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.
Fichigan 