# A new season is upon us!



## Rasputin (Jan 13, 2009)

It’s an exciting rite of spring, a spiritual event, best wishes to all for a fulfilling season!


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## toto (Feb 16, 2000)

Yep a sure sign of spring, more accurate than the birds or anything else. I think I'll wait a week or two, let the crowds die down a bit. But good luck to all.


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## PunyTrout (Mar 23, 2007)

As always, I'm looking forward to the first Monday that follows the last Saturday of April...


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## zig (Aug 5, 2009)

I can't decide if I'm gonna go. I haven't been on opening day in years. My favorite unnoticed spots get 1 or 2 guys one day a year, opening day. So, I wait until the next weekend or take a weekday off. But, with the rain and temps, bluegill fishing on the boat doesn't sound appealing, and my outdoor chores are all done at the moment. What's a guy to do.....


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## Boardman Brookies (Dec 20, 2007)

I’m going, never miss it. Some years I just drive around. Plenty of open water available so I’ve been out several times. Finding some nice ones already too.











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## TroutFishingBear (Aug 31, 2007)

Nice fish boardman, the trout have been biting real actively the last 6 days in the southern part of the state...should be good tomorrow!


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## -Axiom- (Jul 24, 2010)

PunyTrout said:


> As always, I'm looking forward to the first Monday that follows the last Saturday of April...


Any week day, except for maybe last yr.


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## TroutFishingBear (Aug 31, 2007)

-Axiom- said:


> Any week day, except for maybe last yr.


Last April I brown trout fished for a living. Lol. And nobody else was out...was fantastic.


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## Tron322 (Oct 29, 2011)

I am going somewhere for a bit tomorrow, see how the day goes.

Then I finnaly have time to either relax or do some chores on Sunday, but will probably go hit some trout spots for a while that day too.


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## MoJoRisin' (Jan 30, 2004)

A day early...I know where he lives


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## PunyTrout (Mar 23, 2007)

It's funny. I've been sitting around all week doing other things and totally forgot that tomorrow is actually Saturday the opener for trout.

I twisted up this spinner tonight just as I type this post.











Looking forward to pitching it at some trout when I head up to our camp next week.

Good luck to everyone who makes it out for the opener. There might actually be some decent weather to enjoy rather than sleet...

Good to be back, trout season. I missed you.


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## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

Looked like it was a nice cloud deck at dawn where I was but getting sunny steadily now. W-O-R-K remains a 4 letter word however, no wet lines for me today. 

Drove past one truck parked where I would park if I ever try that creek. But I’m sure all the culverts everywhere are cleaned out by now. I often wonder how many people fish those this a.m. and that is their only Trout fishing experience.


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## Boardman Brookies (Dec 20, 2007)

B.Jarvinen said:


> I often wonder how many people fish those this a.m. and that is their only Trout fishing experience.


Probably the same guys that are back in their truck at 10am on the opening of firearms season 



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## Shupac (Apr 17, 2005)

Won't make it out this year. My wife's birthday is April 24th, so every few years I'll sit out the opener to help insure domestic tranquility. A week from Sunday I should get a 3-4 day trip in. Still thinking about where.


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## Tron322 (Oct 29, 2011)

Gonna go pick a stream and wander in the woods for about thirty minutes to get away from the morning crew. Haven't missed a trout opener since I was about ten, don't take them serious anymore but it's still nice to get out and cast some panther martins again.

Plan on hitting the streams hard next weekend.


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## Shupac (Apr 17, 2005)

B.Jarvinen said:


> I often wonder how many people fish those this a.m. and that is their only Trout fishing experience.


I don't know, but I sure do appreciate them.

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## tincanary (Jul 23, 2018)

B.Jarvinen said:


> I often wonder how many people fish those this a.m. and that is their only Trout fishing experience.


Most don't venture far from their parking space. The remaining few of us go and donate blood to the pickers, thorns, and critters.


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## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

This thread is useless without pictures. 

So far I made it as far as throwing the UltraLight rod in the truck.


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## tincanary (Jul 23, 2018)

My wife wanted to take the kid out yesterday so we went out for a bit. I figured it would be a good time to take one of my reels out and get it dialed in before my first serious trip in a couple of weeks. I got that guy dialed in perfectly, the bait pretty much goes wherever I point the rod tip.


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## Tron322 (Oct 29, 2011)

Traffic wasn't bad at all in the spots I like to hit, didn't have much time but wanted to hook a trout and have the kid reel it in, hoped my wife got one and make sure our trout rods were working good. If I got a couple trout for dinner that would have been a bonus. So I just picked two spots, both new to me I have been wanting to try.

Achieved everything I wanted to do, caught a trout even though it was a five inch brown, my wife got one about 12" we released at the second stop. Got a couple brookies for dinner from the first stop, one of which my daughter reeled in.

