I trekked down to Indy last weekend for two things; the Hardy Two Handed Days at FlyMasters, where I taught a spey casting clinic and to do a little fishing with my good friend Scott Heeg.

The casting clinic was a great time with the event nearly full, attendees were taught the basics on skagit casting and at the same time were able to cast some of the best rods in the industry (my opinion).  The class was taught on the water, so that folks could get a real feel for casting.  By the end of the clinic I was pleasantly surprised how well everyone was casting.

Scott and I hit Wildcat Creek with boxes of streamers and a few other tricks for smallmouth.  We got into some decent fishing with a few smallmouth and a really big gar.  A little later we met up with Dave Hosler from Pile Cast to targeted giant largemouth.  This was my first time fishing in Indiana and I had a great day of fishing with friends.

Thanks FlyMasters for sponsoring the event, Steve Burkhalter from Hardy and especially Scott Heeg for putting me up and hauling my ass around Indianapolis!

Ian even through together a video from the day.

FlyMasters of Indianapolis had the pleasure of hosting a Two Handed casting clinic this past weekend here in Indianapolis. Hardy USA came along to provide rods and Steve Martinez came down from Michigan to instruct everyone. Normally, for this sort of event you do not want dozens of people signing up because it is just too much for one instructor. We set the limit at eight and were pleasantly surprised that we had seven students register. Two of them were actually clients of Steve’s that came all the way from Cincinnati to work on their two handed skills with him.

From the moment that we opened Saturday morning Steve was busy talking with customers and getting to know the students as they arrived. He even helped a few on their single handed casting before the clinic started. Steve was a total professional throughout the entire clinic. His introductory instruction in the classroom was very clear and concise. His organization and instruction on the stream was thorough and attentive. On top of that for 2 1/2 hours he did nothing but walk up and down the line of people helping each person get a firm introduction to the Double Spey, Circle Spey and Snap-T two handed casts.

If you are a shop or a club thinking about bringing in someone to help you, your customers or members get a good solid foundation in two handed casting I highly recommend Steve Martinez. Steve is knowledgeable, professional and has a great sense of humor. Everyone will not only learn something but have a great time in the process.

Thanks to Dave at Pile Cast for the photo.  Dave also posted about the event and has a bunch more photos.

Jonathan just finished a Michigan design that he is calling Trout Over Michigan and it looks really cool.  The Fiberglass Manifesto did a detailed post on Jonathan and the new Michigan design.

Here is a link to the Manifesto post.

With a chance of rain for the next several days this could get interesting.

Steve is heading to FlyMasters for their Hardy Two Handed event.  Steve will be available on Saturday to answer questions and give instruction.

On Saturday I (Kevin) will be heading to the Hoosier Outdoor Writers for their 2012 conference.  I’ll be giving a presentation on Lake Michigan tributary fishing.

I forgot how big that last fish was, you have to love it when everything falls into place.

I fished the trout opener this weekend on the Muskegon River with Carston and Annie from South Africa.  All in all it was far from a horrible trout opener.  We managed a few hookups on steelhead, netting one and the trout fishing was really good.

Annie caught a really nice brown right off the bat and Carston followed up with a big rainbow, this was along with a gob of smaller ones.  It kept us busy.

We started at Croton Dam on Saturday floating down to Thornapple, saw a few steelhead but not many.  Sunday was Thornapple to New Bridge, same scenario with us landing some good browns but there were less steelhead.

These alevin and fry are greedily consumed by the steelhead, trout and anything else that might enjoy a delicious sliver of protein.  If your fly box doesn’t include a few patterns that mimic small baitfish your missing the boat.  I often fish these patterns as the trailer on a egg drift rig or as a small streamer worked close to the bank and around cover.

Over on the Indigo site we have three solid patterns: the Alevin Martinez, Baby Salmon and Blueburg.

Along with spawners there are also lots of opportunity for drop-backs and trout.

Our “hot fly” the past few days has been the Ted’s Latex Caddis (pictured below), a cousin to the Ted’s Slingshot Caddis.  The Latex version is tied with the band from a latex glove and a sparkle pink dubbed head.