Fishing Report (March, 2007)

3/22/07- WOW!! What a warm up today, 73 degrees. I stopped by the Galien River to catch a few more steelhead but the river was high and muddy. I still fished for a couple hours with out much action. At about 6:30 a storm was brewing to the north and the steelies started to get active. Ron lost a couple big females that had moved up on a rock pile to spawn. I was drifting a hole up river from the rocks and caught our only fish of the day. It was a 3 lb male steelhead that looked exactly like a rainbow trout.

3/21/07- After school today I took Ron Nelson to my favorite stretch of the Galien River to catch a few steelhead. It was a little different today than yesterday. Most of the fish were piled into deep holes by logjams. I started the action by foul hooking a male steelhead but it got away before I could snap a picture. Soon after Ron caught a 9.3 lb walleye that he immediately released because they're out of season.

We moved a little farther up river to a hole that had a few steelhead, and suckers with a couple bonus eyes. Ron drifted his egg imitation through the hole and a beautiful male steelhead clobbered it. It almost got away in a logjam but Ron skillfully played it out. I caught the next fish, which was another chunky 8 lb walleye. Overall it was a great evening to be wading the river.

3/20/07-I went steelhead fishing on the Galien River today for about 30 minutes. The steelhead were very agressive. I made my first cast to a pile of rocks that dropped of into 3 ft of water. I was using orange yarn wrapped around a small treble hook. When it trickled over the rocks a 10 lb female steelhead slammed it and the fight was on. I was using a 7'6" Hot Shot Loomis spooled with 8-pound Gamma. The fish was jumping and twisting but she didn't get away.

After landing her I made another cast to the same spot and a 8 lb male steelhead took my offering. I felt like I hooked a tarpon. It took twice as long to land him but I finally prevailed. Two fish in two casts, what a day!

A couple casts latter I hooked a smaller steelhead but it came off. I wrapped up my evening by catching a 20 in walleye right before dark.

3/17/07-I went up to GR for the sports show on Sunday with my wife Kelly. We went up to see the new Legend

bass boat that Nick Neves was showing. WOW!! It was sharp and you can tell they take pride in details. The boat Nick has is an Alpha 199 with a Mercury 225 on the back. The boat is loaded with Lowance electronics and a 36 volt Minn Kota 101.

I also drooled over a Ranger Z21 for a couple minutes. I visited numerous booths and met the head GAMMA pro Dave LaFebre. He is an extremely nice man. It looked like the Gamma booth was getting the most attention.

My favorite new product was Snack Daddies Quad dipped tubes and their new drop shop gobies.

Lastly, Kelly and I sat in on Kim Strickers smallmouth neighborhood seminar. His seminars are second to none. I really liked the clip where he was boxing a smallie on a bed. The smallmouth was actually biting his hand over and over.

Fishing Report (December, 2006)

12/30/2006- My wife and I fished for St. Joe River smallies casting from the bank this afternoon. It was a very warm afternoon with temperatures around 50 degrees. I can hardly believe the weather! I almost got my boat out. I only fished for 30 minutes and was able to catch two quality winter smallmouth. I caught them using a blade bait and bouncing it across the bottom. The smallies were between 3-4 pounds but they didn't fight that hard. I think they were frozen. I hope everyone enjoys the winter and bass fishing reports will start at the end of April.

12/17/2006- Today was a beautiful day for December! It was 50 degrees and sunny so my father, Mike Rappette and I decided to do a little bank fishing. We were throwing silver buddies in a couple deep holes trying to entice a couple fish. I said, "fish". We ended up catching 2 smallies, 2 carp, and a 5 pound male steelhead. Overall it was a very nice afternoon to be outside and enjoying the warm weather.