Cooked them on the grill like I like, but she likes perch and walleye breaded and fried so she wasn't a fan, but fresh stream trout was just the dinner I needed yesterday. 

One of the nicest openers I could remember, low water but I couldn't complain about the weather.


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## TroutFishingBear (Aug 31, 2007)

Big Medicine said:


> Thanks - found this baby doll in the river staring at me a few years ago
> View attachment 768825


As a kid i found a plastic foot from a mannequin where the roaring fork river has its confluence with the colorado river. I ran like a half mile downstream to my dad when i saw it lol. Made him get it...reminds me of this no doubt.


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## Matt3ddsteel (Jan 10, 2002)

Here is a few pics from the past couple days. Lost the brown of my life yesterday. Gonna haunt me for a while no doubt. Can't seem to keep the big ones hooked this year.


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## riverman (Jan 9, 2002)

Nice. Trout opener for me this weekend. Been chasing trout and salmon in the southern ports. Looking foreword to rowing the drifter and bottom bouncing crawlers. Nothing better for the soul than a day or two on the river


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## jmaddog8807 (Oct 6, 2009)

Nice trout Matt.


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## Matt3ddsteel (Jan 10, 2002)

Tossed a husky jerk all day today. Morning bite was real good from 6:30am to about 9am. Moved a lot of nice fish today including 2 giants. Finished with 6 browns and 1 nice brookie.


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## Matt3ddsteel (Jan 10, 2002)

Made it out this morning. Only landed 2 fish, but one was this 22 inch beauty.


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## TroutFishingBear (Aug 31, 2007)

Nice troutskis


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## Botiz (Oct 21, 2010)

Got out today. 4 trout, one of which was this healthy rainbow. Water was 60-62*. It was new water to me. Love exploring.


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## Matt3ddsteel (Jan 10, 2002)

Botiz said:


> Got out today. 4 trout, one of which was this healthy rainbow. Water was 60-62*. It was new water to me. Love exploring.


Wow. Very unique fish. Almost zero spots.


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## Matt3ddsteel (Jan 10, 2002)

Extremely tough bite for me today. Fished 2 different stretches. First stretch only managed one 10 inch brown. Never hooked or moved a single fish on the second stretch for the first 3 hours. Finally landed 2 quality fish in the last 15 minutes before I was done for the day. Of course I got eaten alive by mosquitoes also, but its all worth it when you land a 20 inch fish.


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## Matt3ddsteel (Jan 10, 2002)

Not much action in this thread lately. Hard to believe it is the end of September already. Pretty good bite over the last couple of outings for me. Hope to make it out one last time on the 30th. Here is a few pics.


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## Steve (Jan 15, 2000)

Matt3ddsteel said:


> Not much action in this thread lately. Hard to believe it is the end of September already. Pretty good bite over the last couple of outings for me. Hope to make it out one last time on the 30th. Here is a few pics.
> View attachment 789346
> View attachment 789347
> View attachment 789348
> ...


Nice work.


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## jmaddog8807 (Oct 6, 2009)

Great browns!


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## Boardman Brookies (Dec 20, 2007)

Solid browns! Nicely done


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## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

I always fish on the 30th and today sadly broke an 8 year run on the same creek in the west U.P. on this day. At least I got 90 minutes on it in July and saw that it was back to giving up double digit Brookies while still in sight of the county road bridge, after a couple down spawning classes. It would have been epic as usual today I’m sure. But a golden rule of hiring a mechanic is to never ever never try to rush them and a new set of fuel injectors ain’t exactly a quick git-r-done. Plus I doubt the Coho are in the low rivers much u.p. dere yet for tomorrow’s fishing anyhow. Though they might be impatiently schooling just off-shore…half inch rain dere dis weekend. Bummer.

So I had to do something today and I definitely wanted well away from the segments open to the Big Lake right now. No shortage of contestants for Chinook Mania LII were spotted along my way to a trout stream in the dark this a.m. Which is one that I recall is mentionable here, but one thing folks should realize lately on here is that mobile devices don’t show that list as seen on a PC browser.

I just call this particular river the Canoe River and have caught and seen very nice Trout caught from it while simply standing at one of the numerous canoe launches. And it has been many weeks now since the canoe bros have sailed it with Captain Morgan and many other associates. There is a bridge I have been wanting to go in from on it, so I finally checked it off the list as I thought it would make an interesting comparison to my usual trip today.

As I was more interested in heading downstream, and there are very nice Browns in this river and light wasn’t touching anything when my toe first got wet, I started out with a potent but very low tech Trout lure: worms. Gasp. Every fish eats worms and I thought it might be my best chance to get a full skillet Brown to emerge for one last nighty night snack. I really really wanted to feed my Dad a delicious fresh Trout dinner, which I can never do way out in the west end. And I figured if that didn’t work out, at least some little’ns would supply a bit of that the-tug-is-the-drug as I went.

