# U.P. Report with lot of pics.



## WILDCATWICK (Mar 11, 2002)

(Part 1)

Went up to da U.P. for a week over the 4rth of July period. The water levels have been low all year in the Western U.P. and as a result many streams that I have never seen temps above the low 60's were hitting the 70's. Many of the old timers we talked to said this is one of the worst seasons they can recall. 

These type of conditions I feel can be good if you can find the springs. The trout are typically stacked and hungry.

When we are in this 'neck of the woods' we stay at a lake typically love to wake have a fire at night and here a lonely loon calling for a mate. The to wake up in the morning to nice cold crisp air to hear the loons in excitement over finding a mate to keep them company. Camp is pretty simple on our trips. Truck, canoe, and tent.








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Once camp was set up we decided to hit the water. We went for a spot that might produce a hex hatch. The hex aren't big in this area and if one does come across them they should count their blessings. We were counting blessing for about 15 minuets on the first evening. After and hour of fishing we wound up with two nice browns one of which we got a picture of.








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Now we have heard how bad the bugs are up there right now via the posts here on M.S.com. We decided to try out a pair of Thermacells. You can see one in the above picture. I can honestly say they worked great. I rarely put on bug dope through the whole trip. Just had to change strips in the Thermacell about every 4 hours and the bugs stayed away.

The hatches the rest of the week were yellow stones and green beetles. I don't know what these green beetles were but they were packed in every stomach of every trout we examined. The big fish also had plenty of crayfish in them. But more beetles than anything and hardly any stones even though they were the dominant species on the water. 

The yellow stones looked a little different than the ones on the AuSable system.
U.P. Stone:







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AuSable Stone:







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Even when you didn't see them in the air their casings were everywhere.







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We did see a few of these guys in the early evening on several days. This helped get the rises going.







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But for the most part the fly that brought in the most fish was this classic right here.








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It's a little beat up to say the least and not as nice and neat as when we tied it. I stopped at this hole and caught about 20 trout out of it.







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Some of those 20 were like this guy!







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## wallywings123 (Jul 12, 2004)

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.


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## WILDCATWICK (Mar 11, 2002)

(Part 2)

But most caught out of the there were like this jewel.







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While walking bushwhacking trails or sitting on a rock contemplating one sees things on a river. Here are a few things that were seen. Feel free to jump in and identify them some of them are quite easy.
Shroom 1:







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Shroom 2







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Flower 1







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Flower 2







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This guy new I was taking a snack break on the bank. He just didn't want to leave.







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Then it was back to fishing as these guys just seem to call my name. I often here a splash in my sleep that wakes me up and draws me out of me sleeping bag to go find them.







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Decided to take a little break and drive and go see a couple of U.P. land marks. These are types of things that are famous in the northern Midwest.







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I've seen ski jumping at the old Suicide Hill jump many times. Even saw a guy die there one year. But for someone to jump that ski flying hill is unimaginable to me. I will have to make a special trip there to see it. The people that do it must have kahoonas the size of the guy in the in the Powderhorn picture!:lol:


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## itchn2fish (Dec 15, 2005)

Thanks very much for sharing this with us. Sweet.


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## WILDCATWICK (Mar 11, 2002)

Then it was back to the fishing. We went for bass one hot sunny afternoon. and just picked any old lack. That was a mistake. We could have gone to some hot spots we have fished and some we have just heard about but we didn't instead we ended up with a couple of guys like this.:lol:







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Later that night we decided to hit a different kind of lake. Going for Brookies in a lake. There is no road access so we loaded up the canoe walked back in.







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The fist hour there was no sign of life in the lake. So we trolled back and forth through the deep areas. No luck. Then as we reached the end of the lake I noticed a ring. The wife cast to and pulled our first trout out of this lake.







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Small indeed but we were excited to know that they were there. As we were laughing about the size we heard a splash. Sounded like a bloody beaver but we had not noticed any beaver activity when we circled the lake earlier. The rings were large and easy to spot. It was my turn to lay out the fly. I heaved out a rubber spider with legs and waited about 30 seconds then twitched it as if I were fishing to bluegill. Wham! After fighting this guy on the 3wt for about 5 minutes we could now confirm there were some big brooks in there too!







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There's a few more in my gallery. He made for a fine dinner over the campfire latter that evening.

Not all water was crystal clear on our trip. Here is a great hole that was really stained up.







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But much of the fishing conditions were as described earlier. Including tag alders and lot of roll casting spots like this one.







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While getting on our waders this guy kept jumping around us like we were the hat in a Mexican hat dance. 







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In the final evening we caught some nice trout on Iso's and then my wife decided to toss a hex even though we hadn't seen one that night or for days for that matter and she wound up with this dandy.







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## WILDCATWICK (Mar 11, 2002)

There were several signs that we saw that week that were of interest.







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They had striped the bark around the tree for about a foot in height so they could observe any infestations. I had not seen one of these before.

And this sign...well for obvious reasons I had to get my photo next to it.







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All in all we had a great time. The wife caught the biggest brown and I caught the biggest brookie and we both caught enough fish to sleep very easily at night while the loons sing. I'm glad she caught the biggest brown it made the ride home more enjoyable!:lol: 

I would highly recommend a Thermacell to anyone. Those things are great. Just get lot's of strips for it. Now I sit back and wonder where next weekend will take us, no matter where it is will be smiling along a river.


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## WILDCATWICK (Mar 11, 2002)

O.K. now I'm done seriously!:lol::lol:


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## NickAdams (Jul 8, 2008)

nice post, lost of great pics!


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## brookid (Aug 25, 2004)

Great read! Great pics! One of these days....


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## DaveW731 (Jan 12, 2001)

Would have made a great travellog: Really enjoyed the story!


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## 2PawsRiver (Aug 4, 2002)

Excellent post, thanks for the pictures and story.


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## Shupac (Apr 17, 2005)

Great post. Some nice looking waters there.


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## Bowslayer (Aug 29, 2005)

Very nice pics, and that is one HE!! of a Brookie, I bet he tasted great. Congrats


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## quest32a (Sep 25, 2001)

Very nice pictures, thanks for sharing!


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## rocknut (Jun 23, 2008)

Sounds like you had a great time. Gorgeous fish, by the way. I'm glad your wife caught the biggest brown--shows you guys that some of us chicks really can fish!

Thanks for the pics and the story!


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## Carpmaster (Apr 1, 2004)

Very good read and great pics!! Thinks!!


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## Macker13 (Oct 1, 2007)

Thanks for the great post and pic's.


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## UPJerry (Dec 14, 2006)

Thanks a lot.. always love to read your reports. Great to see a lot of pictures this time, too.

I don't know what went wrong with my Thermacell experience, but it just wasn't working for me!


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## Whit1 (Apr 27, 2001)

Your posts have to be one of the best fishing trip reports that I've read on these boards. Thanks for sharing and describing what you did and saw. The photos, captions, and overall storyline allowed me.....and I'm sure most everyone else who read/looked through it........to go along with you.


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## dreihl (Mar 27, 2006)

That is a great looking brookie there in part III. Looks like it's starting the put on the spawning colors. Pics like that make me think I focus too much on steel. Definitely need to plan a trip to explore the UP for some native brook trout. Glad to hear that ThermaCELL works so well. I think I'll have to invest in that if I ever get past the talking about going to the UP for brookies stage and actually make it happen.


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