Jokes on Me: Clinton River Outing and Tax Day

The afternoon of Friday, April 11th treated me with a spontaneous outing with my friend Tim from Clinton Valley TU on the Clinton River in Shelby Township, MI. It was another beautiful day, high in the 70's, very few clouds, and gentle breezes. You could not ask for better weather for pretty much any outdoor activities, except maybe steelhead fishing.

After sharing a delicious, yet greasy, Little Caesars Hot-N-Ready, stream side, we walked in to access the river near Ryan Road. Tim was trying his luck with various nymphs and buggers using a floating line with weight on his leader. I on the other head, decided to be a little less practical and a little more aggressive given the conditions: 250 grain weight forward sinking line, chucking streamers.

Tim working a run.

Sad to admit, but I have lived in SE Michigan my entire life, and this was my first time fishing the Clinton River. The Michigan DNR plants steelhead smolts in the river every year, and they do ascend the river starting in the fall and continue to do so through to spring when they eventually spawn. I do not know if there is any successful natural reproduction due to the river's summertime low flows and high temperatures. I imagine there is some success in some of the main river's tributaries.

Because of my limited knowledge of the river, I didn't know how to gauge if the river was running high, low, clear, stained, etc.  It seemed to have decent clarity on this day.

I do know the river it is surprisingly beautiful, considering it is surrounded by subdivisions and strip malls. I also learned the river is full of snags; likely submerged branches, rocks, garbage, and human bodies. Between the two of us, we lost more than a dozen flies in a few hours of fishing. Par for the course, I suppose. They say if you aren't losing flies, you aren't fishing in the right spots. Unlike other outings, I did not care at all about losing these flies, because I actually tied all of them.

In summary, I had a tasty lunch with a great guy, lost some flies, saw a yellow perch in a shallow, backwater area, Tim nearly hooked a smaller trout, and we got to soak in some much needed sun.

Tax Day, April 15th, 2014: Joke is on us.

After experiencing beautiful, warm weather for a few days, Mother Nature reminded us good things don't last. This is what I woke up to this morning:

It would be more beautiful if it were in November or December. 

I guess the good part is we officially had the snowiest winter in Metro Detroit history: 94.8 inches.

Empty promise: I promise I will one of these days post a picture on this "fishing" blog with a picture of a fish. It will likely be caught by somebody else.

Snow aside, the lakes have thawed out. Get out there...