cnr

Yep. Nice fish...wherever it was caught. Wrong markings for one of our streams. I don't think I have ever seen that coloration here.

Yep, hard to beat. Simple, effective, just plain works.

I think my first fish came on an old Mitchell 300 spinning reel. The bail springs were awful on those. Oh, and the first fish I ever caught was a sail catfish out of a Florida canal.

I wouldn't use a 6wt rod. Too light to handle the fish. Remember that some of the Salmon will be 25lb+ and will be fresh out of the lake. Using a light rod would be frustrating. I have hooked well over a 1,000 steelhead and salmon over the last 25 years and my rod of choice is an 8wt 9' for the little manistee. The extra backbone gives you the ability to turn the fish and control them a little better. You notice I don't say "fight" the fish. I have found with the big fish the harder you pull the harder they fight. You want to put yourself in a position to turn the fish and steer them the way you want. Not always easy but it takes some planning during and before the battle. I'm always cognizant of where I want to move the fish and hazards to avoid (logs, brush, etc). These fish are too strong to get in a straight up tug of war on such small water

Ha, that's for sure. I haven't been on the river in weeks. :-(

Agreed..this topic took a bad turn. It started out as Family, Friends, and Bronze. Let's get back to those types of topics.

I will go $650 on the Coosa. :-) But, don't do it. Keep your gear and keep fishing. Don't let a few bad people ruin your passion for a sport you love.

If you are fishing the lower stretches early in the Salmon season you can fish streamers or hardware pretty successfully. The early season fish are still feeding and will hit an offering that imitates a minnow. After they have been in the river a little while they will start getting into full on spawn mode and nymphing becomes the norm. But those fresh early season fish will hit aggressively if you can find them. They will be stacked up in certain lower river holes so you may have to cover some ground to find them. Floating the river is to your advantage so you can cover some ground and find them.

Nice fish and great times with family, that's hard to beat! I'm jealous.

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Best summation by Al. Let the water eliminate itself. Love it.

Yes. the law is written that you can exit the river to go around anything you deem as a hazard. But, like here in Missouri some landowners can be a little unforgiving, especially on the PM.

GIMP is a free cross platform image editing tool that is the best choice out there. It is a very robust program that will probably give you all the tools you need. http://www.gimp.org/

The Pere Marquette is a pretty river and a popular destination. I haven't trout fished in it, only fished for Salmon and Steelhead. I would recommend talking to Steve or John at BBT (Baldwin Bait & Tackle) for information on the PM. You can check out their website www.fishbaldwin.com, it has a great active forum like we do here. If you are interested in going a little north back up by the Pine I would recommend the Hodenpyle, it's supposed to be very scenic. Talk to the guys at Schmidt outfitters for info on the Hodenpyle. Another few options would be the Betsie or Platte. Lots of water to float and fish in that area of Michigan. I have been Steelhead fishing up there every Spring since 1987 and have become very familiar with that region. Some day I intend to try out their Smallmouth fishing, it's kind of overlooked since everyone is after cold water species.

It's tragic yes. But, I don't really feel bad for people who knowingly put themselves in harms way and then suffer the consequences. Kind of like a NASCAR driver who gets injured, it was his (or her) choice to go 200 mph. I choose to downhill ski, scuba dive, etc, if I get injured I took the risk. What I do feel bad for are the innocents who are harmed by something not of their volition. But it does happen, life goes on.

I stand corrected, I did not know this was a requirement. Too bad they don't remove the date limitations and make it mandatory for all.

I think anyone operating any boat should have to be educated on it's use and acquire a license to operate it. And that license should pertain to the type of boat it is, jet, multi-engine, sail, whatever. You need to pass a special permit test for motorcycles, why not boating? Any person with enough cash can buy a multi-engine boat that goes in excess of 100 mph with no training involved. That's just plain dumb.

Same for me. 2 weeks ago everything was over 16" and were fat n sassy. The other day we caught tons of small fish and only 2 15" fish. Maybe all the big fish are on deeper beds? I saw some small ones on shallow beds but nothing of any size. Well. I'm at least in great company right now!

I know it would be a pain but I would be in agreement about having some sort of classes or licensing to operate any watercraft be it powered by paddle or motor. Water safety is no joke and you will all admit it takes only a few seconds to turn a great day into a tragedy. We make everyone get a license to operate a car for a reason. Does it eliminate accidents or prevent careless driving, no. But it does help to provide basic instruction and I couldn't imagine how bad the roads would be if everyone could just get in a car and drive without training. We will never get rid of the lunkheads on the river or the street, but having some training and enforcement of the rules sure would help on the rivers and lakes. I'm not trying to propose taking away anyones freedoms but rather protecting our safety. Admit it, most of us don't go near the rivers on weekends (or go very early) to avoid the bad things that happen when hundreds of people are flipping, crashing, cursing, and defiling every gravel bar on the river. If a few hours of courses and a permit/license could improve the situation I only see it as a positive. Of course it is all easier said than done. :^)

Picked this little guy up from a riffle the other day while fishing a Big river trib. Looks like it may be an Orangethroat Darter in spawning colors but I don't really know. Anyone seen these before?

Crooked is running at 11.7 and 165 cfs. That's a nice level to fish it by my experience. Last year it ran low (like everything else) and was around 9.5 most of the summer. We still caught fish but it was not optimal water.

A good rule of thumb for me is about 1 mile per hour of fishing. With the water levels up as they are now I go a little faster since the current pushes you along through the holes. When it is really hot like last summer I don't do as long of a float since some time is spent in the water cooling off.

+1 on this

That's easy, let the wife win! Pick your battles. Nice looking pup.

Another consideration is that the sand areas are probably the slowest flow areas. If the sand is dropping out and forming a sand bar it has to be low flow. Great spot for wintering bass to hold and have a shot at feeding too.