11/30/09 Rain Dance

I wanted to post about the recent rain fall we received last night. The rain gods have supplied us with the much needed rain. All the flows are up enough to bring in fresh fish. The gauge is still showing straight up on all the tribs. Keep the reels screaming

11/29/09 Steelhead Alley

I added a few more pics from today's trip on Steelhead Alley

11/29/09 Steelhead fishing

I started out today on the hunt for Chrome with Jim and Tom. We found a small tributary on the far east side. We fished this trib for about 6 hours landing a bunch of nice fish. We found fish in the holes and fast water. We used all kinds of single egg patterns and a few new patterns developed by Dennis Vidmar. Dennis is an excellent tier and has several flies that produce fish. He also has been developing and experimenting with several realistic flies. We have used them on several trips with great results. Other guide services know Dennis and his ability to tie great flies. We also had the pleasure of fishing with Blane today (Net Boy). It was funny today when I watched several guys attempt to catch a fish in a run and no one had any luck. I looked up stream to see Blane have this fish inhale a Pitt nymph and the fight was on. Blane landed the fish and it was his friend the rest of the day. Another great day to be out fishing on Steelhead Alley. I have attached a few pics. Keep the reels screaming.

Happy Thanksgiving

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. We fished Elk creek on the holiday and found a bunch of fish. I have attached a couple of pictures. Keep the reels screaming

11/23/09 New York

We made another run into New York for a few more browns. We fished Oak Orchard in the morning with clear conditions and headed over to 18. Upon our arrival we found that they opened the gates of water to let fresh fish run. We located a nice spot and started hooking fish. We had a great time and I have included a few pictures. Keep the reels screaming

New York 2009

More pics of New York. We fished Oak Orchard on Saturday with the guys picking up fish in the faster water. We then took off on Sunday and fished the Catt one of New Yorks pride creeks. We then fished 18 mile on Monday with a bunch of great fish. I have attached more pics

2009 New York

I wanted to post regarding a recent trip into New York. We found fish but not in great numbers as in years past. We all fished hard and made new friends. We found McDonald's to be our new spot to stop at least twice or pass three times while hunting for open water. I have included a few pics. I have been out doing the rain dance. I look forward to seeing all of you next year for this outing. Keep the reels screaming.

11/07/09 Steelhead Alley Fishing

We hit the East side tribs today. Michelle and Eric were the lucky ones today who headed out with Screamingreels Guide service. We used egg patterns,streamers and everything in the book most of the day. We had a large amount of fish and we landed a bunch. I have attached a few pics. Keep the reels screaming.

11/02/09 Steelhead Alley

Hit the tribs after the rain and had a blast. I took Dominic Devito out for his first steelhead adventure. We headed to a East side trib and found a bunch of fish. He hooked up at least ten times and landed this real nice fish. Dominic has never gone steelhead fishing and has never used a fly rod till today. Our hats are off to you on such a nice job. Thank You Joe and Dennis for helping today. Keep the reels screaming. This guy will be back

10/19/09 Fishing Hard

Well we hit the tribs today and found some nice fish. I took out a new fly guy and on his first day I would say he landed 10 fish plus. It was not scheduled as a fishing trip it was a learning experience. I think we all learned something today. Keep the reels screaming. May that bond grow.

Elk Creek 10/25/09

No long stories on this blog just straight at you fishing. We headed to Elk creek after the creek showed clearing per the water gauge. We started at Girard Park and never left. We used the Vidmar tickler all day. I have attached a few pics. Sorry John we missed you next week give me a call. Keep the reels screaming

Steelhead Hunting

I took a half a day off yesterday to hunt the Chrome. We hit Elk Creek and found a few fish with no flow. We did manage to hit a few browns on Elk. We then drove to Walnut Creek and found a few fish with no flow. All the places in P.A had fish with no flow and a bunch of guys walking around attempting to catch these fish. I wish I would have run some video of this one guy because he was chasing the fish in the water attempting to get them to bite. Its still early in the season but we need more rain for a few days to move more fish. The lower end of Walnut had a large amount of fish waiting to come up. We then drove West and hit Ohio tribs and they all paid off. I attached a few pics. Keep the reels screaming

9/29/09 Flows

I wanted to post on the blog seeing other sites take off your stuff. All the Ohio and P.A tribs have received water. All the tribs are still getting water as of tonight. Keep an eye out I will be heading out this Week at the first ripples of some tribs. Keep the reels screaming.

9/27/09 Rain

I know we all have been waiting for the rain to push some fish and it has arrived. All the tribs got rain and we should be getting a bunch more per the weather man. I know John from OneByOne has been doing his dance and it paid off. Keep the reels screaming

Record Brown

CADILLAC - It started out as an average day on the Manistee River for Tim Roller and his charter clients.

Tom Healy of Rockford and his fishing partner, Bob Woodhouse of Grand Rapids, had caught a couple of nice 18- to 20-pound salmon on the sunny, pleasant morning.

About two hours into the trip things changed, but Roller did not know how much.

Fishing a Rapala shad rap No. 8, black on silver, Healy hooked into a pretty nice fish.

