Opening Day for Trout

by Dan Buckley

The tent is cleaned out and packed away. The cooler has been drained and aired out. Opening weekend of trout season has come and gone, and all that's left is the smell of fish on my clothes in the hamper.

It was a glorious weekend to be out on the water this year. There was no rain and we even enjoyed some good hours of sunshine. We got on the road as soon as we could Friday, after picking up as many supplies as possible. We were headed for the Pine River, up in the Manistee National Forest. The traffic up I-75 was manageable but crowded, leaving us to set up camp as the daylight was fading. We managed to get it up and join the other guys by the fire for a couple of brewskis. We sat comfortably until about 12:00, when we realized it was way too cold to sleep without the sleeping bags we conveniently forgot to pack. So it was back out to Meijer on the other side of Cadillac. After an hour and fifteen, we were back at camp and ready to snooze.

Morning came early on Saturday for some odd reason. We stuffed down some captain crunch and got our gear on to head down to the river. The three of us found our spots to wade in and cast. Most of us were using crickets with mixed results. Personally I had just a few bites with no success, but I wasn't complaining. I've been waiting months to get back out to that spot. Very soon, the rest of our party met us down by the water. One of the guys is an old veteran to the locale and seemed to start pulling trout out of the water immediately. I kept looking downstream at them as they one by one pulled out Rainbows and laughed. I was glad for them, but where was mine? Well our old pro soon moved to the other side of me down the river. Right away he pulled a trout from the water and kindly released it due to its size. Well I moved on down the river and remembered to try the steelhead spawn I had been given. It turns out that it was a most successful bait for the other fellas. It got nibbled off soon after and by that time I was ready for lunch.

I ate, napped and went back out with little luck. It was fairly busy out there all day. Our old pro, caught twelve fish Saturday and kept just enough for us to eat a little. The other guys caught a few more between them, but from what I hear the difference is "just a matter of casting in the right holes with the right bait." It was familiar advice, but nonetheless true. The lesson I learned was to keep fishing and keep your eyes and ears open. I think I can do that. From what I hear, the number of sportsmen in attendance will drop off significantly in the next couple weeks. If I have any more luck then, I'm sure you'll be reading about it.

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