Hell of a fish and the ACF show schedule

I had a buddy fly in to town so I rigged up the Mystics and hit the water with Mariano and Carlos on Saturday. We chose a stretch of water that is like Disneyland when there are fish around, but mysteriously this day they were not...perhaps too far up in the system...

It was a day full of walking, fishing, laughter, Crown, and Fried Dough at the Crow's Nest to top off the evening. Tough to complain about a day like that!

The biggest problem we had was really the leaves. The stretch we fished seemed to consist of one part water and one part leaves. Definitely tough to be efficient on the water when you are hooking leaves on every drift or swing! I look forward to getting back up there soon.

I was very pleased to get an email from ACF customer Don Calhoun. For a second year Don had me tie up a order of custom colored Howell Prom Dresses to take west to Silver Hilton BC. The fish of his trip measured at a 42" length with a 23" girth...coming to an astounding 32.2! Based on his email that was the second largest there since 1999, congratulations on a fantastic fish Don.

Finished up the ACF show schedule this afternoon and got the new list updated to the website. There may be a show or class added, but this should be the bulk of the list.

-International Fly Tying Symposium, Somerset NJ 11.19.2011 and 11.20.2011
-Great Lakes Council Fly Tying Expo, Holt MI 12.03.2011
-Indiana on the Fly, Indianapolis IN 01.07.2012
-The Fly Fishing Show, Somerset 01.27.2012 - 01.29.2012
-Buckeye United Fly Fishers Fly Tying Expo, Cincinnati OH 02.04.2012
-Kentuckiana Fly Expo, Louisville KY 02.11.2012
-Bar Flies with Schultz Outfitters, Ann Arbor MI 02.15.2012
-Celebration of Fly Tying, Grand Rapids MI 2.25.2012
-Midwest Fly Fishing Expo, Warren MI 03.10.2012 and 03.11.2012

Hopefully I will see many of you at the shows this year.
Now back to getting everything in order for the Somerset show this weekend!

-mike schmidt
http://www.anglerschoiceflies.com/

Tricos, hammocks, and a bad ass new net

Made it up to Michigan for my annual Trico pilgrammage over the weekend. This year I had two buddies come along with me and both of my brothers up for atleast a day to hang out. As always there was plenty of laughter, beverages, weather, and of course fish. This trip the second year ina row that I had a person come along for the fun who decided that their fly fishing education should jump straight from streamer fishing to the most demanding and technical daytime fishing there is...Tricos. Each morning I woke up at Shupac Lake Campground and rolled over to quite a sunrise.

Since we arrived at nearly 2am this was the first view the guys had of the North Branch of the Au Sable, as we headed south to our chosen spot. Needless to say this view brought smiles to all our faces.

Mariano dumped down in to the river and gave a few rising fish everything they could handle.



Nate started fishing with me around the beginning of the year and until this weekend hadn't fished anything under a few inches more than a handful of times. Once the Trico spinnerfall started we got him in to position and, after a few missed shots and a pulled hook, he was able to master a tricky drift to get his fly to this fish...his first on a dry fly! Definitely a well earned smile.

Of sourse I got in on the action as well...

I decided this year to try out the TrekLight hammock system, and I can say that it is without a doubt awesome. This was not tough to set up, exceedingly comfortable to sleep in, and stayed perfectly dry through the deluge we endured Saturday. By sleeping at a slight angle you flatten out almost entirely, and the bug netting surrounds the hammock so you do not have to worry about getting eaten up. I can not wait to get it back in action again soon.

The weapons of choice for the weekend were a pair of Mystic 2WT rods and a 3 weight Redington. I have to say, again, that the Mystic 2WT is very impressive and has become one of my favorite rods to chase fish with. It may be on the light end of the scale but in spite of it's sensitivity it has the backbone to handle fish with bad intentions. Check them out at the Mystic Outdoors website along with the rest of their series.

Here is the reason I head up there each year to camp during the hottest month of the year. These little flies bring up every fish in the river. They can be alternately fantastic and maddening. If you like technical fishing and have not tried fishing a size 26 fly across multiple seams on a 12-15' 8X leader then you are really missing out on a great hatch.

On a final note today, I stopped off on the way home and picked up my new custom net by Dr Sam Lacina. Last year at the shows Sam commented that he would love a mess of my streamers, and I told him I had been eyeing a net from him for a few years. I told him exactly what I was looking for and this it; the net measures 17"x22" in the hoop and totals 39" in overall length. It uses zip ties to attach the ghost bag, which both retains the full integrity of the hoop and allows me to easily change out the bag if anything happens to it. This net can handle a 30" fish and some serious weight...this is a MAN NET! I will be stalking the rivers now with a net that can handle pretty much anything.

Dr Sam really knows his craft, this net is a functinal work of art. Check out more of his stuff on his site: Nets That Honor the Fish.

-mike schmidt
www.anglerschoiceflies.com

Mystic Steelhead Camp and a few brookies

Made it back home for a day and a half between trips so I figure I may as well throw a few shots from the last few glorious days up!

Took off after work on Thursday and drove to the NW corner of New York to meet up with a group of guys for the Mystic Rod Steelhead Camp weekend. It was a great little cabin that easily accomodated the eight of us for a few nights. We stayed up pretty late talking flies and Mystic rods. Going in to the weekend I was looking forward to fishing a few of Mystics heavier sticks and they did not disappoint. The 10' 7WT and 8WT are ideal indi-rods for steelhead, and the 7WT switch cast like a dream. I ordered up the 8WT for myself and am anxiously awaiting the completion of their 8WT switch.

NY tribs were mostly blown so we headed over to some small PA tribs and proceeded to find fish in spots where fish should be. The water started off with hazy green tint that lightened over the three days on the water.

Some fish were beat up a bit but the majority of the fish we got in to were either colored up and clean or straight chrome. This fish had a beautiful coloration and pulled like a freight train.

As I came up on the pool this beast was in I could see a little bit of shadow so I made a few drifts and it happily munched an egg. This one was a bit on the larger side for the weekend and also was not happy about being stuck.

Saturday evening we were on our way back towards camp and stopped off at 20 Mile. She had dropped significantly over the previous few days so a few of us hit the mouth to make good use of the switch rod since the weather was so calm. About 30 minutes in we switched up to a smaller shiner imitation and it was game on! First I hooked up....

Then Thad hooked up!

Nothing so cool as a lake double of pure chrome! Coming from Oregon to hit the tribs with us for the week was a haul for Thad, but I am pretty sure he won't forget this.

Another nice male taken down close to the lake.

Proud papa Dennis with his son Fisher. This was Fisher's second time out and his first landed steelhead; I think the look says it all! He clipped off the fly that he used, so I am sure this is going 8x10 with the fly clipped in the frame.

Fisher handled the fish carefully and allowed me to get one more shot as he slid it back to the water.

After a great time chasing steelhead Sunday night an Monday were a welcome change of pace. I headed about an hour over to a private cabin on a small creek to fish for native browns Sunday night, then brookies on Monday. It is the second time I have been over to the Senyo property and it did not disappoint.

Spotted this guy as I crept along the rocks and was able to sprawl over a boulder and drop my camera down in to the plunge pool to get a shot.

Nice male brookie that decided to make a snack of a small streamer.

This was not the biggest of the weekend for me, but it was the biggest with someone right there to snap a shot for me while sporting my TFM gear!

This male had just phenomenal coloring to it...enough so that I felt it deserved the only color in the shot. Can't wait to get back and give the 2WT and 7x another workout.

-mike schmidt
http://www.anglerschoiceflies.com/