"It fought like a tank," said Roller. "It was super strong."

"When I hooked the fish, the first thing it did was run up water and try to jump," said Healy from his Rockford home.

"I don’t know if it was too old, or too big, did not have enough energy, but it just came up and boiled and roiled. I said to Tim, ‘My goodness Tim, that really is a good fish.’"

Roller at first thought it was a salmon. "What else would I think? We were fishing for salmon and I thought it was a salmon," said Roller, who runs the guide service Ultimate Outfitters and is host and producer of "Tim Roller’s Wild Addiction" outdoor show.

After about 15 minutes, the fish was spent, wearing itself out with a tremendous fight. As it started to make it up to the surface of the Manistee, Roller saw a white belly. Roller said he still thought it was a salmon but a "nice silver one." Salmon typically start to turn darker as they are making their runs into the river.

Another look at the fish and Roller noticed spots. He knew it wasn’t a salmon, but he couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing.

"I thought it was a big Atlantic Salmon, but I knew in my mind it wasn’t," Roller said. "I couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing."

Then it clicked.

"I let out a scream. It was a huge brown trout," Roller said. "We had to get a net under it."

Once the fish was in the net, the fishermen started to get an idea of just how big it was. With his Boga grip scale, Roller tried to get a weight on the fish. Although 18 inches of it was still in the water, the fish bottomed out the scale at 30 pounds. Roller measured it at 44 inches long, with a 27-inch girth.

But Healy almost did what many would think unthinkable.

"I am not one to preach to be catch-and-release, but it is truly rare that I don’t release a fish," Healy said.

He reached down to let it go when Roller realized what Healy was thinking and said to Healy, "Don’t you dare."

Healy and Roller said they didn’t believe the fish could be revived, and thoughts of releasing the fish ended.

Roller called a friend of his, charter captain Mark Chmura, who is known for catching big browns on Lake Michigan to get an idea of just how big a fish they were holding. Roller started telling Chmura some of the measurements - and Chmura said he would meet them at the boat launch.

"He pulled off the river to meet us. He had clients with him and he pulled off the river," Roller said.

Chmura had an certified scale to weigh the fish, and it recorded 40 pounds, about four pounds more than the state record 36-pound, 13-ounce brown caught in Frankfort in 2007. At that point, Chmura said they needed to go to his shop in Manistee and put it on another scale. They filled a cooler with water and loaded the fish for the trip to Manistee. "Word spread pretty fast," Roller said. "On the trip over there I had three calls. The DNR was over there, the (U.S) Forest Service - it was non-stop people for five hours. It was crazy the whole time."

Healy said he probably could have heaved the fish out of the cooler only one, maybe two more times.

"It is hard for me to believe," Healy said. "Here I am, an old retired guy up there for a quiet day of fishing and peace.

"To have all of this notoriety - it’s a crazy thing."

DNR Fisheries Biologist Mark Tonello measured and weighed the fish. It tipped the scales at 41-pounds, 7.25 ounces, beating the state record by more than five pounds. The world record currently stands at 40-pounds, 4-ounces and was caught in Arkansas. Healy’s fish is the unofficial world-record brown trout.

"It shattered our existing state record by five pounds," Tonello said. "The old record was 36 pounds, 13 ounces and the new record is 41 pounds, 7 ounces. You expect if a new record’s to be caught, it would just beat the old one by a little bit, but this one is massive."

"This is not only great for the Manistee, but it also puts the spotlight back on Michigan fisheries," Roller said. "This is something positive for the state of Michigan."

ScreamingReels agreed.

"We think this is just another example of what we have to offer here in Michigan," said DNR Communications Representative Bob Gwizdz. "Michigan has world class fisheries, and this appears to be a bona fide world record. Keep the reels Screaming

09/09/09 Steelheading In Ohio

I wanted to post regarding a recent blog I read. I saw this and found it to be great reading. I also want my readers to know about another great web site for quality info. http://flyandfloatfishing.com/joomla/ I have attached the blog info.

The crisp evenings have gotten a lot of steelhead fisherman excited lately. With the early reports coming in that a few chrome have been seen on the east side, it has got me excited as well. There is nothing I enjoy more than the tug of a steelhead early in the morning. For all those that are new to all of this steelhead talk, I urge you to browse the web for all the content that has been made available by many avid anglers in the steelhead alley. You will find a lot of different perspectives, and a wealth of knowledge from each an every Steelhead Alley website that you seek out.

Whether it is a website that allows forum access to chat it up with other anglers, or websites that are tailored more towards promoting a guide service, I am sure that you will find a lot of information. And if you don’t know something, feel free to ask. There is never a stupid question, and there are many around that would be more than happy to help you along your journey and passion of steelhead fishing here in the Steelhead Alley area. Never forget that everyone has to start somewhere, and we all had to start at the beginning.

