Whoa! The parade of VIP visitors to Beaver Island marches on. This past weekend Kevin and Steve hosted Conway Bowman and his crew, shooting footage for Fly Fishing the World. For anyone that doesn’t know, Conway pioneered fly fishing for mako sharks along the California coast near San Diego and he’s a carp bum. Not sure when the show will air, but we’ll let you know as soon as we know.
Kevin sends the following report.
As is often the case, when you have a great caster and fisherman on deck, the fishing takes a dump and Conway’s visit was no exception. The curse of the mayfly, it happens each summer between mid June to early July when the hexagenia hatch explodes around northern Lake Michigan. Every time it happens the fishing goes from excellent to really tough as 80% of the carp move into deep bays to gobble up emerging mayflies. The remaining fish in the shallows are mostly stuffed, uninterested in even the juiciest fly we put in front of them.
Like Steve after a Mexican buffet, they simply want to lay in the sun and be left alone.
Day one was a solid day for numbers with 8 to 10 in the net but all of the big females weren’t showing themselves. Day two was just tough with only one average carp, prompting us to switch to smallmouth. Day three was heading in the same direction as the previous day with dozens and dozens of shots at indifferent carp, many follows and only one taker but there was one change, the big girls were back.
For the last spot of the day I wanted to make a big run west and Steve wanted to try a small rock bar just a mile away. Because we needed to get back to town for interviews and shots of local color we went with Steve’s idea. And I’m glad we did, because Conway stuck a pig 30 pounder on the very last cast.
A big thanks to everyone who helped make Conway and Fly Fishing the World’s trip possible: Beaver Island Chamber of Commerce, Island Airways, Beaver Island Lodge, The Toy Museum, Bill Cashman, Bill McDonough at the Dalwhinnie Bakery & Deli, Stony Acre Grill & Donegal Danny’s Pub, Danny, Danny and Cindy in the Irish Band, Richie Gillespie, and a big thanks to whomever’s party we ended up at on Friday night.