But then this trip turned into an odd one. I could not get any tiny nibble on a wriggling worm. None! The most excitement was an occasional bit of luck bottom bouncing the split shot along on some gravel, giving that “was it?” feeling as it went. I was following more of a fisherman’s path than I recalled from the past, but had never walked it all that far. The one thing about a fisherman’s path is - they always run out, eventually. There aren’t many fish around such a path though I had caught some from this one in the past. But usually people using such a path give up before too long and the path dwindles to nothing, though I had never found the end of this particular example. 

I was fishing everything. Pools, runs, undercut banks, hairpin turns and 90 degree bends with HOLES that would make the Salmon guys only a few miles away absolutely drool in anticipation at the monsters they should hold right now.

But, nada. And the dang path was not disappearing. My sure fire method for catching good Trout - simply walk farther than da other guy - was not firing up.
Finally one of the hair pin curves proved to be full up with a log jam, though of course with a canoe lane along it. This would give me the perfect opening to roll a worm right in under all that beautiful wood, where the Trout like to hang out.

Bupkis. Does a Type 2 stream = Fished Out? I sometimes think it does. I definitely was this morning.

As I gave up on the wonderful log jam and turned my attention downstream, I found my first positive thing of the day: a knotted rope swing hanging from a tree. That explained the strong “fisherman’s” path, which did turn out to end, right there. Then as I fished the hole the local kids would drop into, I spied another, positive/negative thing: a bank Beaver. Competition. But still, a bit of a cheerful sight as it helped explain the Trout scarcity at least a little. I had seen the signs on my way down but hadn’t thought much about them. It slapped its tail at me, and I laughed. Better days ahead, now.

I fished through more beautiful but dudsville Trout habitat. All quiet water. When I again reached some noisy water, I figured now I knew what to do: there would be Trout in that quick water, where Mr. Beaver couldn’t go all Jaws on them. And this proved correct. Finally a worm enticed a 5” Rainbow to appear briefly near my boots as it barely bent the rod before doing its best little Rainbow acrobatics and wriggling away. Progress.

But then after a few more fish-less runs another development appeared on the tall bank horizon: a log Palace. Peeps who build an abode on the Canoe River gots plenty of money for the roof over their head, after they afforded this awesome Trout Real Estate. This meant I was approaching a property line and would have to head back upstream. Which also meant it was time to quit dunking the worms and get to my usual Sep. 30 traditional: flipping spinners.

What a change that proved to be. The same runs that had just been worm-ifed 5-10 minutes prior now gave up 2 Browns; one legal, one not. First legal fish always goes back in the water as I never like to clean just one Trout but same first legal fish means more will be found. September 30 represent!

I returned to the noisy run with the little Rainbow in it. Though it held multiple interesting pockets, I didn’t think that much of it compared to the drooly pool dumping into it that I couldn’t wait to throw hardware in, now. So I stupidly just stood on the tall bank rather than correctly kneeling at the water’s edge and flipped the spinner above the best pocket and got the blade going. A shadow detached itself from a rock and casually floated on an intercept vector towards my spinner. Rainbow, 2 digits. Near Steel Class on a river without Steelhead. Maybe even with the numeral 2 on the front end of the digits. Red Alert!

I looked at it, it looked at me, it’s tail turned, my spinner spun by and on back to me. I had been schooled. This, was Trout fishing.

I went up to the gorgeous hole above and caught a decent near-legal Rainbow and a small Brown. But of course I was just counting the casts towards letting Steelhead Run cool down enough, I hoped, to get that big ole big un comfortable again there next to his Pet Rock.

Nope. You only get one chance at a Boss Trout, and if you blow it, you go back to the newbie screen where everyone starts the game.

Though it was a bit more pleasantly optimistic ascent through the Beaver’s domain. Worms, no. Spinners, yup. I caught a couple more small fish, including a small Brookie, a bit of a surprise in Canoe Land. By this point that horrible flaming ball of fire in the sky that I, and the Trout, hate so much, was screwing up everything and only still shaded water seemed worth fishing.

That approach soon bent the rod and even got the drag to make a little noise: a keeper.












Finally my Dad would get a fresh stream Trout sizzled out of the Peanut oil.

And so would I, I thought. But a bright sunny day just ain’t that great for Trout fishing in my experience, and this seemed doubly true on the Canoe River, where most structure is eradicated in the name of tourista dinero. And no more Trout would be caught, even in beautiful shade curves tight against clay banks facing north. The tourists wet some lines, too, I have always been sure.

Not my greatest September 30, but it sure made up for all that fishless time wobbling Acme products around my local harbor the rest of the month. Now if I can just get the w-o-r-k caught up some, I hear a voice calling, from a Lake up on high, I hear a voice calling…


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