# TRRROOOUUUT SEASON!



## mondrella (Dec 27, 2001)

Trout King said:


> I feel you there man. I haven't been out either. My opener is tonight! Brook trout dinner is hopefully on the menu for tomorrow.
> 
> Good luck fellas!


Leave my pets alone! Lol

I have to run over and fish your big browns

Good luck


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## Trout King (May 1, 2002)

mondrella said:


> Leave my pets alone! Lol
> 
> I have to run over and fish your big browns
> 
> Good luck


No worries Steve, I am saving your pets for this weekend. 

Anyhow, my personal opener went well, was fortunate enough to make it to a very small creek after work and had a quality couple hours of fishing. Brook trout are on the menu as I decided to bag a few for dinner tomorrow. Towards my get out point I was toying with a few gobbling tom turkeys that were feeling rather excited by mouth calling with no call. Possible cast n blast with my 8 year old if we are unsuccessful bagging him a gobbler in the next week or so.
Some of the pics I took...








First brookie of the season.







This was something that I haven't seen in this stream before on another. Gill lice was my initial thought? I emailed Jay Wesley inquiring about what this may be? White wormy gills that appeared to be inflamed?







A decent fish for the pan.
Not much of a selfie person but this one is for Big Medicine!


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## PunyTrout (Mar 23, 2007)

Big Medicine and I helped our friend fertilize and plant a couple of his food plots today. Afterwards, we decided to explore some new water and headed over to a creek that has several acres flowing through Federal land. It was a short hike in from the Forest Service road and we found the creek easily enough. This was pretty skinny water with a gentle flow and we were pretty confident we would find some Brookies. We found very few. It was weird. The Brook Trout we did manage to see would barely attack our spinners. They would just kind of come out from their cover and sniff at or nuzzle our lures without being in full attack mode.

We were feeling a bit discouraged with the fishing to be honest. Further evidence of several pairs of fresh boot tracks in the sand and mud made us aware that we weren’t the first anglers to fish this particular stretch today. Someone, or a couple of people were making Hay with our trout while we were planting Rye fields… Well we seriously considered leaving at that point. But, instead we persevered and explored further upstream even though the boot prints were becoming more and more frequent. I just felt like we were here and needed to learn what the water was like for future reference.

We passed several places that were very promising spots and couldn’t believe the casts we were making weren’t paying dividends with fat Brook Trout. Late into the trip I finally landed an 8 inch Brookie and my buddy did as well.

Then, just when we were making our way out to a bend where we planned to bushwack back to the Forest Service Road, I made a cast in a very ordinary looking spot in the stream and just about crapped my waders when a 20 inch fish appeared, wheeled around and inhaled my spinner. I seriously thought it was the mythical, small-stream 20 inch Brook Trout and almost lost my composure. My drag was set fairly light and controlling this fish as it struggled down stream towards a lair of logs was proving a precarious venture. It was then that my buddy appeared with his net and his exclamation almost broke my heart, “It’s a Brown!”. So it was. I could see it clearly now as I came to my senses and tightened my drag a few clicks. So we landed it and there it was in the net looking at us like we owed it money. It was a very good looking Brown Trout indeed. One of the prettiest I have ever seen. Pictures just can’t encode the colors of this particular trout and do it justice. And at 20.5 inches long, it was a real skinny water day-maker...











Anyway, this is the trout and yours truly wearing a fake beard to disguise my good looks and my special ‘_Out For Trout_’ trucker hat.


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## cosborn (Oct 25, 2014)

Trout King said:


> No worries Steve, I am saving your pets for this weekend.
> 
> Anyhow, my personal opener went well, was fortunate enough to make it to a very small creek after work and had a quality couple hours of fishing. Brook trout are on the menu as I decided to bag a few for dinner tomorrow. Towards my get out point I was toying with a few gobbling tom turkeys that were feeling rather excited by mouth calling with no call. Possible cast n blast with my 8 year old if we are unsuccessful bagging him a gobbler in the next week or so.
> Some of the pics I took...
> ...


Very nice!

I spent my time after work cleaning fish too... just not the kind of cleaning I was hoping for :/ (my son’s aquarium was filthy and needed a 100% water change before anyone went belly up).


