Photo Essay: Gray Drakes
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Spent a couple days fishing the gray drakes in michigan last week, and they seem to be hatching heavier than i can ever remember. We managed one 20″+ fish on the second day, in the daylight. That kind of thing just doesn’t happen very often on most rivers in michigan, so i was thrilled. We also threw some streamers with some success while looking for rising fish. Please feel free to crit, and enjoy.
This one slammed a olive zoo cougar next to a log jam.
Eric,
Where were you, it looks like the PM? My dad was out on the Mo last weekend and witnessed a 5 pound brown landed on a gray drake.
I wish rivers around me had hatcheslike that too, because 99% of the time they don’t. This is the best i have seen this hatch in as long as i have been fishing this river (at least 10 years). The only other really good hatch is the hex, in a couple weeks. The problem with that is it is a pretty small piece of water that gets the really good hatches, it is know well, and after the first few days most of the fish develop phd’s in picking flies from naturals. Hopefully, the quality of the hatch this year is a sign of the health of the river, or, maybe its just the one good effect of global warming? 🙂
Its the PM again, i’ve heard the Mo fishing has really gone down hill? I;m sure there are still big ones around like the one your dad saw, but the river guides and such have said the kill fisherman have hit it hard and some areas almost seem devoid of fish. I hope its not true.
I drive over the Muskegon almost everytime i head up to the cottage, which is right by the PM. The Michigan DNR has flat out said that they are managing the Mo as a put and take fishery, they put them in, so the kill guys can take them out. Its to bad. The flies only section on the PM has gotten alot better, but those fish now see alot of flies, and can be alot harder to catch because of the no kill. Alot of my better fish in the PM have come from down lower in the river, near branch and walahalla, but you have to get in away from the bridges and public land to get away from the bait fishing areas to find them.
There are a couple lesser known small rivers between home and the PM that i want to try in the next couple weeks.
Tim, i live between Holland and Zeeland, which is due west of Grand Rapids on the lakeshore. I have actually gotten to know the Little South quite well in the past couple years… My parents bought a cabin and a pretty large chunk of land which the Little South runs throughin ’03. Quite a few of the shots on my blog are from that part of the river. It can be great fishing in the right conditions (at night, or high dirty water), or terribly poor fishing in the wrong conditions. The coolest fish up there so far was a 29″ summer run steelhead that took a dry fly after dark last summer in july.
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