P for a long weekend let me know if you are talk to ya soon

[Hemish]

Nice job fellas, thanks for sharing your experiences!