Gear

Summer is the time for camping. It's great to get out when it's warm and all the field and fauna are active. When there is little worry of storm or cold. When you can pretty much just sleep under the stars without a care. 

My wife doesn't enjoy camping. My two oldest are out of the house. My two middle kids are at the age where anything with a parent involved is "lame and boring" and one doesn't like bugs especially mosquitos ( who really does?) 

my youngest son probably would go if I asked him but with all the others saying "no" I have written camping off. None of them want to fish

. 

http://greatlakesspeyshop.com/Spey%20Fest%204.html

 

With Speyfest this week I'm looking forward to camping even it is only "car camping" , not backpacking. This past weekend was full of thoughts about gear. digging through camping gear that I haven't touched in a year. 

I know my stuff is strewn from one corner of the basement to the other and stashed in cabinets in the shop avoiding dust. 

 

Every time I pack to camp I am right back with the 307th ENG BN 82nd Airborne INF DIV. Half moon black and gold subdued version on my shoulder. A voice in my head screaming "travel light freeze at night" so there is room for demolitions, but I'm not walking all night this weekend I'm car camping. I have room for a lantern and a double burner Colman stove and even a cooler.  Better because gone are the days when I could put my head on my canteen on a pile of rocks and red clay and sleep like a baby. 20 minutes ready to rock. Nope, my body aches in the morning my joints need two cups of coffee for proper lubrication. The beauty of this is I have space in the truck for a coffee pot. (Laughing sinisterly)

 

Certainly, I wish the perverbial "fish wagon", a 1966 ford econoline camper top super van was complete but to no avail remains untouched this summer. It's a tent for sleeping quarters this year.

 

https://kelty.com/tents-shelters/?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=PPC%3EBrand%3ETents&utm_term=kelty+tents&utm_content=Tents

 

 A reliable tent though, a Kelty, this same tent survived a Father's Day weekend trip up the Manistee River from red bridge in the worst down poor of the last 100 years.

 

http://blog.mlive.com/chronicle/2008/06/ludington_flooding_washes_out.html

 

 Over night US31 washed out and the river came up so high we nearly couldn't get back under the bridge. The DNR heard we were up there and came up to see if we survived. The river was a torrent of bubbly chocolate milk with full trees rootball to tip spinning in corner eddies. Not a single drop of moisture in that tent. 

 

Other gear isn't quite as reliable. For instance the inflatable sleep pad from Walmart. I've used it for nearly 10 years and every year I say to myself and anyone that will listen. "This thing is junk". I wake up in the middle of the night with sore hips and my shoulder popping out of socket. I roll from one side to the other trying to stay on the mat that I have over inflated hoping for better cushion between me and the cold hard ground and that one root under the exact spot I'm sleeping.

 

Emotionally draining. I'm a far cry from who I was in the 90s. the beauty of that, perspective. Having those years humping a 100lbs of ammunition and demolitions and a spare pair of socks through the dark cold night only to lie down on a fire ants nest gives perspective. Perspective that says keep this "junk" mat "it's better than nothing".

http://taskandpurpose.com/why-the-woobie-is-the-greatest-military-invention-ever-fielded/

 An appreciation for the best tent I've ever owned and a longing for my old woobie.
please visit and subscribe to my web site www.outersoulfiber.com
 

The Quest for Spey

On the road in wandering I've found the surf casters. Their cults form in places like Montauk, Tybee island, Fire island, Newport Beach, and Kalalock. Big rods, big reels, big lures, and long casts. Its a formula for success. Success to a fisherman ... Fishing.  

The idea is big water, big empty water filled with fish. Wait... What?The beaches of Lake Michigan in my case, or the mighty Muskegon River. 

The idea, in all its glory, of course has a wingman, the long cast. Dressed for success with an important tool, a big rod.

