9/29/09 Flows

I wanted to post on the blog seeing other sites take off your stuff. All the Ohio and P.A tribs have received water. All the tribs are still getting water as of tonight. Keep an eye out I will be heading out this Week at the first ripples of some tribs. Keep the reels screaming.

9/27/09 Rain

I know we all have been waiting for the rain to push some fish and it has arrived. All the tribs got rain and we should be getting a bunch more per the weather man. I know John from OneByOne has been doing his dance and it paid off. Keep the reels screaming

Record Brown

CADILLAC - It started out as an average day on the Manistee River for Tim Roller and his charter clients.

Tom Healy of Rockford and his fishing partner, Bob Woodhouse of Grand Rapids, had caught a couple of nice 18- to 20-pound salmon on the sunny, pleasant morning.

About two hours into the trip things changed, but Roller did not know how much.

Fishing a Rapala shad rap No. 8, black on silver, Healy hooked into a pretty nice fish.

"It fought like a tank," said Roller. "It was super strong."

"When I hooked the fish, the first thing it did was run up water and try to jump," said Healy from his Rockford home.

"I don’t know if it was too old, or too big, did not have enough energy, but it just came up and boiled and roiled. I said to Tim, ‘My goodness Tim, that really is a good fish.’"

Roller at first thought it was a salmon. "What else would I think? We were fishing for salmon and I thought it was a salmon," said Roller, who runs the guide service Ultimate Outfitters and is host and producer of "Tim Roller’s Wild Addiction" outdoor show.

After about 15 minutes, the fish was spent, wearing itself out with a tremendous fight. As it started to make it up to the surface of the Manistee, Roller saw a white belly. Roller said he still thought it was a salmon but a "nice silver one." Salmon typically start to turn darker as they are making their runs into the river.

Another look at the fish and Roller noticed spots. He knew it wasn’t a salmon, but he couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing.

"I thought it was a big Atlantic Salmon, but I knew in my mind it wasn’t," Roller said. "I couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing."

Then it clicked.

"I let out a scream. It was a huge brown trout," Roller said. "We had to get a net under it."

Once the fish was in the net, the fishermen started to get an idea of just how big it was. With his Boga grip scale, Roller tried to get a weight on the fish. Although 18 inches of it was still in the water, the fish bottomed out the scale at 30 pounds. Roller measured it at 44 inches long, with a 27-inch girth.

But Healy almost did what many would think unthinkable.

"I am not one to preach to be catch-and-release, but it is truly rare that I don’t release a fish," Healy said.

He reached down to let it go when Roller realized what Healy was thinking and said to Healy, "Don’t you dare."

Healy and Roller said they didn’t believe the fish could be revived, and thoughts of releasing the fish ended.

Roller called a friend of his, charter captain Mark Chmura, who is known for catching big browns on Lake Michigan to get an idea of just how big a fish they were holding. Roller started telling Chmura some of the measurements - and Chmura said he would meet them at the boat launch.

"He pulled off the river to meet us. He had clients with him and he pulled off the river," Roller said.

Chmura had an certified scale to weigh the fish, and it recorded 40 pounds, about four pounds more than the state record 36-pound, 13-ounce brown caught in Frankfort in 2007. At that point, Chmura said they needed to go to his shop in Manistee and put it on another scale. They filled a cooler with water and loaded the fish for the trip to Manistee. "Word spread pretty fast," Roller said. "On the trip over there I had three calls. The DNR was over there, the (U.S) Forest Service - it was non-stop people for five hours. It was crazy the whole time."

Healy said he probably could have heaved the fish out of the cooler only one, maybe two more times.

"It is hard for me to believe," Healy said. "Here I am, an old retired guy up there for a quiet day of fishing and peace.

"To have all of this notoriety - it’s a crazy thing."

DNR Fisheries Biologist Mark Tonello measured and weighed the fish. It tipped the scales at 41-pounds, 7.25 ounces, beating the state record by more than five pounds. The world record currently stands at 40-pounds, 4-ounces and was caught in Arkansas. Healy’s fish is the unofficial world-record brown trout.

"It shattered our existing state record by five pounds," Tonello said. "The old record was 36 pounds, 13 ounces and the new record is 41 pounds, 7 ounces. You expect if a new record’s to be caught, it would just beat the old one by a little bit, but this one is massive."

"This is not only great for the Manistee, but it also puts the spotlight back on Michigan fisheries," Roller said. "This is something positive for the state of Michigan."

ScreamingReels agreed.

