Fishing (West End)

As I said Sunday, I did do some fishing while in the UP. Last Sunday morning, I got up early to try the east branch of the Ontanogon river, which the proprietor of our motel said could be accessed directly behind his property. There was a trail heading into the woods behind the motel, but it soon disappeared. I bushwhacked for a while, but gave up when no sign of a river appeared. I drove instead to a town park in Kenton and fished briefly below a small cofferdam there.

The day was already getting hot by 8am, and when I dunked my stream thermometer in the river I got a reading of 70˚. This is very warm for trout, probably warm enough that I should have left the fish alone. But after the hassles of the morning, I was going to at least make a few casts before I left. I threw nymphs into the deep water below the coffer, landing one small rainbow and missing another strike

I got out again Tuesday morning, venturing to the Ontanogon's middle branch this time. I fished just upstream from the park at the bridge on M-28. There, the water was a warmish but more promising 66˚. I would decribe that section of the river as a continuous riffle, broken infrequently with deep, swirling pools. The wading is tough there, as the bottom consists of slime-covered stones ranging from plum to watermelon size, with no stones of the same size bordering one another. More than a few times I feared I was about to prostrate myself before the river gods, but got off with merely kneeling once.

Working upstream, I started with nymphs but got nothing, then around 7am I noticed a few tan caddis fluttering around. I switched to an elk-hair pattern with a nymph dropper, and soon was hooking up consistently. For a while, I was getting a trout (all brook trout this time) on about every other cast. All the fish were coming on the caddis, so I soon simplified things and cut my dropper away.
Honestly, I lost count of the fish I caught. However, all were pretty small. The largest topped out at around nine inches, and many were two or three inches shorter. Still, I thought it was a splendid morning. More testimony that the happiest fishermen tend to be those who are easily amused.

Around 9 AM, the fishing slowed dramatically. I did catch a couple more, though I made many casts before and between those. I thought I might do well if I went out with a hopper pattern in the afternoon, but I never found the time. I guess that's a project for the future. I would like to go back there, ideally earlier in the season, and maybe farther from the highway.

Did some fishing in the eastern UP too. Details to follow.