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## Trout King (May 1, 2002)

PunyTrout said:


> Big Medicine and I helped our friend fertilize and plant a couple of his food plots today. Afterwards, we decided to explore some new water and headed over to a creek that has several acres flowing through Federal land. It was a short hike in from the Forest Service road and we found the creek easily enough. This was pretty skinny water with a gentle flow and we were pretty confident we would find some Brookies. We found very few. It was weird. The Brook Trout we did manage to see would barely attack our spinners. They would just kind of come out from their cover and sniff at or nuzzle our lures without being in full attack mode.
> 
> We were feeling a bit discouraged with the fishing to be honest. Further evidence of several pairs of fresh boot tracks in the sand and mud made us aware that we weren’t the first anglers to fish this particular stretch today. Someone, or a couple of people were making Hay with our trout while we were planting Rye fields… Well we seriously considered leaving at that point. But, instead we persevered and explored further upstream even though the boot prints were becoming more and more frequent. I just felt like we were here and needed to learn what the water was like for future reference.
> 
> ...


Great brown PT. 

Is the secret to big trout growing a big beard?


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## candyman (Jan 4, 2013)

Had a fun






opener with one of my favorite fishing buddies. My 6yr old Cassi had a blast catching her first brooky. She thought it was pretty funny crawling on hands and knees up to a hole to keep from spooking them.


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## Trout King (May 1, 2002)

candyman said:


> Had a fun
> View attachment 310620
> opener with one of my favorite fishing buddies. My 6yr old Cassi had a blast catching her first brooky. She thought it was pretty funny crawling on hands and knees up to a hole to keep from spooking them.


That is awesome! Dandy of a first brookie! Congrats to the both of you.


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## Boardman Brookies (Dec 20, 2007)

candyman said:


> Had a fun
> View attachment 310620
> opener with one of my favorite fishing buddies. My 6yr old Cassi had a blast catching her first brooky. She thought it was pretty funny crawling on hands and knees up to a hole to keep from spooking them.


That’s awesome. Takes me back:


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## Steve (Jan 15, 2000)

PunyTrout said:


> Big Medicine and I helped our friend fertilize and plant a couple of his food plots today. Afterwards, we decided to explore some new water and headed over to a creek that has several acres flowing through Federal land. It was a short hike in from the Forest Service road and we found the creek easily enough. This was pretty skinny water with a gentle flow and we were pretty confident we would find some Brookies. We found very few. It was weird. The Brook Trout we did manage to see would barely attack our spinners. They would just kind of come out from their cover and sniff at or nuzzle our lures without being in full attack mode.
> 
> We were feeling a bit discouraged with the fishing to be honest. Further evidence of several pairs of fresh boot tracks in the sand and mud made us aware that we weren’t the first anglers to fish this particular stretch today. Someone, or a couple of people were making Hay with our trout while we were planting Rye fields… Well we seriously considered leaving at that point. But, instead we persevered and explored further upstream even though the boot prints were becoming more and more frequent. I just felt like we were here and needed to learn what the water was like for future reference.
> 
> ...


That is a beauty. 

Sent from my SM-G935V using Michigan Sportsman mobile app


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## PunyTrout (Mar 23, 2007)

candyman said:


> Had a fun
> View attachment 310620
> opener with one of my favorite fishing buddies. My 6yr old Cassi had a blast catching her first brooky. She thought it was pretty funny crawling on hands and knees up to a hole to keep from spooking them.


Best photo yet! Awesome.


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## mondrella (Dec 27, 2001)

Trout King said:


> No worries Steve, I am saving your pets for this weekend.
> 
> Anyhow, my personal opener went well, was fortunate enough to make it to a very small creek after work and had a quality couple hours of fishing. Brook trout are on the menu as I decided to bag a few for dinner tomorrow. Towards my get out point I was toying with a few gobbling tom turkeys that were feeling rather excited by mouth calling with no call. Possible cast n blast with my 8 year old if we are unsuccessful bagging him a gobbler in the next week or so.
> Some of the pics I took...
> ...



