Fichigan

Spring Trout Camp 2026

We held our spring trout camp a week late this year hoping for warm weather. That didn’t happen but my trout fanatic buddies rallied past the cold. We caught a lot of trout. Camping was mostly dry and the sun was out.
Natch and I arrived early. The Pine River in Lake County, MI was high and tea colored, but mostly wadable. I caught a couple dinner size trout below camp fishing from the bank. Natch caught a nice brook trout. We put them back figuring that when Jake and Feral arrived, we would dedicate a day to catching four browns for our traditional trout camp dinner.

This years master angler was Jake who caught three of the dinner trout and provided the baked beans. Feral caught the fourth trout. They fished the stretch just below camp. Natch and I, back from an earlier brutal trip of big hills and scarce trout, walked the bank downstream and watched them fish. I took a couple videos with silly narration with Natch making funny comments. Not sure I want those to go public. Here’s some photos.

I brought up my telecaster and a Roland street cube amp with a guitar and microphone channel, and Natch brought bongos. We worked briefly on a new camp song called “Catch a Brown” to the tune of the T-Rex song “Get it On (band a gong). We really needed a second stringed instrument. Feral forgot his ukulele even though we texted about it, and he knew I was working on a new camp song. I even offered to bring an extra guitar or mandolin. Time to rethink live music at camp!

Feral and I have been using newer underspin fishing reels which are only good for a season or two. They’re slowly being discontinued by manufacturers like Zebco, Diawa and Pflueger. Fortunately, old Shakespeare reels can be found at yard sales and online, so we had some options. I had a few stuck in a fishing junk box in the garage and was able to clean them up. I used a model 1755 at the opener and have to say… it is the smoothest reel I have ever used for casting. The Shakespeare’s have a slow retrieve but I offset that problem by purchasing some small “shallow shad raps” which have great action at slow speed. (Jake has used vintage Shakespeare reels for years.)

Feral brought a new hand cannon to camp. Not sure if that is the correct term. Basically a long handle with a short “flash pan” gun barrel at the end. It can be loaded up with a round ball or bird shot. You need to hold a lighter to the flash pan to touch it off. The workmanship is stellar with very nice metal engraving. He walks through bear country for Morels but concedes it would take a bit of fast work to get off a warning shot.

I did some watercolor paintings for the guys and handed them out one morning. I used camping photos from other trout camps for reference. My favorite, and first painting, was of Natch standing by his Jeep. I had been wanting to do a painting of him for years, something special, since he has been such a good friend. See the previous post for more photos.

Natch and I checked our regular Morel mushroom spot on day one. I found six, but they were mostly old and dried out. If we’d have camped a week earlier we may have done better. Conversely, Feral and Jake stopped at a new spot and found twenty. We didn’t fry them up, but that’s okay. I did a lot of cooking. After I bought the Scamp camper I started doing breakfast for everyone, as well as the trout dinner. Breakfast in my camper helped us move past the chilly mornings. We had the trout dinner in the trailer too. It seats four so that worked out well.

Jake and Feral pulled out on Sunday. They used Jake’s vintage Apache tent camper. Feral slept on a cot and had trouble sleeping. He had a knee problem which made wading and morel hunting a problem. If you are not 100%, camping in cold weather can be rough.

Natch and I stayed until Monday. I fished an upper stretch of the Pine with some success, but didn’t catch that lunker I hoped to photograph for this post. Natch went below 6 mile bridge and didn’t fare much better. We are talking about meeting up on the Pigeon River in a few weeks. Hope that works out.

Trout Camp Artwork

The week before trout camp I did a black and white painting of Natch, standing by his Jeep. Then I decided to do a couple more, one for Feral and one for Jake. I handed them out at spring trout camp last weekend. It caught them by surprise. Lots of fun comments if you can imagine. Coming soon: our cold weather trout camp story.

National Native American Heritage Month

After a trip out west last spring, I was inspired to do some Native American scenes. These were painted from archive black and white photos found online, so I had to get creative with color. And composition. These are acrylics, which allow impasto technique and watercolor-like washes.

