A favorite spot on the Manitowoc River

This past Sunday, I stopped by a personal favorite spot on the Manitowoc River. It's a spot that I fished with conventional gear when I was younger. My brother and I call it "The Secret Spot". Not that it's really much of a secret because I see people there once in a great while, but it's a bit of a hike to get to so I think people usually avoid it. I really enjoy this spot because of the amount of structure it has there and there is also a giant back eddy that usually holds pike or decent size bass in there.

So here, I begin my hike through the forest to get to the river.


And through some overhanging branches. Kind of creepy looking in my opinion...


After a 10 minute hike, I finally reach the river. I love the sound of the river! Unfortunately, it is still flooded from too much rain. It's about 3 ft higher than normal. Usually I can wade this river in the summer, but the flows are looking pretty deadly...







Here is my good friend Helios. We've shared many good times :)

So, with the river so high, I spent more time casting in the giant back eddy as it seemed a bit unproductive to swing a fly in the high current. I was using a large black rabbit zonker fly and had to wait about 10 seconds for the fly to drop low enough before I started stripping the fly. I thought I snagged some weeds, but it turns out this little guy grabbed my fly.


Feeling a bit discouraged, I thought I'd try one spot before heading out. I went slightly down from the backeddy, where the flow was a bit slower and water a bit more shallow. Made a few casts...probably on my 5 casts, I dead drifted my fly to let it sink, and then stripped my fly a few times and bammm! This nice smallie grabbed the fly. It's not too big, but sure gave me a good fight.


I made a few more casts in that same area, but didn't get any takes. Ran out of time so I ended up leaving. At least I didn't get skunked this time like I usually do! I'll definitely be returning here when the river is lower.