I suddenly have the opportunity to have the rest of the week off!! I guess I could leave you the jungle for your little tourney. You will be able to get big brookie out of it. It is tempting for me to go tomorrow rainy cloudy conditions. We both know those fish will be pulled out from the undercut banks. 
Nice fish by the way! I was going to fish one of your home waters tonight. Instead grabbing my stuff from the Motel and headed home I be fishing some of my pet water instead!!

PT great colorful brown some fish just have it going with spots and color. 
Also the rest of you guys great pics thanks for sharing. The smile of the little lady with that brookie is priceless!!!


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## Trout King (May 1, 2002)

mondrella said:


> I suddenly have the opportunity to have the rest of the week off!! I guess I could leave you the jungle for your little tourney. You will be able to get big brookie out of it. It is tempting for me to go tomorrow rainy cloudy conditions. We both know those fish will be pulled out from the undercut banks.
> Nice fish by the way! I was going to fish one of your home waters tonight. Instead grabbing my stuff from the Motel and headed home I be fishing some of my pet water instead!!
> 
> PT great colorful brown some fish just have it going with spots and color.
> Also the rest of you guys great pics thanks for sharing. The smile of the little lady with that brookie is priceless!!!


Im not so sure the jungle won't be blown out for before Saturday


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## PunyTrout (Mar 23, 2007)

Trout King said:


> Is the secret to big trout growing a big beard?


Yeah, about_ those whiskers_... I figure I can cut the beard in a few more days. I'm growing them so when they're long enough to 'Harvest', I'll have some unique material for 'Hair Wings' to tie Royal Wulf style dry flies with...  

Edit: A few more weeks and I'll be able to use it for _streamers..._ :yikes:


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## jjvanderlaan (Sep 3, 2008)




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## Steve (Jan 15, 2000)

jjvanderlaan said:


>


Good to see you were prepared with a chainsaw.


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## PunyTrout (Mar 23, 2007)

We were excited last night with all of the rainfall we received. The creeks weren't too bad. But they weren't really optimal either. Coffee color with visibility around 6 inches. Wading was very difficult and at times, _scary_. Yet, we fished and had our butts handed to us. We were about to get skunked for the day but decided to fish one last spot before dark. I ended up with another day-maker. This one was 19.5 inches long but was much heavier than the 20.5 inch trout from Tuesday.











I glad my buddy made the decision to continue on to the last spot for the evening. I was ready to admit defeat and head on home... Lucky for me I guess.


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## Bob Foster (Aug 16, 2010)

This morning was my first time out this year, this was the biggest.


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## Ray Adams (Feb 17, 2006)

candyman said:


> Had a fun
> View attachment 310620
> opener with one of my favorite fishing buddies. My 6yr old Cassi had a blast catching her first brooky. She thought it was pretty funny crawling on hands and knees up to a hole to keep from spooking them.


My word, what a vibrant brookie!


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## Trout King (May 1, 2002)

Fished some new water this weekend. Found a couple decent fish but nothing huge. Caught a "golden" trout  with a monster kype and a standard specimen for one of my old favorites.














Hit some smaller stuff last night and today. Catching a lot of browns and some brookies mixed in. Sorry no pics from those jaunts.

Good luck to the guys getting out this week as some streams should be prime!


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## Splitshot (Nov 30, 2000)

Trout King said:


> Fished some new water this weekend. Found a couple decent fish but nothing huge. Caught a "golden" trout  with a monster kype and a standard specimen for one of my old favorites.photoshoppef
> View attachment 311258
> View attachment 311259
> 
> ...


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## Trout King (May 1, 2002)

Ray, trout season has you lurking around here? Hope you get out soon as Mondrella said you have yet to be out as of Friday. Looking forward to pics and a story from you...

This site has allowed me to create friendships with some very fine men and anglers over the years.


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## mrblond (Sep 17, 2016)

Fished the boardman area this weekend. Conditions pretty poor, high, fast and dirty. But I don’t get to pick my days off so fished it. Picked areas I knew I could walk and hit some spots, mostly from shore. Pretty tough. Saturday there were tons of bwos coming off but no rises. Sunday in rain had better luck goings exclusively w streamers. This one being the prettiest.


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## msfcarp (Jun 6, 2006)

jjvanderlaan said:


>


Pretty impressed you/your buddy didn’t drop that saw! Great vid.


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