This past weekend marked the conclusion of my regularly scheduled programing for the 2008 season. I enjoyed the weekend with Dr. Vince Shen, one of our regulars. Vince wins the Iron Man of the season award! We have all been waiting for steelhead weather and it showed up this weekend with a vengeance. Saturday Vince braved a cool (OK cold) snowy morning followed by an all day driving rain, with Sunday bring in colder temps and snow and sleet for most of the day. Through all the weather Vince braved full days, covered LOTS of water and worked hard. Fishing was slow to say the least, we had our chances with both days bring a few tugs but the only fish landed was a slightly confused salmon. With the slow fishing we concentrated on education and honing fishing skills. We moved Vince up from C & D to polishing his skills with indicators on switch rods and also introduced him to the art of swinging spey flies. Vince seemed to enjoy swinging and picked up on it very quickly. I look forward to our next outing in the spring to continue fine tuning the newly acquired skills.

Steve, Don, Fred and I all have short term openings for the late fall and winter seasons. If you have an interest in getting out and enjoying some steelhead fishing without the crowds give us a call.

Dave

Don Vroon and John Sommerdyke joined my today for what could be the last of the warm weather for the year. We spent the day swinging flies for steelhead. Fishing was decent and aggressive fish were available if you knew were to look. Both Don and John had some good opportunities on chrome with John even mixing in a late season smallie on the swing. The river took a big jump this afternoon which should bring a good push of fish. Flow was dirty with lots of leaves and junk this afternoon though as normal clarity will not be an issue. Pictured is John with a beauty from this morning.

My reports for the next week may become a bit infrequent as I will be logging some much needed treestand time!

Tight lines,

Capt. Steven Kuieck

Scott Misaad and his father-in-law Sandy joined me today on the Muskegon. With more of the same in the way of sunny skies I expected today to be like the last few days on the water. I was pleasantly surprised to find the steelhead today ready to play!

With the popularity of “swinging” flies or maybe a push to get back to “real” fly fishing I have made it a point to provide my guests with the opportunity to swing for chrome each and everyday before resorting back to the standby C&D techniques.

Both Scott and Sandy excelled in the morning with their newly found spey fishing game; only to have a few arrant casts that provided me an opportunity to work on my surgical skills (sorry Sandy- I could not resist!). Today much like yesterday the bite came with a bit of patients to wait until the very end of the drift. One fish this morning however crushed the fly in mid swing. Numbers of steelhead seem to improve daily and with :”real” weather in the future forecast I would expect this trend to continue.

If you have any interest in getting on the water to learn about “swinging” for steelhead or just to wet a line please give us a call.

Tight lines,

Capt. Steven Kuieck

Cliff Fox joined me today for a sunshine filled day on the Muskegon swinging spey flies for steelhead. With a full day of sunshine I new our early presentations would likely be the most productive in the lower light. We chose to fish some very productive transition water; we were not let down with this plan as a very heavy bright chrome took our offering in the first hour of fishing. As fishing goes this fish was extremely camera shy and parted our company prior to its photo shoot. A few more good pulls and a very nice river bow was had. Black leech patterns with liberal amounts cooper and green flash along with a hint of purple brought the action this morning. The fish today seemed to wait until the first strip after the line had completed its swing and rested at the bottom. With more sunshine and above average temperatures forecasted through Thursday morning look for the AM bite to be best. Afternoon nymphing behing the salmon beds provided some nice browns and bow action.

Tight lines,

Capt. Steven Kuieck

Steve O’Dette and his guests Jesse O’Brien and Dave S. joined me yesterday to chase chrome on the Muskegon. Water levels have bounced around- up and down lately. River conditions are generally not bad but we would always welcome some rain and cloud cover. It was a trick-or-treat sun burn special yesterday; sunny skies with temperatures in the low 60’s. Steelhead fishing was challenging at best. Dave lost a skipper near the boat and Jessy landed this beautiful Muskegon river brown.

Small clown eggs and pale Oregon cheese eggs have seen most of the action. The “swing” has been productive day to day with blue and silver clown comets bring some pulls in my boat while other “swingers” using black and copper or gun metal green and copper colored patterns are finding aggressive fish. Moderate temperatures are fore-casted to hold through mid-week so the morning bite will be key.

Many thanks to all of you who made this fall’s salmon season a success! Thanks to Tom (my dad) as well for your time this fall. Best of luck to you as you retire to the treestand for the month of November. Dave, Don, Fred, and myself look forward to fishing this month and next chasing the years most exciting fish- fall run steelhead. With dates available please drop us an email or a phone call.

