ISA Road Trip; Tinkers Dam Cabin on the Menominee River
Tim showed up about 6am. and we loaded up all my gear and tossed my Coosa kayak on top and spooned it to a perfect fit inside his NuCanoe Frontier, backed out of the drive and began the 5 hour drive to Marinette, Wisconsin to spend 3 nights and 4 days at the Tinker Dam Cabin with four others during the ISA Road Trip outing.
We hit the road knowing that there would be a few stops along the way. The first stop of course would be to fill our guts with a bit of breakfast chow. We also knew we would make a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up some water, power bars, jerky and some quick lunch and breakfast items. Another stop we both wanted to do was a stop at the Tight Lines Fly Fishing Shp.
We arrived at the cabin and got our bags in our room and checked out the grounds where we would be spending the next few days. The cabin is beautiful on the inside and out and the property backs right up to the Menominee River with a small sandy landing area to end an up-stream float.
Of course we jumped right back in the car and headed off to an up-stream put-in for our first float of the Menominee. We put-in about the 3.5 miles up-stream at Menominee River County Park.
The flow of the Menominee is quite different form the flow of the Kish. The Menominee flow is controlled with a number of dams and water levels can shoot up in a moment. There are also a number of rapid type areas. I was a bit concerned with learning the river and keeping an eye out for boulders that were submerged just under the surface that if not aware of could flip a kayak in no time, so fishing for me was limited as I learned but I did land a 19 inch big fat smallmouth that gave me a fight like I had never had from a smallmouth ever before. These Menominee River smallmouth never give up and will bulldog you like you will never know until you experience it. AWESOME!!!!
Tim boated a few more fish than I did with two going 19 inches.
Day two began with threatening thunder storms, which passed but left the remainder of the day filled with strong winds of 25mph gusting to 40mph at times. Our ISA buddy Paul joined us on a 3 mile down-stream float from the cabin. The bite and boat management were both tough on this day and the river was angry with screaming whitecaps. Paul figured out the bite by locating the smallmouth "in the middle third of the river"Â (what ever the hell that means) by drifting a Ned Rig. I began doing the same and soon got into fish finishing the day with 4 smallmouth between 14 and 16 inches. Paul brought in I think 8 smallmouth, Tim half a rough day on the fly rod pulling in a skunk.
Day 3 was the picture perfect day with clear skies and winds at 5 to 9mph. On this day we decided to drive about an hour further north and put in on a section the Menominee River that would prove to be a treat inside itself.
Two other ISA members (Scott and Dave) joined us on this trip. Scott is the man who puts this trip together. He books the cabin for two weeks, which sleeps six (6) per night, and people can sign up for a four (4) day stay or a three (3)
stay at a cost of $30.00 per night.
Pretty freaking hard to pass up.
Back to the float and the picture perfect day. We put in at one of the many dams on the river just south of Iron Mountain. The flow at the dam was much different than anything Tim and I had ever seen on the Kish and we both pretty much decided at the same time that we would actually be wearing out PFD's on this float. In keeping this report on the short side, the fishing was pretty tough. A cold front moved in over the night and pretty much shut everything down. We all landed at least one smallmouth a piece with Tim doing the best at 5 on there day. You had to see this stretch of river though.
My God, what a gorgeous, scenic river it was. Back in 2009 I had my very first experience with "awe". This stretch of river was my second. At one point I thought of taking a picture of the beauty, but there is no way in this technology world that we live in today that a picture would do any justice.
This stretch of river can only be captured by the skilled hand of on artist on canvas. Sorry, you just have to be there and see it with your own eyes. Even with my bad vision I consider myself a lucky man to have floated that section and seen what I seen.
On the next morning (our last day) we decided to float the section of river that we floated on our first day before packing up and heading for home.
We put in and Tim paddled across to the opposite bank and began pounding it with his Wiggly flies. I paddled upstream and tossed my large JudeBug at a few boulders. I worked my way back downstream about even with Tim when he informed me that he had hooked into a BIG smallmouth and asked if I could paddle across to take a picture. The pic didn't turn out to great (I feel bad) but Tim landed himself a trophy 20.5 inch smallmouth.
We continued on, each catching fish, got back to the cabin and loaded up and hit the road for our 5 1/2 hour drive back home and then Tim had to going into work that night. HA! Sucker. I love being retired.
We are both already signed up for next years trip.
More pics....
THE END