June 2014
ISSUE 44
 

As I write this introduction to the June issue of our newsletter and having edited the columns of our contributing fishermen (and women) whose fly fishing knowledge and skills far exceed my own, I am thinking ahead a couple of days to hosting customers on yet another fly fishing float trip on the the Muskegon River.  As this issue attests, I'll need to be observant, open-minded, fully equipped, and flexible in deciding where we will fish and what methods and tackle we would best use. At this time of year, guiding is not a "one size fits all" deal at all; in a given float trip, we might well strip streamers, drift nymphs  under indicators, or cast to rising trout with dry flies, not to mention Steve's fascination with swinging streamers with light Spey rods. We love the decision making that June fly fishing requires and share it with you, our customers, as part of the game of "What shall we try now?"

Last week, two customers in my boat had just returned from fly fishing the San Juan River in New Mexico. Although they enjoyed the experience and landed some nice trout, they found drifting an indicator alongside the drift boat as it coursed downstream less than satisfying, not to mention the crowded fishing conditions they reported they encountered along the way. Another fly fisherman with whom I just spoke today, had fished Utah's Green River last year, and while he loved the scenic beauty of the river, he decried the "balloon suspended over fly" method used as the guide backrowed the eddies.   Great rivers, to be sure, but both these fishermen wanted to cast, manage their drifts, and grow their fly fishing skills, preferably away from the madding crowd.

Of course, we RiverQuest guides can't promise all fly fishing sweetness and light or a river in which you alone are fishing, but we can promise you that if you fish with us, you likely will take away new ideas, if not skills, to add to your fly fishing repertoire. And, even better, on most days in June, once the sun drops behind the treetops, you'll savor the silence an evening on the Muskegon River can bring-interrupted, we would hope, by the rises of feeding trout.


Contact RiverQuest Charters: 616-293-0501
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