Stockerfest Opener '09

Once a year the State of Michigan dumps some of its excess hatchery broodstock of brown and rainbow trout into the Huron River in the Proud Lake State Recreation Area. For a few weeks, southeast Michigan fishermen get to catch sizeable trout (many are in the mid-teen-inches and up) without driving three or four hours. The game is flies only, catch and release from April 1 through the regular season opener. Then it's general regs, catch and keep. By the end of May most of the trout will be caught or dead from heat--the Huron reaches the 70s in summer.

It's not fishing for wild trout, but the fishing isn't always easy, in spite of the fish-in-the-barrel quality of the event. Stockerfest trout behave unlike any wild trout I know (or, for that matter, any stocked trout in the streams I frequent in the summer). They often don't bother to take shelter. Pods of large trout cruise up and down the river in plain sight, and they won't spook unless you walk into them or pass your fly too close to them when they're not inclined to strike. You can usually sight fish them. I wouldn't be surprised if the visible fish often outnumbered the hidden ones. Still, as I said, they aren't easy to catch some days. Like today.

I was on the water around six, still in full darkness. Clouds that had dropped rain overnight began to drift off, revealing stars. I heard a few trout splashing near where I entered the river, though these were unfortunately above the signs that mark the upstream limit for legal fishing. (Just upstream is low head dam, and fish assemble in dozens below it. These fish-in-the-barrel enjoy a refuge). I worked downstream in the dark tossing different versions of a wooly bugger. I didn't encounter another fishermen until about seven, just in time to have an audience for the only fish I would catch today, an 18" rainbow with a head almost thick as my forearm. It must have sucked down a lot of shrimp pellets at the hatchery.

After releasing it I began to hear voices from downstream. The fishermen who'd joined me earlier were edging closer to me, so I edged on down and soon ran into a long line of anglers. I stayed put then and fished for about another hour. Plenty of fish swam past me but none bit. I saw a few other fish caught, but no one was tearing them up.

I needed to be in Toledo by 11:30, so I left at 8, happy for my morning out. On the five minute hike back to the car I heard at least three kinds of frogs singing, and I couln't keep track of the birdcalls. The trail led through the river's mucky floodplain and through a band of spruces to high, sandy pinewoods, dipping back down into marshy patches along the way. I can't think of a part of southern Michigan that resembles the north as much as Proud Lake.

I'll back there on Friday afternoon. Rain is expected, which should screen out the dilettantes and, hopefully, induce the fish to lower their guard.