FooteSite Dam Steelhead Report

[lonehunter]

I arrived right at daybreak , the parking lot a sheet of ice as deep as the parking blocks and as smooth as an ice rink . River road was clear on the way in except for the ocasional deer and a mature bald eagle feasting on a roadkill porcupine .
The stairs were dry but you could hear the ice breaking inside them as you walked down .
The water clear as crystal , saw a couple ducks swimming around on the overflow side .
At the start there were three of us guys along the rail , when I left there were six minus myself , the cold wind kept my fingers froze despite gloves and handwarmers .
The fishing ?
I do belive the first wave is on it's way and should be in full force this upcomming weekend .
The first hour and a half had us taking net duty as we helped land each others fish , 7 cromers at daybreak with 4 others breaking off . Spawn wasn't working , wax worms did the trick .
Three were keeper size the other were small jacks and released . I did catch and release with my fish .
As soon as the clouds cleared the action shut down . Withe more warm weather and rain in the forcast I can only see the run getting better and going strong by Thursday .
No pics today even though I did have the camera with me , windchill temps would have ruined it .
WATER , CLEAR
Temps , "dam cold "
Tackle used , spawn, wax worms , flys
#4 TEST MONO . #10 eagle claw and mustad hooks .
Man Up Rating , a 7
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[davetclown]

I see by the new weather forcast that a change in fishing forcast may be due, cold temps and I see more snow headed up that way again for the weekend....

any talk about smelt yet?
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[lonehunter]

There is ice up here , no chance of getting a dip net out .
I fished the au sable friday and saturday .
Friday , as soon as i arrived i made the mistake of sitting my brand new st. croix rod down while getting my hand sized tackle box out of my vest , my rod tip slipped down the ice on the bank and over the edge , I saw it sink into the swirling water .
I had my old rod as a back up in the truck just incase some of the guys i invited to the trip showed up .
The fishing barometer said fishing would be good , the temprature was on the cold side and the fish just wern't very active . There wern't too many anglers that lasted more than an hour at most before calling it quits . I tried several tactics for lathargic fish , none were sucessfull .
I stayed at deercamp for the night where I was able to sort thru the hooks , sinkers and swivels , read up on some fishing articals and change out some line on a few spools . The out-house door was frozen to the ground so there were a few trips made to the woods during the evening , ya' really gotta love roughing it in Michigan , don't you ?
Saturday was no different than friday , maybe just a bit colder as the wind whipped up the river . From daybreak untill 1 o'clock not one bump . I did see a fresh one shoot past me .
I had a visitor in the trees behind me , I'm not shure if you can make him out but give it your best shot .
Hint , national symbol .
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[davetclown]

porkey pine?

I may try getting out in the next day or two, the pup seem to be better, dont want to push it to soon...
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[lonehunter]

Bald Eagle , just sat there looking for a bit .
How is the wolf doing ?
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[davetclown]

the wolf not so good.

have you been out east or west in the past week?
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[lonehunter]

I hope you get some nice weather down there so your best buddy can have some warm days in the sun .
Roosterfish will be up this weekend , we were planning to stay at deercamp and fish the Au Sable but decided to stay here at the house and take trips over to the manistee instead .
Roosterfish needs to get his first steelie under his belt and I have to make sure my pup gets it's medication and bandages changed on time ,besides the au sable run look all that promising right now .
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