Most of you know I am sure, but for those of you that don’t, the Fly and Float Fishing website was faced with a fork in the road this spring. The founder of the website decided to pursue his passion of photography, and looked to pass the reigns of the website to another avid angler. The website has been totally transferred over to the new ownership. Fear not our fellow Fly and Float Fishing members and guests, as FNF is in good hands and the website will continue to grow and provide the most up to date reports, videos, podcasts, and articles that we can provide.

I look forward to working with, and meeting all the old faces as well as getting to know the new faces both at Fly and Float, as well as all of the other industry leaders from gear representatives, to guide service providers, to authors, and everyone in between.

Some may know me, others may have heard of me, and even more have never heard my name. But rest assured, that the Fly and Float Fishing Website will continue to prosper. I have 15 years in the Software Development / System Analyst / Quality Assurance field. I played a big part in the conversion of the old FNF website, and I worked behind the scenes with other members of the website to bring the new face lift to fruition. Previous to Fly and Float Fishing, I had the opportunity to work with Ford in putting together their online car purchase website.

I will run this site out of passion, and not for profit. I enjoy bringing everyone the best information that I can, so that it will help you in your steelhead fishing endeavors.

I will pay for the website upkeep completely out of my own pocket 100%. You won’t see the Fly and Float Fishing staff hitting up the regional gear reps for freebies all the time like other sites. You won’t see us being so self centered that we think we have to proclaim to the world that we are the best bloggers, best website, etc… This is for the readers of our website to judge.

You won’t see me calling steelhead guides idiots or morons. I will give praise and respect to others as they give it to me. I call it as I see it is my personality.

Ever since I was introduced to this thing called steelhead fishing, I noticed a trend on the web. This guy doesn’t like that guy because he is a competing website, or competing guide, etc.. I found it interesting to tell you the truth. You have some that think they are the #1 provider in information, proclaim to be the leaders in the industry, and they think they have such a great website. I am here to tell you that I am sorry to burst your bubble, but the day you think you’re the best, is the day you forgot why you started providing content to others. It also shows in all the other so called websites that you design. Just because you have a computer, some photo editing software, some website design software, and a camcorder doesn’t make you the best and especially not a professional.

I don’t consider Fly and Float Fishing the best, but I claim that we are the most fun, most passionate group of people that I have ever come in contact with, and I enjoy reading all the great material that everyone has provided over the years. It is an honor and privilege to work with everyone at Fly and Float Fishing.com

I look forward to a successful steelhead fishing season, as well as a fun year with the Fly and Float Fishing.com website.

Best Regards,

Fly and Float Fishing Ownership

p.s. If you are going to record video, and you’re a so called professional, the least you can do is buy a $30 tripod at Walmart and create some videos that are actually quality.

And lastly, the Fly and Float Fishing Blog is used for blogging fishing reports, because that is why guests and members read it. Not because they care much about a puppies, a baby, or some midnight revelation on how we are going to change our life. Sure that’s nice, but we here at Fly and Float Fishing like to stick with fishing. I will post my life stories on Facebook, because that’s what it’s for.

Steelhead Fishing Report

I wanted to post regarding the Steelhead Season. We have been getting small numbers of fish staging in P.A for the run. The numbers are not big but the cooler temps and rain this week may send some fish into the tribs. I have been out looking but I have not seen any numbers in Ohio yet. The far East side will get the fish first and then they will move West. I have not posted in a while due to the fact not much to talk about without Chrome. I'm not into writing about my life stories. I'm into writing about Steelhead and fishing in general. Keep the reels screaming.

8/3/09 New Look

I have finished all the updates on the new web site. I added new links to some great companies. Keep the reels screaming

5/27/09 Muskie

Ok the Muskie fishing and big game is on. I have not posted in a bit but just wanted to get the word out we are now hunting for trophy Muskie on the big rivers. Keep the reels screaming. Soon it will be steelhead season again. Also keep an eye out for the new web site soon.

4/26/09 Grand River

I was out for a few hour during the morning with the owners of OnebyOne fly rods. These guys make custom rods built to order. They handed me a rod about a month ago and I can't put it down. I will be getting a few more for clients to use real soon. These rods are great and have the feel like no other rod I have ever used. I have used many from several different companies. Some good and some I wouldn't hit a one handed man with. I will post again soon about having these guys make anyone a custom made rod. Below you will find what they made me and how it works. I used this rod the other day and landed some real big fish. I have attached a copy of the crew for your viewing pleasure. The owners and builders Lori,John,Paul and Chaz. Keep the reels screaming

Bob,



your rod is built on a Sage Z- Axis blank. 11ft 8wt hand built and turned burl cork grip. Struble reel seat with built in fighting butt that holds reel in place. very secure. The guides are top of the line titanium frames with silicone carbide rings. As you now know they are as smooth as it get for casting and fighting fish. The weave is a two part weave with the an under pattern then your name weaved on top of the pattern. We think that rod is as good as it gets for steelhead fishing. We also tested the line rating on the rod with a scientific system to make sure a rod that says it is an 8wt is actually an 8wt. That blank is perfect. We check every blank that way so you are getting the line weight that you think you are. Have you ever had a rod that just would not cast right with the line you were using? The rating on the rod from the factory was probably wrong and the rod just won't perform.