River surprises

I have been concentrating on fishing the Escanaba River from Boney Falls all the way down to the West Gladstone bridge. The generally low water levels have helped concentrate fish in deeper spots ranging from two to six feet deep on the upper river. When fly rodding I have taken brown and rainbows with the largest being 15 inches. With casting or spinning gear I have landed lots of bass with bonus pike and walleye. One of my best producers has been the Lewis Rat-L-Trap in the floating style. They can be cast very far which gives me better range and potentially more fish. Additionally, this lure is rarely used here and the fish have not been exposed to it. Many anglers don't know that the river is full of wild shiners, and lure colors having black/gold, black/white, or shad colors do well.

I also had an interesting experience earlier this month. A friend saw a porcupine waddling along the bank and watched it for a minute. My friend was fifty or more feet out into the water. The porky stopped to look out toward Mike, then began walking through the shallows toward him. Soon, it was swimming straight at him. I did not know they could swim. Finally, Mike had to smack the animal with his fly rod to get it to turn around and head back to shore. Interesting to speculate what was going on in the porcupine's mind!

This month also produced a great snake story which I am writing in a separate heading immediately after sending this one. Since fishing reports have been sparse, you might enjoy reading it.