Another Toy; Night and Day

Finished my CIG training in Toledo today. My presentation on carp seemed to go well. From others' presentations, I learned a lot of neat things about other creatures and places, as well as about how to talk to 6 year olds. On the way home...I stopped at Cabela's and bought an inflatable pontoon boat (a Streamer XL by Fish Cat.). It probably was inevitable. I've been considering it for a couple of years, and always coming up with excuses not to buy one. (I've inherited some of my father's propensity towards "thrift.") But the deed is done, and sometime next week I hope to get it out on the water for a try.

So...who wants to meet up for a float/car spot adventure?

For some time I've wanted to give night fishing for trout with mouse patterns and big streamers a serious try. I've made a few halfhearted attempts, but usually end up wimping out to hit the rack and get up early for morning Trico fishing. I couldn't let another summer go without trying it in earnest, so that's what I did on my trip to the Pere Marquette last sunday.

I arrived in Baldwin just before midnight, and got on the water off one of the 72nd St. accesses by 12:15. Only a sliver of moon in the sky. I worked upstream slapping a mouse imitation into the water near any cover I could pick out in the darkness. Mostly, my efforts got ignored. Just after I turned around to head downstream, I did hook a decent trout which slipped off just as I reached for the net. It wasn't one of those behemoths reputed to venture out at night to slurp rodents; maybe 14 or 15 inches. It's still about the best result I've had from night fishing (at least in the forms that don't involve hatches.)

The next night, I was on a small stream that I've fished with some luck before. Headed out with the mouse just after nightfall, and hooked briefly a trout that might have been 13 inches or so. Cast to the same spot again and got a strike, but the fish didn't stay on the line. Nothing else took a swipe at my mouse all night. I can't say I was terribly disappointed though. The stillness of a late summer midnight is a pleasure in itself, and probably one I experience more rarely than that given by large trout.

Daytime fishing was better, at least in spots. The Pere Marquette was a bust in the morning. Hardly any tricos, a few olives, and no feeders. Tried a hopper as the sun warmed, but got not takers. I decided to try the Pine, which was no better. Looked like a beautiful stretch of water, but no strike at all on hoppers or on an imitation caddis that matched the small tan ones fluttering around. So it was off to the aforementioned small stream. Got on the water there about 4:30 and had a nice hour of fishing with hoppers, about four or five trout of respectable size, with an assortment of dinks. The creek was as low as I've seen it in some time, and in most pools you could see trout--usually small--milling around. They could see me too, of course, and I had to wade with extra caution, which I only realized after I'd spooked pods of fish in a couple of prime spots. Late in the season, trout streams, especially the lesser known ones, and the ones that don't receive salmon runs, give me an impression of abandonment. For some reason, not reducible to pangs of sympathy, that attracts me to them all the more. Maybe with the masses of fishermen gone, they seem more like things-for-themselves, as opposed to "recreational destinations."

Anyone determined to find the latter might have been disappointed. On that stream the next morning, I got into a thin Trico hatch which brought up mostly very small fish. The best I managed was an 8" brookie. Probably would have been another splendid afternoon of hopper fishing, but it was time for me to head up to Manistee to meet my dad. And, as I've said, that went pretty well.