Fishing has or was picking up before the heat wave.
I've not had time to venture too far from home.. or home waters. All my guiding time has been on the Saugeen in one form or another. A trout drift with Doug and his Father, a Bass drift with Dean and his father, a Musky/Bass drift with Graham and his Buddy Mike.
Fall/summer?? is a funny time, Graham and Mike did a long drift for Musky, a good 17 K's of casting big rods and big flies on the Last day of the Long weekend... Man that river had some pressure!! Not just from anglers but paddler's and pretty much anyone that has a boat was on the river.
The Saugeen is a great resource for many people, great place to paddle see wildlife, hell we saw a Beautiful mature Bald eagle on the lower river. It's also become a gigantic garbage can, I've never seen so many beer cans, water bottles and garbage.. every place we looked something was floating or sunk in the river. Good thing my clients have been on the river many times. If it was someone new to the area, or from another part of the world they would be disgusted.. as am I.
Okay back to the report, our trout drift on Saturday... (ya I know never do a drift on the Saugeen on the long weekend) Was great in the morning, got some good Brook trout, had the river to ourselves until about noon... then all hell broke loose... Doug was obviously upset with the amount of inner tubers on the section we did. It was non stop until the end of the day...
That being said, just minutes before the end of the day, we had a good wind blow the remaining ants into the river starting a few good rainbows feeding on the surface. Kieth(Doug's dad) had a Madam X on and Doug a Iso Dunn. Keith was the first drift over the rising trout, out it right on them and Bing ... fish on a nice 16 inch rainbow!! Then another showed itself... Doug's turn... one cast short drift and fish on!!
Mike from FlyFitters and I had a chance to play on the Saugeen for a few hours, great time. Mike and I get along really well, he's a great guy and a pleasure to fish with. We had finished a double boat guide and I had told him about the hatches I've been seeing on the upper river, so we put my boat in and did a "scouting trip". It started slow, but after the sun was off the river fishing picked up. Mike managed a nice 14-16 inch Brown! Great fish good fight and nice photo.
(have a look at the photo album,I've posted a bunch of new shots)
The Monday Graham and Mike did the long drift, we saw everything... paddler's for miles other anglers and Grahams' first Musky. Funny thing we had been tossing huge tube flies all day. I took them into a channel I know that has a decent Musky, after seeing the water and how low It was, I figured it was better to keep the bass thing going.. until Graham cast into a small pocket with good depth and had a big smack... no bite guard, the smallest fly we fished all day and you guessed it... his Musky!! Graham did an awesome job, the fish Jump and Graham managed to land the fish... sweet!!!
Just a few K's from Grahams'" new musky "spot...we saw a bright chrome Chinook Jump 2-3 times... Weird... but it's that time of the year.
Val and I are still trying to get things back in order after the Tornado. Still working with the insurance company try to get things moving forward... not an easy chore. Still we are healthy and not nearly as bad off as some.
Thank you to all that have expressed the offer to help clean up, greatly appreciated.
I'm looking forward to an exciting fall season, I hope you can find time to spend on the rivers chasing Steelhead. I look forward to seeing you out enjoying the season.
Tight lines
Ken
