A Float with Favorite Folks

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These early summer trips back home to Michigan for a week (or even two) have been a tradition now for twenty-something years. Ten years ago, Danny Reed of Crooked Creek Holler came over to Beaver Island with me and now time in Michigan has become an annual ritual for him as well. As our trips were nearing, we compared notes of where we’d be and when and realized that he had a float planned with Captain Steve Martinez of STM Outfitters on the Muskegon River on a day that I didn’t have anything planned. I may have invited myself along to balance out the drift boat by taking the backseat but couldn’t help it as Danny and Steve fall high on the list of “Favorite Folks” to spend time on the water with.

Steve has made a few changes to his life and guide program choosing to stick closer to home. He’s taken over the family farm, opened a roadside stand, baking breads with his mom, plays in a band once or twice a week, and limiting his guiding to a handful of local rivers. After years of months away guiding for days on end on Beaver Island and in the Louisiana marsh, he’s prioritizing himself and his family.

Twenty-something year old me would be scratching my head. Fifty-something year old me gets it.

I pulled into Newaygo to find that Danny and Steve were waiting on me. I ran through a quick checklist of fly rods and gear to move over to Steve’s drift boat and we were off to the river. I wouldn’t say that fishing was lights out but we caught a few smallmouth and a pike, talked shit and had some laughs, enjoyed a top shelf on the river lunch, and were off the water by mid-afternoon.

A highlight for the day was casting towards the bank, upstream of a downed tree, and watched as a hefty smallmouth emerged from the pile to rise up to the fly, inspecting it, and then soft slurped it in. It all worked out like it was supposed to.

Here’s a few snaps from the day…

I don’t think there is a more “fishy” guide than Captain Steve Martinez. I’ve caught my largest lake run rainbow trout, carp, smallmouth, black drum, and redfish with him and cherish all the years that we’ve fished together. He invited me over to fish with him on Beaver Island in 2011, and that sparked a friendship with us fishing together a few days to a couple of weeks each year. If you want to catch smallmouth, salmon, steelhead, or trout on the west side of the state, he’s the one. His website is down right now but he’s easy to reach through Facebook or Instagram.

Support Danny by checking out Crooked Creek Holler and scheduling a session at Hot Stuff Tattoo.

Thanks boys for the stellar time. I’m always happy to take the backseat.

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