I had never done a four-day fishing trip inside the state of Michigan in my life. What a treat! We fished our brains out.... 7-8 hours on the water, with a sandwich from the stream vest for lunch. For day #3, we canoe-fished the South Branch from Dave's Old Town Royalex canoe, a really sweet watercraft. That was over 15 miles of river through the undeveloped, near-roadless Mason Tract...not a single cottage.

Unfortunately, the conditions did not cooperate. The main thing was that we could not buy a cloud for 3 days. It was bright-sky, bluebird weather nearly the entire weekend. Nice for camping, but stream trout, especially browns, hate that. Then, there was the low, gin clear water...the flows were about 25-30% below the seasonal mean. Bottom-line, the trout were holed up and not in an eating mood. We caught a few small fish, but not the big aggressive fish we were hoping for. Our catch included brookies…as you may know, their fall spawning colors are Mother Nature's handiwork at her best, really something to see.

Over the course of the trip, however, I "moved" a dozen or so good fish (by that I mean, at least 15-16"). These are 4-5 year old fish, and total predators that own their corner of the river. "Moving" a fish means it comes out to have a look at your offering, but does not take it. So, you've half-fooled them. By the look of how these fish behaved, it was like they were climbing out of a foxhole to take a look, they were that holed up. I concluded it was the conditions...too bright, too gin-clear, water too low. They were skittish and not in their comfort zone to strike freely.

Luck came our way when we got a cloudy morning on the final day. That's when I took the one nice fish of the weekend. After all those spooky fish, I fooled a nice fat 17" brown trout, an absolutely gorgeous female in spawning colors. I caught her flat-footed in a thicket of river grass and logs in lazy water, her chin was nearly up on the bank. Given the conditions we fished in, this is one of the best fish catches I've made in a long time.

All my fish for the weekend, including the big one, came on an olive/yellow marabou streamer recommended by Rusty Gates. There was virtually no feeding activity happening given the weather/water conditions we encountered, so we quickly concluded it was streamer time.

The unrushed nature of the long weekend spoiled me. All that fishing time and multiple days was a real treat. Though my catch wasn't big, like any fishing trip, you learn a lot and it makes you a better fisherman for the next trip.

Michigan is blessed with so many wonderful fishing rivers. It sure was a treat to spend four uninterrupted days fishing on one of them.