A few days ago, I had an opportunity to go drift the Muskegon River, MI with Mr. Phil Cusey. Phil has over 16 years of steelhead, salmon, small mouth & trout guiding experience in Michigan and is the former president of MI Trout Unlimited as well as president of the Michigan River Guides Association. He is also pretty famous fly tier and is known for several unique flies he has invented over the years. But beyond all these big titles, Phil is a kind gentleman who is a natural teacher and fun person to be with on the water. Unlike many guides on the Muskegon these days, he prefers to drift and row the river, rather than jet slide up and down the river. He knows the river like the back of his hand and along the way tells you many interesting history & facts about the place. We passed by many guides and fishermen and most knew Phil and more than a few was kind enough to tell me what a great guy Phil is. The river was running high and even as we launched the dam up stream was releasing a fierce amount of water. The fishing was great and we even started to see a few rises of trout, slurping away at the thousands of stoneflies that were hatching. At some points it looked like it was snowing, with so many flies in the air...a beautiful sight indeed. We relaxed, fished some, and had a great meal Phil cooked on his grill right in the boat. Phil is one of those guys who teaches you how to do things, but does it in a way where he makes it feel like it's things you already know. We talked of future trips on the Pere Marquette River, where I look forward to small creek trout fishing. This is one of those days where everything just went perfect.
If you ever come this way, make sure to give Phil a ring to go out fishing with him, I guarantee you will not regret it. www.qcguideservice.com (Phil's been pretty lazy updating his website, and he knows it). mrlee, thank you again for the introduction to Phil.
* Unfortunately, my computer crashed permanently and I was only able to salvage these photos from the sent box in the email I sent earlier.
I guess you are thoroughly hooked.
ReplyDeleteWOW fantastic...ㅎㅎ
ReplyDeletebad ass! i'm so jealous man. I actually never caught a steelhead on the Mo and now you're making it look easy. Nice guy indeed i'm glad I could connect two good people. my life is complete.
ReplyDeletewe spoke about you. He was surprised to hear about your South African roots. I told him you're kind of strange that way. His close friend is Robert Tomes, the Muskie on the Fly author. I'd love to go out fishing with him sometime. I've been busy with muskie flies the past few days.
ReplyDeleteTotally awesome!
ReplyDeleteif you want to go fish with Robert I can set it up. Another good friend and fellowing angling club of Chicago member. his Muskie guide in Indiana is Jay Anglin and we spent a day last spring on his world class bucket mouth water. something else you need to go and do!
ReplyDeleteThat looks like a great trip brother. Riding on the boat, catching trout, and eating great food would of been my dream trip as well. I love to do that with you next time I am visiting.
ReplyDeletesteelheads and muskies...a Midwest tradition everyone must try if you fish around here. Depending on when you come back to US, I might visit your home state CO. Don't be surprised if you see a Korean kid fly fishing & chewing on some dried squid leg out there.
ReplyDelete