A certain guitar-playing ex-fishing guide suggested to me over dinner that I should get the skunk off my back and adopt the two fly, lead-weighted bottom-drifting rig widely used on the Manistee and elsewhere. And, no, the DNR requirement to use only "one single-pointed unweighted hook measuring 3/8 inch or less from point to shank" does not prevent this, the regulation being aimed at snaggers using large treble hooks cast into lead weights. But this same fellow volunteered that the two fly rig ends up snagging fish in the mouth due to how the whole mess floats broadside down the river. So doesn't the use of this approach therefore contravene the spirit of the regulation and create hypocrites of those like me who who weep and gnash their teeth over "those damned snaggers" who are much worse than the bait merchants and even hardware tossers. Yes, the Steelhead hook-up is a blast and unearths the primeval instincts in many of us but at what cost? Is the very occasional and probably accidental brush with a fish on a single fly worth the angst of standing in the middle of the stream bedecked in our Simms and Orvis finery with our $500+ rod/reel/line combo gawping in impotent frustration at Dwaine from town standing on the bank and hauling in yet another silver missile that took his spawn bag. Maybe best to skip Steelhead season and wait until the Trout opener when Dwaine and the big migratory fish are gone and its just me and the 9 inch Rainbow that came out the fisheries truck but that I know for sure is trying to eat my size 18 BWO. (Why are there no fish in the Boyne River? Because they all died of lead poisoning. Ha, ha. But that's a moan for another day.)
Sun's now coming up on another spectacular day and it's time for a run.
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