A Day on the Water — Float Fishing

The lower Huron River can get spring and fall runs of several species moving upstream out of lake Erie.  Sometimes huge numbers of fish but more frequently just a few fish.  Big numbers of Steelhead and Red Horse Suckers this spring.  In the past I have seen rare rushes of huge numbers of Walleye, Channel Cats, Blue Gills and Eurasian Ruff.  Big runs of 11 to 14 inch shad are common.  Some White Bass show up for a few days.   A few medium to big Smallmouth bass are common along with a rare big Large Mouth Bass, Pike or Musky or Carp. ...

March 25, I landed only 2 out of a total of 6 fish I was pretty sure were fair hooked.  A couple of others seemed they were likely foul hooked. Plagued by Leader Line and Operator issues.  Only saw one fish that I lost, that was a sleek big bight hen who fought stubbornly, then ripped off a run with a slashing leap at the end.  She hit a #6 Golden Nugget Bubble Egg fish as a trailer 3 feet behind a bead.  All the other hits were on Jigs: #8 1/64 ounce Black Stonefly Jig, #6 1/32 ounce Brown Rubber...

March 22nd and March 24th evenings: 1 for 4, then 4 for 4 on small steelhead.  8mm BigHole UV Orange bead got all the hits.  First evening, using a barbed #6 hook held 1 of 4 fish. Next evening, using the lighter wire #6 hook with the barb broken off held all four fish hooked.   Biggest and last Fish.  These fish run out or Lake Erie and run younger and smaller because the feeding in Lake Erie is not very profitable.  We get lots of skippers.  A fish with a head as big as this one would weigh twice as much...

This time in late spring is when to expect, hope for a good bite on Little Black Stone Flies for steelhead or trout in Michigan.  March 12, I didn't see any bugs fluttering across the river but the guy bottom bouncing next to me got a big male steelhead on a #6 stonefly pattern.  I put a stonefly jig pattern under my bobber.  I had been pounding good water for hours with one steelhead hooked and lost on a dark Brown Rubber Legs Jig pattern.  The second cast with a black stone jig got the first steelhead and over an...

First fish was this little guy who has run up the river and jumped over the coffer dam planning to be the second boyfriend on the other side of a hen opposite her big buck. Third cast was this hen who took the nuke minnow.  Mathematically, if I could make 200 cast today, I would hook 67 steelhead and 67 trout.  The rest of the day was slow.  The Leggy Fox jig hooked 2 steelhead no trout hits, I fought the one that got off  long enough to know he was a bigger fish, right now the bigger fish are running over 31inches.  I...