By Todd A.Schotts
The Michigan Fly Fishing Clubs annual Smallmouth outing took place once again, on June 4th, 5th, and 6th 2010 around Port Austin and Eagle Bay in Huron County, with a total of 18 total attendees (members and their guest).
Before I get into detail on the outing here is a bit of information about Eagle Bay/Eagle Point where we do most of our predatory type of fishing for Smallmouth. This bay was once home to a Coast Guard Station before the name of Eagle Bay was given to this area. This station was in charge of patrolling the shores of Lake Huron and surrounding areas; Capt. Henry Gill was in charge of this station. The Boarding house and Superintendent’s House are still standing today (not exactly sure where at). Besides having a Coast Guard Station in this bay, there were also 2 Grindstone Quarry’s that operated for sometime before closing there doors, and all of this was took place in the 1800’s. One of the Quarry’s was run by the Wallace Brothers; this Quarry ran the longer of the two. The other Quarry was run under the Constitution Stone Company; with head office located in Ohio, and this Quarry only operated for 3 years.
Now if you do fish this area, there is a cobble stone road that extends out past the Bay into Lake Huron; sort of like the road to now where. This road actually at one time extended all the way into Grindstone City when there was very little water in this area in Lake Huron. Most of the rocks that once built this unique roadway for Horse and Buggy are gone from the elements or scavengers; but there are still a few remnants left.
As we fish this Bay, there is structure scattered around, like rock fields, Boulders and a part of an old Fore and Aft Schooner Ship, the “ Leander”. This ship went down in 1853 according to the historical records, and in 1854 the owners tried to retrieve this ship, but a severe storm re-wrecked the Leander and that is when it broke up. The ice flows during the many Michigan Winters brought in 2 huge pieces and other little pieces scattered in the Bay of this once gallant ship. The remainder of the Leander lies in the shallow waters near Hardwood Point. This is a great area for all summer long to fish Green and Black Bass which hide beneath its sides. .
Now for the Club members, we didn’t need a history lesson, but a lesson in Biology. We had our fly boxes stuffed with Clousers and Crawfish patterns that we have used with great success over the last 8 years to land Eagle Bay’s Finest. But thanks to Mother Nature this year she threw us a nasty screwball, which was sort of schooling in Biology. With the extra warm weather we have already enjoyed, the Eagle Bays residents of Smallmouth also enjoyed this nice weather. First thing we did notice rock bass on the beds, and very few Smallmouths’s (a lot smaller in size than last year); which meant we were entering the Post Spawn on the bay. The nasty screw ball, which we really didn’t mind, being fly fishers that we are, there was an abundance of a Brown Drake Hatch (or as the locals call it “The Stinking Fish Flies are back). The funny thing was, you could hear the slurping of the fish amongst the rain and winds, but also you could hear the closing and opening of the Club Members Fly Boxes trying to find something like a Hex Nymph amongst our Clousers. With the conditions being not great, we did find out nymphs worked pretty good. One rock bass, Scott Freeburg caught, using the Jack Gartside famed fly “The Sparrow”, Hex Nymphs and Brown Drake Spinners were falling out of his mouth, but he still wanted more. I was using a pattern that Art Dittmar gave me, “Hex Emerger”, and had success in hooking up and landing a couple of Smallmouth. Now, Jim Weakland had the biggest fish on, and decided to practice the art of a Long Distance Gentleman’s Release (or as the fish said, see you next year). But as we wrapped up our first day of fishing or getting schooled, we still managed to land or have on some of the Bay’s inhabitants. Our weather conditions were wet and windy. We had off and on rain coming down the whole time while fishing on Friday evening. As Jim Weakland mentioned, it wouldn’t be the Smallmouth Outing unless the rain and winds were abundant.
For our Saturday weather conditions, we had Sunny Conditions, pretty much most of the time until about 4:00pm after we got done with our get-together lunch. The sunny day brought out our Clousers and we found fish hanging around the shipwreck that was in the bay. I ended up with 6 smallies, 2 rock bass; Scott Freeburg was up to 12 smallies, I thing Jim Weakland was at 8 or 9; from the pictures Ken Harfoot was bringing in fish also; and Rick & Paul Gillette each landed there first Eagle Bay Smallie in the wonderful sun that was shining down on the bay.
After our Get-To-Together Lunch/Dinner on Saturday, (4pm) the clouds came back in and we were all scouring our phones for the most current weather radar. After much discussion we figured we had a window of clear for at least a few hours, so we finally decided to head back to the bay. This time we parked at another access point off of County Road, which is just east of our normal turn off. On the bay we were on the south east side of the deep hole from our little walk from our new entrance. The Brown Drakes were still coming off, and back to the arsenal of Hex Nymphs. You could hear “The Wohoos” in between the howling of the gusting wind and waves that were crashing into us, as we were bringing in fish. Our group of diehards, did learn a new retrieve method from one of our fellow fly fishers; he called it the Caribou Retrieve (sorry forgot who it was that came up with this, darn memory loss). As for the Nymphing method was a real, real slow retrieve, but the end result was fish. The biggest fish of the outing wasn’t a bass, or even a carp; and I ended up hooking this fish. This fish had no intention of coming in once he found out he was hooked, which was a really nice battle. By this time, Mother Nature decided to let the rain was start falling from the darken skies. I finally ended landing this fish, and it was a “Fresh Water Drum Sheepshead” (this is one ugly fish). Since I didn’t have a net I ended up bear hugging it with one arm; which put me in an awkward predicament; fish bear hugged in one arm, and fly rod in other hand, in deep water. But you could say I overcame, got a quick picture and let this ugliness go back to the waters of Eagle Bay. We stayed out for a few more cast, but by now the rain became heavier, the winds became harder, and we had more waves coming at us, so we called it a night.
We did give it a try on Sunday, but the winds forced us to wrap it up a lot quicker than what we wanted, and without any takers from the fish of Eagle Bay. On our way in we did try to hook into, but without any success the carp that were up in the shallows. You could say it was one last effort before we actually brought this outing to a close.
As in usual Traditions of Michigan Fly Fishing Club Outings, we did eat really well and have abundance food. For Friday night we had my Vegetarian Chili (or as it got renamed Shroom Chili), Cheesy Potatoes, Tuna/Shrimp Mac Salad, and Apple Pie. For our Saturday meal, it consisted of 2 different flavors of Grilled marinated Chicken Boneless Breast and Boneless Thighs, home made Polish Kielbasa, Meatballs, Potato Salad, Steve’s Fluff Dish, Apple Pie, Cherry Pie, and Brownies. I would like to thank everyone that participated in this awesome event. I would also like to thank the owners of the Port Austin Motel for letting us invade their motel again this year. The accommodations were excellent, as was their hospitality.
Until next time,
Tight Lines & Snazzy Flies,
Todd
To see pictures of this event head over to MFFC on Flickr, or simply click this link: MFFC 2010 Smallmouth Outing