"We think this is just another example of what we have to offer here in Michigan," said DNR Communications Representative Bob Gwizdz. "Michigan has world class fisheries, and this appears to be a bona fide world record. Keep the reels Screaming

09/09/09 Steelheading In Ohio

I wanted to post regarding a recent blog I read. I saw this and found it to be great reading. I also want my readers to know about another great web site for quality info. http://flyandfloatfishing.com/joomla/ I have attached the blog info.

The crisp evenings have gotten a lot of steelhead fisherman excited lately. With the early reports coming in that a few chrome have been seen on the east side, it has got me excited as well. There is nothing I enjoy more than the tug of a steelhead early in the morning. For all those that are new to all of this steelhead talk, I urge you to browse the web for all the content that has been made available by many avid anglers in the steelhead alley. You will find a lot of different perspectives, and a wealth of knowledge from each an every Steelhead Alley website that you seek out.

Whether it is a website that allows forum access to chat it up with other anglers, or websites that are tailored more towards promoting a guide service, I am sure that you will find a lot of information. And if you don’t know something, feel free to ask. There is never a stupid question, and there are many around that would be more than happy to help you along your journey and passion of steelhead fishing here in the Steelhead Alley area. Never forget that everyone has to start somewhere, and we all had to start at the beginning.

Most of you know I am sure, but for those of you that don’t, the Fly and Float Fishing website was faced with a fork in the road this spring. The founder of the website decided to pursue his passion of photography, and looked to pass the reigns of the website to another avid angler. The website has been totally transferred over to the new ownership. Fear not our fellow Fly and Float Fishing members and guests, as FNF is in good hands and the website will continue to grow and provide the most up to date reports, videos, podcasts, and articles that we can provide.

I look forward to working with, and meeting all the old faces as well as getting to know the new faces both at Fly and Float, as well as all of the other industry leaders from gear representatives, to guide service providers, to authors, and everyone in between.

Some may know me, others may have heard of me, and even more have never heard my name. But rest assured, that the Fly and Float Fishing Website will continue to prosper. I have 15 years in the Software Development / System Analyst / Quality Assurance field. I played a big part in the conversion of the old FNF website, and I worked behind the scenes with other members of the website to bring the new face lift to fruition. Previous to Fly and Float Fishing, I had the opportunity to work with Ford in putting together their online car purchase website.

I will run this site out of passion, and not for profit. I enjoy bringing everyone the best information that I can, so that it will help you in your steelhead fishing endeavors.

I will pay for the website upkeep completely out of my own pocket 100%. You won’t see the Fly and Float Fishing staff hitting up the regional gear reps for freebies all the time like other sites. You won’t see us being so self centered that we think we have to proclaim to the world that we are the best bloggers, best website, etc… This is for the readers of our website to judge.

You won’t see me calling steelhead guides idiots or morons. I will give praise and respect to others as they give it to me. I call it as I see it is my personality.

Ever since I was introduced to this thing called steelhead fishing, I noticed a trend on the web. This guy doesn’t like that guy because he is a competing website, or competing guide, etc.. I found it interesting to tell you the truth. You have some that think they are the #1 provider in information, proclaim to be the leaders in the industry, and they think they have such a great website. I am here to tell you that I am sorry to burst your bubble, but the day you think you’re the best, is the day you forgot why you started providing content to others. It also shows in all the other so called websites that you design. Just because you have a computer, some photo editing software, some website design software, and a camcorder doesn’t make you the best and especially not a professional.

I don’t consider Fly and Float Fishing the best, but I claim that we are the most fun, most passionate group of people that I have ever come in contact with, and I enjoy reading all the great material that everyone has provided over the years. It is an honor and privilege to work with everyone at Fly and Float Fishing.com

I look forward to a successful steelhead fishing season, as well as a fun year with the Fly and Float Fishing.com website.

Best Regards,

Fly and Float Fishing Ownership

p.s. If you are going to record video, and you’re a so called professional, the least you can do is buy a $30 tripod at Walmart and create some videos that are actually quality.

And lastly, the Fly and Float Fishing Blog is used for blogging fishing reports, because that is why guests and members read it. Not because they care much about a puppies, a baby, or some midnight revelation on how we are going to change our life. Sure that’s nice, but we here at Fly and Float Fishing like to stick with fishing. I will post my life stories on Facebook, because that’s what it’s for.

Steelhead Fishing Report

I wanted to post regarding the Steelhead Season. We have been getting small numbers of fish staging in P.A for the run. The numbers are not big but the cooler temps and rain this week may send some fish into the tribs. I have been out looking but I have not seen any numbers in Ohio yet. The far East side will get the fish first and then they will move West. I have not posted in a while due to the fact not much to talk about without Chrome. I'm not into writing about my life stories. I'm into writing about Steelhead and fishing in general. Keep the reels screaming.