Fish Stories

I went fishing a few weeks ago with my brother and my Dad. I’m big on outdoor activities, but I’m not much of a fisherman, although the evidence would suggest otherwise. We went fishing for steelhead and trout on the Pere Marquette River in Western Michigan. I suspect much of the credit for my success was due to Ed, our guide, who put us right on the fish all day long.
The three of us woke up ~4:45 and we were on the water by 6:15 (definitely a downside of this activity). We spent the next 8-9 hours in the river. My brother and Dad needed a lunch break, sissies, but I was busy catching fish. The steelhead I caught was sitting on a gravel bed, the tricky part was putting the fly in the current so that it would drift by in the right spot. I had to work a little more for the brown trout. I noticed a little pool had developed at the end log and along the edge of a gravel bed. I was trying to drop my fly in the current so that it would run along the log and dive into the pool. The pool seemed like a logical place for fish to hang out. After awhile I could see a fish darting to the edge of the gravel before quickly disappearing back into the pool (polarized sunglasses are worth every penny when you’re on the water). The cast was tricky, I kept getting tangled in the branches lurking just under the surface around the log, but after awhile I got the hang of it. After much persistence, and a few false alarms (I caught a few little rainbow trout while I was trying for the bigger fish), I finally caught my prey. The elusive fish turned out to be a 20" brown trout.