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.
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.
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.
Fichigan 