Michigan Steel 4/10 - 4/4/14 2017

[ozark trout fisher]

Beautiful pictures. 

If someone does me the courtesy of showing me one of their favorite streams, and it's not either huge or super famous, I usually wouldn't reveal it without their permission. I might even have one or two "definitely not secret but still not naming it on a public forum" spots in Northern Michigan. The problem is that even though most places you are actually fishing are very rural, you're often in day-trip distance of Chicago, Detroit, etc, and very closer to smaller, but still sizable population centers like Grand Rapids and Muskegon. In that context, if you have a smallish stream that not just everyone knows about, people tend to be a little bit protective. 

 

 

[Quillback]

Having spent a few years chasing steelhead in the Pacific Northwest, I can tell you that steelhead fisherman are the most secretive types in the world of fishing.  Not just about locations, but baits, techniques etc.  If I was going to ask JoeD or anyone about where they were, I'd do it in a PM, and if he didn't want to reveal the location, I'd understand. 

[snagged in outlet 3]

A buddy of mine took me to a public lake that nobody really knew of.  This was well before the interweb.  He took me there on the condition that I never tell anyone and I never did.  I was showing the pictures of the fish we were catching to another buddy and he wanted to know where it was and if he could go.  I told him it was private I could only go on an invite so I couldn't take him. 

About 20 years goes by and he finds out that it was public the whole time and he could've fished it.  Heck that was 10 years ago and he's still pissed off about it.  By the way once word got out that the lake was actually public (because IL DNR put it on their website) it got fished to death.  I mean we didn't see another fisherman on it for 20 years and then one day we pull up to 6 trucks sitting in the lot.  One guy had a cooler of dead bass that went from 6-8 pounds bragging about catching them on goldfish and he's going to mount them. Not only that he was bringing his buddies out the next day to fish it too. 

I don't blame Joe a bit.  Other than he didn't invite me.

[joeD]

Thanks fellas for your support.