The Mighty Muskegon

Meet Captain Jon Kolehouse of Rivers Bend Guide Service. Old friend John Hojnacki and I spent a day on his jet running Michigan's Muskegon River. The Muskegon had the same amount of precipitation as the other rivers we fished last week — very little. Yet, for whatever reason, it had more fish.

Over the course of a short day (I drove through yet another snow squall, arrived half an hour late, and we were off the water by 2:00 pm) the three of us hooked about 7 fish. Jon hooked most of them with a tactic he would rather I don't divulge. But, as you can see, Kolehouse at least roots for a good team (Michigan's Wolverines are 12-0 and #2 in all the land in basketball as this post appears.)

The river was running at about 1300 cfs while we were there. Which is low and clear for the Muskegon. As usual, the river gave up a number of bonus browns and resident rainbow trout. Which we caught with (oops — almost gave it away). The Muskegon is always worth a trip, year 'round.

So. It turned into a nice day. Pretty fish. Long drive "home" to Hummel's cabin (Mary took the day off to recuperate from the rigors of the high seas on Chmura's boat the day previous).

Tomorrow we hit another river with a tactic I'm quite certain 90% of the steelhead fanatics who visit here have already heard of. But have they tried it yet? The following day, we explore a technique very few of you have tried — and those few were in our company.