Lets see that face

Here at the worldwide headquarters of Fishgazm we seldom take
ourselves seriously.  Hell, that takes the fun out of fishing and
tying.  So, with that being said it’s time for a giveaway.  We want to
see your O-face...  You know the one we’re talking about, a fish
wiggling out of your hands and the derp face that you make while this
happens.  But keep it clean!  We don’t want to see any fish humping or
obscene poses.

Go to the STM Outfitters page on Facebook.  Post a photo to our wall
then “Like” and share your picture.  The one with the most likes wins!
  It’s as simple as that.  In case there is a tie the judging panel (
the queen of the house) will decide the winner.  This contest will run
until 6pm on March 31st.  That night we’ll pick a winner.  The prizes
will be your choice of 1 dozen Great Lakes carp flies and a Carp Boss
fly line from Cortland OR 1 dozen steelhead streamers and a Cortland
compact spey line.  your choice. So let the games begin and let’s see
some of those O-faces!

Brown trout goodness

What do fishing guides do in the winter when their not working?....FISH what the hell else would we do? Sure there's honey to do list to take care of from months of fishing everyday, but the winter is where we get to fish and try some new fly patterns out. The pattern below is called a Zonkora, I am not sure who created it, I have heard that Ray Schmidt started tying this pattern after a trip from Argentina.  I know that I have caught alot of smallmouth on this little gem around Beaver Island, Carp, Salmon and Northern Pike even like this fly. where this pattern really takes charge is Brown Trout, don't ask me why, but I have turned some bleak days around when I tied this pattern on. the color combo shown are my best here in West Michigan. I have tied this fly with white bunny and body leaving the orange tail and swung it for steelhead with good results, either way It doesn't matter. Hard to question something when it works so good.

Hook-favorite streamer hook 3x #4

Tail-marabou

Rubber legs

Body-Crystal chennile

Wing-Magnum zonker strip cut to form double wings

medium cone head

Swamp donkey

Fishing jigs for trout and steelhead isn't a new tactic,this style of fishing has been around for a long time.floating brightly colored jigs under floats or dead drifting thru runs is a deadly presentation.
  Gabe hillbrand from Hillbrand tackle has taken jigs to a new level and his creativity and design of these works of art shows with the results after a day of fishing them.. I have been fishing with Gabes jigs for awhile now for carp,smallmouth ,King salmon and steelhead.  For the next few weeks we will dive in to different styles and concepts of fishing these jigs.

the Swamp donkey is without a doubt one of my favorites,i have caught salmon,Steelhead,carp,smallmouth and northern pike on this pattern so far. fishing this jig with erratic motion has been my best technique to date for steelhead but i have been back bouncing this jig on a straight downstream presentation and have gotten bit. for carp and smallmouth-dragging this along the bottom mimicking a goby or crayfish has been deadly for my non-fly fishing clients on Beaver Island.

Three in three

One of the great things about this area of Michigan is that in less than an hour we can be on two other great rivers that fish good for steelhead ,salmon,trout and smallmouth, so for fun and a change of pace we did the Three in Three, three different rivers in three days. Day one- Big manistee which is about 35 miles north.Great river for all style of fishing, big water moderate flow and full of logs, lots of fishy spots to hit and plenty of logs to lose hooked fish.on this day it was Matt Dunn from fishbeer.com and I. Just to make sure we covered all the bases ,we swung Streamers, fished indicators and threw hot-n-tots .Fishing was a little slow but we hooked a couple and landed one nice steelhead

Manistee river steel

Day two was the Pere Marquette river, which is my baby, i love this river not only because its my home river, the sheer tranquility of this river is unbelievable. late fall is quite nobody around and you normally have the river to yourself. The order of the day was fishing floating lines, indicators and egg nymph combos.fishing was fair with most fish ramming logs and brush, although we did manage one that couldn't find any wood.

Pm river chrome


The last day of three was spent on the Muskegon river.the muskegon is about 45 miles south of us and fishes great in the late fall. the "MO" has a later run of kings than the other two rivers so fish will be located around spawners late in the year. The method for the final day was to swing streamers only, of course i always carry a indicator rod just in case we need to mix it up.We slid the boat in and started fishing pockets where spawning kings used to be ,but nothing was around to hold steelhead there,although there were some spawning cohos and i actually had one eat my streamer as i watched of course i jumped the gun and never got a hook in the fish.Later in the day we managed a small steelhead on the indicator rod,that saved the day of the only steelhead hooked. three great rivers in three days what a week.

Last week my good friend and fellow "swing junkie" came up for a few days of steelhead fishing, along with some other childish behavior.  Typically when Scott comes up for a fishing trip, it snows in July,  thunderstorms and rains in February and late fall it goes high sun and t-shirt weather, same goes for this trip, high sun, warm temps and clear water made fishing a challenge to say the least. Swung streamers for a couple days, one day on the Muskegon and one day on the Pere Marquette. We managed  one steelhead on a indicator rig and one brown on the swing along with Beers at the Rendevouz bar, more Beers at Johnny's,  12 pounds of pulled pork sandwiches, five pound of Barbs homemade cookies and one lost fish of unknown species. All in all with a couple of other small trout in between things it wasn't horrible. 

Steelhead on the Brain

Here are just a few Pere Marquette river steelhead from this fall. 

Great Fall steelhead 

Don with a Pere Marquette steelhead

the Master with steelhead greatness 

Dave with a pm river rainbow

PM river steelhead