 

I was afraid of Spey rods because of all the big numbers and I'm not just talking about the ones written on the rods. When you talk about big Spey rods you must also talk about big reels and those have big numbers to. I just didn't want to face Spey like a man. So I didn't I convinced myself that a big spinning rod and reel would satisfy me. Maybe some big lures to go with it. 

So in my usual way I started surfing the web. What gear would I need to surf cast. (Lake Michigan) 

Clearly, I have a disorder that involves being different. (Another story some other time) 

There isn't any info out there about this silly thing, surf casting a lake. Who does that? Next best thing, Atlantic coast surf casting.  

Stripers are just big bass, really big bass and salmon are ocean fish anyway so the gear has to be close enough. Right? 

So in my usual way I got back on the web and promptly found a 12' vintage glass surf rod. A Garcia. Then I set to finding an enormous spinning reel, a DAM Quick 550n. (your nuts if you think I'm gonna learn to use a bait caster on top of it all) I had a few other spinning rods in the shop covered in saw  dust and cobwebs even a reel attached to one.  I dug them out and lined them up. 

I'm like a kid in a candy store with my new gear and my big plan. Wide eyed and naïve. "I'm gonna catch big fish on the big water," grinning ear to ear. 

I loaded up my spinning gear (that sounds strange) and headed to the lake hoping no one would be there. I definitely didn't want other fishermen to see that I had no idea what I was doing. I was fine but my ego was taking this hard. 

Who knew, 2 PM on a 85+ degree Thursday, the only fisherman besides me is a 12 year old with his escort, mom. 

It's the middle of summer the water is too hot the Sun is too bright and there are too many people on the pier. I fished and found that I still wasn't satisfied. 

I'm cutting this fishing story off right there because I could go on but this is about gear. 

Spey Spey Spey !!!

Calling me. 

Me being who I am wanted fiberglass. How many rod manufactures are rolling fiberglass these days. Well, a growing number but seems that not very many of the companies are rolling big glass. Most aren't even rolling switch length. I didn't want a short rod. I wanted full Spey length I wanted 15'. That's just where I was. Compensation for shortcomings? Maybe.  

Honestly, I was having my very first reservations about fiberglass being the best rod material available. I love the deep bend feel of glass both in the cast and when there is a fish on, but I was beginning to think maybe it wouldn't cast as far as I wanted it to. 

In addition there aren't as many guys as you would imagine selling used fiberglass Spey rods. 

I wasn't gonna drop those big numbers on something I may hate casting. 

I quested onward. Scouring for sale adds on all the major pages and FB but the right fit wasn't out there. I thought to myself, "I'm not gonna find this rod until I spend $1000." Not gonna happen right now!

Then, a rod dangled on the web in front of my face and I pulled the trigger. 

It's not glass. it's not vintage. I don't care. I'm going to learn to Spey cast! I can't wait to get it in my hand. 

Naïvely grinning ear to ear, "I'm gonna catch big fish on big water!"

GLSC Great Lakes Surf Casters

I am a fly fisherman.

I grew up throwing a spinning rod and reel but was never very serious about it.  

I'd go with a friend if he was going or fish off the dock at a family thing because there weren't any kids my age. I never had a huge desire to just go fishing. 

Flash forward 15 years I finished school and did a quick 8+ years in the United States Army and went west. Yakima, WA, it was a strange time but I wanted to fish. Fly fish. I was busy with work and kept thinking that these casting techniques  take a lifetime to learn, so I put it off, I didn't buy a rod a reel or even hold one. Then Washington was in the rear view mirror.

 Hood River, OR. Salmon season. I friend of mine, a spin caster, kept asking me to go fish with him but I didn't want to be just a "regular" fisherman I wanted to be a fly fisherman. I told him "no thanks" so many times I don't know why he kept asking.

