We started out heading out of SW Michigan at around 9:30 on Thursday the 20th...Of course I was late meeting Dallas at our usually meeting place. Note to self, when fishing with PK, assume I'll be running late. Nonetheless we had a great drive up to the PM with the Mothership in tow. We had our fishingporn.com magnets on the side of Dallas' ride and got several looks and stares as we stopped for gas and food along I-96 and 131.
We pulled into the Outdoor Inn just after midnight. Seriously guys and gals, if you are looking for a CLEAN and reasonable place to stay,
check out the Outdoor Inn, you won't be sorry. The rooms are VERY clean and have a fridge and a coffee maker and new beds. Rick and his wife are great hosts and really take care of us when we head up. They also offer car spotting which we took advantage of.
We put in at 37 just before 7am. The lot WAS NOT plowed so beware when heading up in the winter months. This put-in is not maintained. The Ford Edge didn't let us down with it's 4WD and we dropped the Mothership in without a hitch. Loaded with our gear, a case of Coors, a few subway sandwiches to cover lunch and dinner, a pack of Redbull, and a few other necessities we headed down-stream. The water...low and clear...the trout...EVERYWHERE. Dallas and I had never seen sooomany trout..and BIG trout, in the PM. Was it the weather or the fact we were the only people crazy enough to be on the PM the weekend before Christmas in 30˚ weather? Who knows, but if we saw one trout we saw 200. Seriously, and the majority were fishing porn size, 14-18+. Really nice looking fish darting from the log jams and the undercut banks. It was a great motivator, if even that is all it was.
We dropped anchor at the train trussel to shake off the cold and to get the cob webs out of our casts. No takers. We worked the run hard but nothing. We pulled up anchor, and stopped another 6 or seven times before we hit green cottage. The fishing was nil, but the Imageconversation was great. We chatted about all things fishing. What the new year might bring to fishingporn.com new swag we got in and of course what's it gonna take to hook into these fish. After a couple of hours of too many trout to count, we did manage to find several pods of steelies wintering in the brisk 35˚ water. While we tried every fly in the box, we had no takers. Denied. Long line release, short line release whatever the excuse we couldn't get a bump. Side note: Dallas and I did run through several dozen flies from the last 2 BBT steelhead fly swaps. Some really great flies guys. Thanks again.
It's at the point in the trip that you really remember why you are out on the river-fish or no fish...the office phones aren't ringing, the kids, as much as we love them, aren't screaming and the wives well, they are always happy right? We had some great deer encounters as well as several Blue Herons drifting down the river. Needless to say we had some great time, quiet time, on the PM despite the lack of hook-ups. Dallas was toasty warm in his new Simms waders (see his review here). I on the other hand, had decided since my Neoprene waders had given up the ghost the previous Spring, that I'd be fine in my breathable waders with doubled up under armour and socks. Not the case. My toes were freezing but what'cha gonna do mid-drift on the PM. Grin and bare it my friend, grin and bare it.
All in all, we had a great day even with the lack of anything to the net. The fish were plentiful and the steelies were in for the winter but, again, we had no takers. The take-out at Gleason's was very smooth due to all of the snow. It's probably the best time of year to take out a drift boat.
Our trip isn't the first and won't be the last of being skunked on the PM. We'll be heading up again in January, February and March. If anyone has any trip stories, please post'em in our forum. We'd love to hear your tales and see, hopefully, your fishing porn.
Get wet...keep it bent...