Tight lines, 

Capt. Steven Kuieck

Trick or Treat? That was the question for us on the Muskegon with the salmon run finished and the steelhead only starting their ascent up the river. Since my longtime client and friend Ben had invited one of his clients, Andy, who owns a home on the Flat River and fishes smallies via bottom bouncing but who had never fished for kings with a fly rod, the fishing choice of the day was clear: find some fresher kings and have at it. And have at it, they did. After Andy laid out three “C&D” casts, I told Ben that he had brought an easy date!  Andy simply transferred his smallie river fishing skills to the Chinooks, and away he went. Multiple hookups resulted in fish after fish chased down river and led into the net. By lunch, both guys had sore arms, with some of the fish coming to indicator fishing with the 11′ switch rods. Post lunch, it was time to fish the dark water for trout and perhaps a steelhead not taking a nap. The first trout decided to take a whack at a trailing Antron Hex a king was zipping across the river and promptly hooked himself! Wow! Did that poor trout have a ride! The poor thing couldn’t figure what the fat was going on! Ben, a committed trout aficionado, was thrilled that he had such a unique double—salmon and trout. All part of a great day—my final day of guiding for 2008, as a matter of fact, since I had earlier promised my now retired wife that the end of October would mark the end of my guiding for the year so I can make some memories with her. So, special thanks go out to to Ben and Andy for making my last day such an enjoyably memorable one. Terrific weather, great company, good numbers of spawning kings, and some trout tossed in for good measure. Best flies: clown eggs, steelhead orange nuke eggs, and the Antron Hex. Best of all, at the end of the day, Andy declared that he would much rather fly fish on the river than fish the big water over downriggers—enjoyable as that sport may be in its own right. Another convert to the long rod! Looking forward to seeing you, then, Andy, in the Spring for steelhead; you have a real touch with with the drift and your presentation of the flies, not to mention your ability to fight fish. Pictured are Andy, Andy and Ben, and yours truly with my bud, Ben.

Tom Kuieck

Now here’s a couple of docs who get it: both take a day off, book a night at a sweet bed and breakfast, and hop into Captain Tommie’s jet boat for a day of fall fly fishing on the Muskegon! Check out the photos: do these guys looked happy or what? Annika and Phil were second-time fly fishers, having first fly fished on the Manistee River with me last fall. Today, of course, the salmon were few and far between in the Muskegon, but we found some surprisingly fresh fish, resulting in some sore arms and lots of smiles. After boating some kings with “C&D,” it was time to move to the next level with some 11′ switch rod and indicator instruction. Annika quickly got into it, and after landing one fish, fought another right to the boat—lip hooked and all—where she had trouble lifting the male high enough in the water column for me to net it. No matter—premature release! Great job, Annika! Phil had his chances with the switch rod, but smart guy that he is, he decided he to let Annika take the spotlight. Hence, she landed her first king on a fly rod via “C&D,” as well as pricked some lips with the switch rod. Clown eggs, steelhead orange nuke eggs, and the Antron Hex were the best flies for us today. Thanks much, Annika and Phil! I truly enjoyed spending the day with you on the river. Hope we can connect for that 2009 Spring steelhead fishing trip about which we talked.

Tom Kuieck

I was on the water today with Don, and we were expecting some bad weather, but it never happened. I had Chet and Terrie, and Don had Bob and Dudley. We had to look hard for salmon and did find some, and the numbers are down. There are some fresh ones still to be had, though. Here you have Terrie and Chet with their fish that they got to the boat. Chet is the guy with the bright, banana yellow pants.

Bob and Dudley joined me for a day of fishing the Muskegon river, this was Dudleys’ first time fishing for salmon and steelhead with a fly rod, he handled the salmon just fine, however the steelhead proved to be the challenge that will have to continue another day.

Don Graham

Today finished out Jack & Janice’s time with us for this season. It has been a great joy to be able to spend time with them. Their love of life and the outdoors is a pleasure to behold. We spent the day trying to get ahold of some chrome for them, however, the closest we could come was a good number of nice rainbows like the one pictured above. Jack was able to land a nice buck early in the morning but after that it was all about Janice, She was the rainbow queen and also managed to hook, fight & land the nice 14# buck. It was hard to tell who was happier Jack or Janice.

Salmon numbers continue to fall along with the water after a brief spike yesterday. We saw a couple Steehead cruising behind the redds but could get nothing to take. The trout provided most of the fun today as they were very aggresive to clown eggs drifted over the shelf into the dark water behind the redds. The few salmon we got to take today were interested in caddis & antron Hex patterns.

There are fish in the system but plan on covering a lot of water and putting in a lot of work.

Dave