 Turns out my moms husband had an old glass fly rod buried in the garage and a copy of the "Curtis Creek Manifesto" in the book case. In her back yard overlooking the mighty Columbia River I threw my first line and a tiny red yarn on the end at a bucket just 30' away.  It was October and only getting colder. I'm a Michigan boy but I had just spent the better part of the last 10 years in Georgia and North Carolina and my blood was thin. I hung up the rod determined that I would get to it in the spring.

I left the fabled Columbia River basin three days after the new year in the dead cold winter, never to stand in the river and wave a stick.

Back in Michigan it was cold but I was fixated on the task. I poured my self into the outdoors. I was single with no hobbies. Heavy boot foot neoprene waders and a shotgun, wait, what I thought this was about fishing, I was cold and there wasn't any way I was gonna get into some fridged half frozen river and shrivel up my ego.  Madd Dogg and Remington were my "gateway" gear, after that it was a slippery slope. 

 Snow shoes, back packs, ammunition, sleeping bags, tents, camp stoves, boots, etc. etc. and oh that's right the fly rod, the reel, the line, and all that goes with it? I don't know to this day if it's the gear or the lifestyle the gear allows that's the addiction?   No matter I'm an addict  one way or the other. 

I study and learn. I spend hours on the web looking at products weighing them against each other. Reading reviews and technical data and studying techniques for using said product. It's research. My wife calls it an obsession. Obsessed is a heavy word, but I guess I should embrace it, after all I've already admitted I'm an addict. 

I want more, I want more gear and I want to fish more. I want to make it my work but I haven't.  I'm 40 minutes to the waters edge rod in hand from the nearest trout water. I have three kids at home, all in sports after school and other extra caricular activities. I run my own business. I play hockey a couple times a week. I'm busy. I try to get to the trout water every other weekend, but it doesn't seem like enough. I want to fish more.  

I live 10 minutes to the waters edge rod in hand from the 5th largest body of fresh water in the world! Lake Michigan. Hmmm can you see where I'm going? I grew up walking distance from this lake and can probably count the number of fish Ive caught out of it on one hand. It's a travesty! 

I want to fish more.... And so began the investigation. 

My first thought was fly fish it, a Spey rod and some big bugs. There is a reference book already written. I don't know if any of my fly fish buddies are doing this except for carp in grand traverse bay and beaver island. The whole "fresh water bonefish" thing. I want salmon, steelhead, and Browns. Reaching those fish is a little more tricky. Casting distance and water depth are obstacles that can be overcome by fishing from the piers but that's not perfect either given the traffic of beach goers and "regular" fisherman. Top that, if I only fish the piers I have just eliminated 99.9% of the Lake Michigan coastline reachable on foot.

What's left?  I'm no ordinary "regular" fisherman. I don't know if I can stomach being the guy with spawn drifting under a bobber off the pier. I don't know that I want to fight that crowd. I don't know why. It's some sort of prejudice that exists in my head. I'll call it bobber fear.

Lake Michigan is big water. There are guys fishing in big water out east that aren't using a bobber. They are surf casting the Atlantic Ocean. Can I do that here?  How?

So began the research. There's not much info out there about surf casting the Great Lakes. A few videos of guys catching Browns from the beach early spring. I read from surf casters journal and joined som surf casting FB pages and hit the stripers online forum. Spent hours on the web "researching" I bought a big rod, probably too big, I bought a big reel, probably too big, and I got some big lures, probably too big.  There's just no info out there or its "fight club".

I'm breaking the rules, I want to wade to the second sandbar and throw a big lure 200 feet into the black night. I want to feel the tug of sport fish as they turn and run. I want to feel the kinship, the brotherhood, the night shift. GLSC,(Great Lakes Surf Casters) a FB group https://www.facebook.com/groups/332604083794042/ I made to gather info and knowledge, if it exists, or to document that it can't be done, which ever comes first.

Meanwhile, the waters warm and they say the salmon won't come till it cools and I am on the pier with my oversized gear drifting shrimp under a bobber and watching the guy next to me pull out catfish. 

Turns out, I AM a "regular" fisherman!