Advanced Creek Tactics

Advanced Creek Tactics

*This article was originally published in the Michigan Out-of-Doors Spring 2020 print edition. By: Andy Duffy I couldn’t see the trout, but I knew I had one on. I felt my line tighten and run between my fingers. Then I set the hook. Mayhem broke out in the creek as...
Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned

By Jim Bedford With over 50 years and many thousands of hours of hardcore steelheading under my wading belt, I’ve landed a bunch of steelhead I shouldn’t have. Usually, the story involves logs or other underwater obstacles. Most of the time when a steelhead takes you...
Drilling Holes into Winter

Drilling Holes into Winter

By Calvin McShane We sat on 5-gallon buckets, endlessly lifting our rods up and down, jigging for whitefish we hoped liked the rhythmic movement of boiled salmon eggs in 60 feet of water. My fishing partner, who was in his 60s and had fished our current location for...
King of the River

King of the River

By Jim Bedford Fall is a busy time on Michigan’s tributaries to the Great Lakes. Four salmon species and three trout species run upstream in the late summer or autumn. All spawn in the fall except for the steelhead. Almost all of Michigan’s steelhead spawn in the late...
Home Water

Home Water

By Calvin McShane We had no business being on the stream. The water was high — dangerously so. October blended into 31 days of rain; the sandy soil of the Eastern U.P. became a waterlogged sponge. When Jack called and asked about the prospect of his steelhead trip, I...