Unexplained Mysteries Discussion Forums: Unexplained Mysteries Discussion Forums -> Fisher of Frogs

Have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all! May all your wishes and dreams come true. Cherish time with your families, and be safe!



Ho ho ho,
-Frogfish

Hey all, well my dad and I finally made it back up north this past weekend. I packed all night, and we left the house around 3:30 AM. We got to our first spot, the PM river round Gleason's landing about 45 minutes before sunrise. We doned on our waders and equiped our vests, and were ready to hook into some nice fish.



We got to our hole, and started fishing. We didn't hook anything for a while, and didn't see very many salmon.



Around 11, right after a pod of 3 fish moved in, I hooked into my first salmon of the day. Lost it after a minute, but BOY did it get the adrenaline pumping! I hooked it on a chartreuse half-half streamer. However, the next couple hours didn't go so well, hooking into 4 more fish and losing two to landing net errors. We lfet to eat lunch around 1:30, and then made the hard decision to go more north and try the Betsie/Platte rivers, which we never fished before.


31 North to Benzonia


Hodepyl Pond

We reached Benzonia around 4:30, and checked out a spot on the Betsie. It sure was crowded, but we saw a ton of fresh fish in the holes. We decided we would hit this area hard Sunday, and get there before the crowds arive. We drove to the mouth of the Betsie where it empties into Betsie Lake and tried there for some time. The fish were jumping everywhere, and there were only 6 people fishing, including my dad and me! The first two hours were hot, hooking into 6 fish with Little Cleos and landing two of them. I tailed another fish, but it slipped out of my grasp and the line snapped!
The big male:


A spawned out female:


Both of these fish were promptly released. After that, they action slowed down considerably and we left to eat dinner and check in a motel.

We woke the next morn at 5, and hit the Betsie river about 30 minutes before sunrise.



I hooked into two salmon, which both shook the hook before light. We fished a hole chocked full of fresh salmon for the rest of the day, hooking into about 20 between me and my dad in 13 hours. I enjoyed the worst landing sucess I have ever had salmon fish this weekend, but it was a BLAST. The fish were fresh and everywhere. There were no less than 20 fish in the hole at a give time. I hooked into man fish, ranging from a monster in the 25+ range to small jacks. I lost many to wood, and a couple to landing net errors yet again, but did manage to land this feisty big female. Sorry about the stringer, but she was destined for the smoker and would not stay still!


We left the Betsie around 7 PM. We quickly checked out the Platte before heading home. We saw some decent pods of kings there, but no cohos. We didn't make it out to Loon Lake, so we didn't get to see the monstrous schools of cohos. My dad and I were sure glad we took the risk coming up to the Betsie. We had a great time together, and will sure come back next year!

Yay, finally! After a year of waiting, it's the fall SALMON RUN!







I'll be back for more!

I saw the worst, most terrifying thing on TV today...a school supplies ad.
That means it's back to school time! Nooooooo!

I don't like my schedule already...

THE SANCTUARY

The sun creeps over the horizon, as the clouds begin to part,
I wake up to the sounds of the morning, the mysterious song of the lark.

I don on my boots, my shirt, and my wide-brimmed hat,
Which sparkled with the imitations of mayflies and gnats.

I head to my Sanctuary.

The tricos were hatching, just as planned,
I stepped into the water , fly rod in hand.


This is where angels sing, and God’s light shines,
This is where the flyfisherman plays, and big trout dine.


I reached my Sanctuary.

Perched upon a rock, ready to cast,
Thoughts collect in my mind…of the future, present, and past.

With questions in mind and answers to be found,
I switch-cast upstream, and my fly lands without a sound.

I am in my Sanctuary.

The #20 drake floats lazily downstream,
And drifts into a pool agleam.


A shadow appears, and with a telltale swirl,
My fly disappears, and in its place, a fin uncurls.

Wait this is more than my Sanctuary!

The rod bows over, the reel sings with lines tight,
A big brown surfaces and cartwheels…What a sight!

I fought the fish carefully and happily landed the prey,
And released her to play with me another day.

I am in Heaven.

The day comes to an end with a glorious sunset,
Reminding me I am not in Heaven, but I am as alive as I’ll ever be.


Photos courtesy of my friend Bassel

...nice day for tennis!

Conferences were today.

My HS owned. We came second out of 20 schools, and are moving on to Regionals. I (3rd Singles) took 2nd place in my flight. Our 1st singles, 2nd singles, 1st doubles, and 2nd doubles all were flight champions.

1st singles: Eric, he's ranked #8 in the state.




2nd singles: Justin aka MiniEric



3rd Singles: Me. Hard to get a pic of yourself while you are playing...

4th singles, Mike. Couldn;t get a picture of him in action because he finished before my matches ended.



1 Doubles: Dave and Ryan




2 Doubles: JP and Riley




3 Doubles: Anton and Corey. They finished before I was done, so no pictures of them playing either...


Anton is the one with the arrow, Corey is above him.

4 Doubles: Dan and Jeremy

...is fun.

I have been using CS2 for some time now, and thought I would add some artistic touches to some of my photographs...

Ah, the will of a fisherman...



Courtesy of CT angler and friend W. Carney.

Have I said how much I hate winter? Well, I do. I hate the cold, I hate snow, and I hate ice.
We had a huge ice storm in MI a couple days ago, and the power in many places are still out. Oklahoma is in a State of Emergency There's ice everywhere here! On the ground, on the trees, on the house, everywhere! Where there was an exposed surface, there is now a couple inches of ice. We had a kid slip in school and break his back.

Did I say how much I hate winter?

Here are some pics I took...

Winter Evening at the Pond


Mid-Winter in Michigan!


Yesterday, a brilliant lunar halo could be seen from my place. The halo was about 45 degrees in diameter. I couldn't pass up the chance so I steeped out in the freezing cold to take pictures...


Atmospheric Halos

Note*: sorry that the moon is overexposed, but I needed to take longer exposures with my digital camera.

top half:



Bottom half:




Composite Image-whole: