Fox Inn Campground - We left after chapel service at 11AM and arrived here, south of Knoxville about 3:15PM after driving 148 miles. We have a level pull-thru site and the prices are reasonable. This portion on the drive is the trickiest due to the hills and curves. It is quite warm here. The pool looks inviting.
Monday, June 25 - We got off to an early start this AM after breakfast at Shoney's. We arrived at Whispering Hills RV Campground about noon after 165 miles. There is a nice breeze and full sun. They have improved many sites, but the roads are still quite chopped up. Kentucky law requires that we would need to have fishing licenses to fish the lake here even though it is on private property. It would cost us $20 for one day, so we will wait until we are in Indiana.
Tuesday - We are now near St. Paul, Indiana at Thorntree Lake Campground. There are not many here, despite being quite nice. It is about 15 degrees cooler than yesterday, and there is a nice lake we can fish for $5 each. Joan had a large bass break off and John caught a couple small bream when we fished in the afternoon.
Wednesday - It was about 200 miles this morning to get here. Potawotomie is our favorite stop along the way. This place is huge, with many permanent sites, but they are all very well maintained and spacious with nice gardens. There are three connected lakes and a clean beach. The facilities are older, but very clean. We fished a small creek that flows out of the lake and each caught a few large bluegill on small hoppers. A young fellow was using a small plastic worm and caught two very nice bass. It is going to be 102 tomorrow, so we are not sad to be moving further north. It will only be 95 in Evart tomorrow.
Thursday - Our last stretch was about 171 miles. We took SR 66 which was very pretty. We have a site on the river, which is heavily used by tubers. We don't know yet how the fishing will be here. The river is quite shallow with the lack of rain here. It is also very warm, so fishing will probably be very early or late in the day.
Friday - We went over to John's boys house and visited with the soon to be bride and groom (Brett & Nellie), Brian, and the other friends and relatives. We came back to the campground and Margaret, Jeff, Jake & Josh came over to visit before the rehearsal and dinner. They all got their feet wet at the kayak launch and the boys enjoyed finding crayfish with a new friend they made there. After they left, John had noticed a bass earlier come over to an area where there were minnows, and snatch one. So he took his fly rod which was still rigged with a black wooly bugger and worked the area. The bass came from behind a rock and missed, but a second cast hooked him. The two pound smallmouth put up a great fight, but eventually let himself be landed. We were under a tight schedule, so filleting was not an option. In the evening we enjoyed the pastor take Brett & Nellie through their vows, then had an excellent dinner provided by church friends.
Saturday - It was a very nice wedding. Everyone looked so nice all dressed up. The ceremony went without a hitch, and the reception dinner was excellent. May God richly bless Brett and Nellie Willis. Seeing them so happy was a great birthday present for John.
Sunday - We drove over to the McDonalds in Reed City and said goodbye to the grand-kids. Jacob has a playoff baseball game and 4PM and Joshua starts all-star games on Monday. Kathy, trevor, Allison, and Brian came over and visited. We sat and watched the river and were greeted by a bald eagle that perched in a tree across the river. We also swam/waded in the river to stay cool. We really enjoyed their visit.
Monday - Laundry morning, then relax. After dinner, we put our swim suites and waded the river armed with 6 wt. fly rods and wooly buggers. Joan started things off with a nice small mouth bass. It looked to be keeper sized, but we had no way to measure it. John put it along his fly rod and sized it to the label for later measurement. John followed with a spotted bass of identical length and a smaller small mouth. Later measurement with a ruler showed they were both keepers at 14.25 in. A fun evening anyway with folks in campsites on the shore cheering us on.
Tuesday - T. Storms in the night and showers in the morning. No road dust now. We went on an explore and found a couple places to launch kayaks. We tried to find places to wade Middle Branch River, which has excellent trout water, but places were infested with deer flies. We will stick to the Muskegon for now. We stopped at the Iron Skillet for lunch and both of us had Gyros. They were quite good.
Wednesday, July 4 - God Bless America. Happy Birthday.
Thursday - Stayed close to A/C. Hot!
Friday - Ditto!
Saturday - Cooler this morning. We can actually sit out and enjoy the river without sweating.
Sunday - We started out early this morning to beat the rush to dump our waste and drove the 90 miles to Grayling. The East Branch of the AuSable is very small and not very fishable here in the campground, so we drove to the main river and checked out some spots to try in the morning. On the way back, we stopped in town at Bear's Den and had pizza. The campground has a lot less activity than the one we came from, and so far we like it and the area around here much better.
Monday - We decided to put in at Keystone on the AuSable stretch known as the "Holy Water". This area is flies only and catch & release. There were two others here, and the went upstream, so we headed down. We walked down about 1/4 mile and headed back. There was no noticeable hatch going on, so we used attracted patterns. John caught a creek chub, then Joan caught a small rainbow. The river here is beautiful, and fishing awesome, but catching was not happening. On the way back we stopped at another area and there was a TU group conducting a kids fish camp. Next, we stopped at Gates AuSable Lodge Fly Shop, which is an Orvis Shop and got some advice. The owner thought we might so better on the South Branch. He gave us directions and suggested a few flies, which we bought. That we figure is a reasonable cost for information. We really like this area better than where we were last week, plus the weather so far is much cooler.
Tuesday - We followed the directions we got yesterday and began fishing on the South Branch of the AuSable on the Mason Tract by Chase Bridge. Joan was using a #18 Blue Wing Olive and John a Griffin's Gnat of the same size. We both did about the same, each with three to hand and each having one larger fish. Joan's was a rainbow while John's was a brookie. This area is also fly fish only and catch and release. We also did some more exploring and checked out an area where we are planning on going in the morning.
Wednesday - We first tried the South Branch near the 72 bridge, but after 30 minutes, gave that up. We went back to Chase Bridge on S. Branch and hiked a mile on a foot path and fished our way back. We saw many fish but only managed a couple of small ones. The water is now above 70 deg., and stressful for trout, so we have decided to try some lakes in the area for bass/bream.
Thursday - We needed an explore day and a break from wading. We checked out a couple of local lakes. Lake Wakeley is a 20 acre walk in lake on National Forest land that has primitive camping and catch-and-release fishing for bass, bluegill, and pike. It is a beautiful setting and provides loon sarenades. We also checked out Kneff Lake, which also has primitive camping and a beautiful beach. Unlike Wakeley, there is no kayak access.
Friday - We caught a few trout back at Chase Bridge, by walking downstream about 100 yards and working back. In the evening, we had plans to wheel the kayaks into Wakeley Lake, but at 7pm it was still too hot, so we wet waded by Gates Lodge, but nothing was rising.
Saturday - We met Rachael Moffet's parents Ernie and Par, who live near Gaylord, for breakfast and had a great time visiting. We also needed to restock supplies for the trip back, so we stopped at Walmart. On the way back to the campground, it poured, and it also stormed in the afternoon. The rain is very welcome here, as it has been extremely dry.
Sunday, July 15 - We are on our way back down to Trackrock and have pulled in for the night at Potawotomie. It has not rained here and is much warmer than yesterday, but there is a nice breeze. We drove about 225 miles today, with mostly light traffic.
Monday - We skipped a stop and drove 317 miles to Whispering Hills campground just north of Lexington, Ky. It is hot here, but there are warnings out for tomorrow in this area. We will be hitting the pool after dinner this evening.
Tuesday - Back at Fox Inn Campground after driving 184 miles. We've got some storms rolling thru. We have decided that tomorrow we will take the longer, but easier route.
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