The middle section of a tipi has a spirit being that comes in a dream. From what I understand, the spirit being has taken pity on the owner and has shared its spirit for the well-being of the tribe. It is much more complicated than that; everything about the tipi design has symbolism based on respect for the natural world.

I just completed this last painting. Grand Valley Artists (29th Street behind Schuler Books) is having a December sale, with cash prizes for the best three artworks. I entered this painting titled “Inventory,” based on a photo from the Montana Historic Archive. 16×20 acrylic.

September Brown Trout

I was digging through some old photos and found these, most likely taken by Feral, of me, on the Sturgeon River. Best guess, maybe ten years ago. At the end of September we would run into huge brown trout heading upriver to spawn, but it seems like those days are gone. The same thing took place on the Pigeon, huge browns up to two feet long, moving upstream. This hasn’t happened for years and I can only guess global warming has pushed the fall migration further into the year, possibly late November. We do catch a few lunkers, but nothing like the heyday. On a single trip up the Sturgeon, ten years ago, I caught four browns over twenty inches. We will be up there again this fall, checking those rivers, but maybe it’s the end of an era. I wish we had some answers. Note – we turned the big ones back and kept small ones for the skillet.

June Trip to Vanderbilt

Sometimes you just need to get away and hang with friends. About noon on Friday, I sent a text to the guys wondering if anyone was up for a Vanderbilt trip, meaning Pigeon River State Game Area, either Pickerel Lake or a remote camp by Grass Lake. Jake was in Pennsylvania, Feral was a maybe, and Natch was good with it but had some things to do which might be a problem. I figured two maybes, but sort of knew Natch would make it work. So I headed up which turned into a four-hour drive because of road construction and heavy northbound traffic. I passed some big travel trailers that were swaying whereby I timed the passing when the trailers leaned toward the edge of the road.

I mentioned to Natch I was bringing a tent since it was just a two-night trip. He brought a portable ice shanty, which he bought expressly for camping. It has 6-foot clearance for standing and a collapsible pole system for easy set-up. There’s room for a cot and a couple of chairs, so it really makes a nice tent. And it’s dark in there. Close it up and it’s pitch black – great for sleeping. I had my small Eureka backpack tent and two sleeping bags as a mattress off the ground. I slept okay, but I need to rethink this. Natch showed up around eight pm. It was drizzling and a bit chilly, but we sat outside and had some snacks and beer, and talked for quite a while. It was good.

We usually fish the Sturgeon and the Pigeon. The Sturgeon was high and stained, the Pigeon low and clear. That didn’t make much sense. We grabbed some breakfast in Gaylord, food at Meijers, and then fished the “valley” on the Sturgeon. It was tricky wading. The water was just deep enough to hide logs and boulders so it was lead with one foot, bring the other foot up. It was deep enough to where trout hugging the bottom may or may not see a lure pass by overhead. Still, we caught a few. Nothing to brag about. And we saw enough fish to keep it interesting. We had a sandwich back at camp, checked out the lake, gathered firewood, and finally decided to head over to the gravel pits, another spot on the Sturgeon. Same thing – high water and stained. Natch caught a brook trout on his first cast. Then another out of the same bend.

I went downstream into a cedar swamp. I knew from experience there were good spots to cast but mainly it is from the bank because of so many blowdowns. My reel started making grinding noises. I could cast but winding in felt sticky. I saw a couple trout but went fishless. I returned to the truck, dropped off the pole, and headed upstream to see how Natch was doing. He fished another bend and then met me at the truck. We drove back out to the gravel pit and hung out there for a half hour on the off-chance of seeing elk.

We broke camp early on Sunday. We were packed and ready to go by 7:00 am. We figured an early start would get us past road construction with less bumper-to-bumper and it did. It was a three-hour trip home.

From Feral’s workshop

Customized vintage BB gun with a hand-made knife and sheath by Feral Tweed. Our group’s interest in vintage pellet guns has expanded to new areas. Jake took a part-time job in a gunshop and is cleaning up and re-blueing old rifles, along with his amazing metal forge work. Natch surprised us all with slingshot rifles that he built in his workshop. I built a kit guitar (telecaster) and added artwork. Somehow we need to work in more camping, trout fishing, and late-night partying.